Charlie O - Marguerite (2015)

A few weeks ago, it was the first edition of the "Festival Variations, Music for Piano and Keyboard" at Lieu Unique in Nantes, integrating two subterranean festivals in the bar-club from 10 pm to 3 am. Four underground performers with keyboard dominance have played: Mohamed Lamouri and La Tène on Friday nights, Jaune and Casse Gueule on Saturday, all surrounded by the mostla soundsystem that takes care of the music of the inter-plateaux.
On Sunday at the brunch time, we return a little tired in the same place, to bubble and see, out of curiosity, the 2 sets of Charlie O programmed. We have some rather positive a priori about the person, in particular by his long-time participation in Mendelson. The multi-instrumentalist keyboardist (piano, organ, synthesizers, etc.) is here to present his latest album 'Marguerite', recorded in the church of Sainte-Marguerite in Marseilles, published in September 2015 and for the first time played as a show. One is seated, one listens and one becomes progressively admiring the simplicity of the device - a talented musician and an organ - by its class and its charm as well. It seems all of a sudden that the easier it is and the more beautiful it is.
Charlie O plays a music that is deeply authentic, innovative and nurturing traditions. His inspirations are rich and varied - roughly, the pop culture of the last 100 years - and treated through a patrimonial medium, underestimated in France by contemporary composers: the liturgical organ, this strange keyboard between the piano and the " accordion. The ensemble of these music forms "Marguerite", a disc that experimented, reconciles market and popular music, that played by people for people, beyond any consideration of taste and style.