The cello with a thousand accents

It only took a few strokes of the bow and it was love at first sight. When I first heard Matthieu Saglio's Cello Solo (released in 2009) in concert, I immediately fell under the spell not only of the magic emanating from his cello, connected to a sampler, but also the aura of this charismatic musician. With understated elegance and disarming humility, he dazzles the aficionado and reveals to the novice the unsuspected versatility of his fabulous instrument unveiling its lyrical, ethereal soulfulness. A unique universe, the mature fruit of an experience acquired over a rich career spanning classical, jazz and world music, notably nuevo flamenco with Jerez Texas. Echoing the extensive travels of this globetrotter who has performed in forty countries, this voluptuous travel diary blends the reverberations of a Western cathedral with the souks of the Maghreb, South American tango with Spanish flamenco. Its primordial musicality, both hypnotic and ecstatic, is the ideal gateway to his vast world of sound.

A world that expanded in 2020 with El camino de los Vientos, an absolute masterpiece released on the prestigious ACT label, bringing together a sensational cast of all-star musicians from different cultures, featuring several voices for the first time, including that of his brother Camille Saglio. Masterfully combining classical, baroque, flamenco-jazz, oriental and African music, this outstanding album heralded the creation of a quartet featuring percussionist Steve Shehan, violinist Léo Ullmann and pianist Christian Belhomme.

This magical quartet, complemented on stage by these voices, resulted in a memorable evening at the Jazz in San Javier festival in July 2021, a moving moment immortalized on a superb live album.

If these two albums proved how much this brilliant composer’s melodies, until then essentially instrumental, called for vocals to be added, this is made crystal clear in the one suitably named Voices (ACT-2023), the quartet's studio album in which Matthieu pays tribute to the diversity of the world's voices, which, notwithstanding their differences, bring people together and unify them. With his cello acting as the guiding principle, he has composed works tailor-made for this human and fraternal communion of eight judiciously chosen voices from around the world, including that of Camille. A brother who has extensively explored the vast field of world music and of languages with his astonishing and unique high countertenor range, but who had never recorded an entire album with Matthieu.

Until their very first opus, Al Alba, released in the spring of 2025, in the form of a pared-down atavistic duo sharing a taste for complicit crossovers through new compositions and emblematic covers. The celebration of dawn, that moment bordering on night and day, dream and reality. A moment suspended in time, a gentle setting imbued with poetry and spirituality, at once lyrical and mystical, inspiring contemplation and elevation of the soul (as in the title Atman, the soul in Hindu), explored here in depth.

Borne on these winds with their never-abating breath, a remarkable work has been created. May this box set, a collection of the above-mentioned five albums, offer the listener the privilege of fully appreciating the consonance of this exceptional journey towards rapture, with Beauty as its only compass. Happy listening, and above all, have a wonderful journey accompanied by a celestial cello!

Michel Clavel

Musicians

Nguyên Lê

Nils Petter Molvaer

Carles Benavent

Vincent Peirani

Susana Baca

Alim Qasimov

Natacha Atlas

Nils Langren

Camille Saglio

Wasis Diop

Anna Colom

Steve Shehan

Bijan Chemirani

Léo Ullmann

Christian Belhomme

Ricardo Esteve

Isabel Julve

Abdoulaye N'Diaye

Carlos Sanchis