Ley Lines Blues : DOWNLOAD
DOUBLE ALBUM (6 tracks - 2h12min) estimate: between 20 and 60€
* Download I NSTRU-CTION without an education system "Platform" Streaming managed by the music industry which pays out 0.0001€ per free listen...that's the world ;) but it's not for me: The recipient pays for my new album after transferring it with their email. Payment will be made by IBAN sent to the recipient's email.
There is a passage around the 10th minute of part 1 which is simply incredible and through which (it lasts two, three or four minutes) we believe we hear ALL the music, as if Ley Lines Blues succeeded at that precise moment in capturing the complete fusion of genres, of eras. Then emerges in this tent a form of absolute, complete music, which resonates in our ears almost like a pop song, a melodious music, a hit when it is objectively almost the complete opposite. The piece moves away from this moment a little further to seek the truth elsewhere. It will not return there. Youri Defrance's records serve as a showcase and testimonies to invite the public to join him in his fixed tours, his musical meetings which he now fixes by following a lunar and spiritual cartography which is personal to him. The music resounds in Lozère, in Brittany, in Carnac and on the Monts d'Arrée, in Auvergne, in Lyonnais. Perhaps the important thing is not so much to explain his music as to refer to the path it invites you to follow: that of the experience it provides. Album review/Sun Burns Out (Berton Benjamin)
12€
9€
16€
He first became known as Youri Blow and has now returned to his first surname. Youri Defrance is from Champagne (his home region), Brittany (his adopted home), and elsewhere. He is also a globetrotter who has crisscrossed the Mongolian steppes, American Indian reservations, aboriginal lands, and Inca cities, as well as a mystical musician dreaming of Delta blues and believing in the spirits of the wind, trees, and rivers. He summons them with a guttural, very rich voice, flirting with overtone singing (not everyone can do that), while scraping with the stripped-down strings of guitars, jaw harps, or a Mongolian fiddle: he single-handedly fuses the earthly and spiritual elements of the different tribes he has encountered throughout his life.
TELERAMA – Magazine number 3518 –
ITW New York City - USA Indé Tour 2014
Mita Aryanayakam Ghosh, who was a follower of Gandhi, quoted him as saying: “Heaven belongs to every religion, to each human race... Religions are merely different paths followed to reach God, the destination remains the same.” Youri, having travelled the world in your style and through your experiences, do you believe that this is true and can you explain why?
I hadn't heard of Mita Aryanayakam, thank you. That is my philosophy – it keeps me in peace with the world – I learnt it during my three years of solitude and during my journey to Mongolia... but I think there are different destinations, for example the “missions” and “God Bless America” (politics fused with religion) lead to judgement and frustration... they lead towards a path called Ego, power...
Heaven is our father and earth our mother, we need to keep it in our thoughts and keep giving it our faith, our questions and love... regardless of the religion, it gives us the strength to break out of materialistic and scientific boxes... and in the end, it brings us all together into the light.
Can you tell us about the main elements that make up the Soyombo symbol and what they represent for you personally?
For me, fire was the power of the sun in human hands, but since my initiation with the Tsaatan tribe, I realised within myself that it transports the spirits of the elders... past and present.
The sun and the moon are very inspiring for my music. The Quechua and Aymara tribe, who I met at Lake Titicaca, taught me a lot about those two forces... dancing and dreaming.
The two triangles, represent the forces of protection, the outer ego and the inner ego. The two horizontal rectangles hold it up. The Yin & Yang symbol, for me, is simply the “Good and Bad”. The two vertical rectangles remind me of the nomadic philosophy, Solidarity and Titan.
In his book “Calendar of Wisdom”, Leo Tolstoy says, “People who think that the most important thing in life is knowledge remind me of a butterfly who flies into the flame of a candle, and in so doing burns, and extinguishes the light.” If knowledge is considered a tool rather than a purpose of life, how can one manage to acquire and share it?
I don't want to waste time with that question, I think it's beating around the bush... there is some value in philosophy and some waffle. At the moment I'm leaning towards simplicity, my last musical production is called “The Turning point”...
I've read that the sound of Morin Khuur is sometimes described as huge and unrestrained, like a neighing horse or even the murmur of the breeze in a field. If you had to use words to describe it, what would you say?
Steppe, water, motion, the animal spirit, ancestor, love, sadness, wild...
Photo New York City - (c).Theo Constantinou/Paradigm Mag
In the current context of the state of relations between Israel and Palestine, as well as the 40thanniversary of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, I found this amazing story: “ Ο φίλος μου ο Χασάνης” [trans: My friend Hassan]. It's the story of Hassan, a Turkish Cypriot man from Androlykou, who fell in love with, married and lived with a Greek Cypriot woman before the island was separated. When he died, because he was Muslim and his wife Christian, the funeral faced a number of bureaucratic hurdles. He built a tomb for his wife, right near the cemetery, and asked that when they died, they be buried together with a Cypriot flag. The lesson of the story is in his wish, not as a denial of national identity but rather a kind of rejection of nationalism, expressed through the surplus of flags. How can we begin teaching our children to live in love and not hate, by denying their national pride?
By teaching the power of the spirits of the elders and wild nature (medicinal plants, animals, micro-organisms...) with the same importance as maths or geography, at home and at school, and not keep them just on a scientific trip because our children are like plants, let's give them spring water and not pesticides of the spirit. One simple example, one thing that's stayed with me since I was a kid: most teachers at the beginning of primary school often ask that killer question: “What do you want to be when you grow up? Engineer, astronaut, doctor...?” One Vietnamese mate answered 'alive'!!! I mean, we don't teach “ideas” to children – they learn through concrete encounters and experiences that affect them for life... not like a dead page in a book.
Coming back to simplicity... there's an Asian proverb: if you pour a hundred trillion bags of rice onto the end of a baguette, one falls on at the end of 8 years, and that's your life...
_________________________________________
-
ITW Australia Indé Tour 2015
You say your music “allows everyone to discover shamanism”, what does this mean? My music communicates with the spirits. When I play in concert I have two sets that are completely different; the first is easy and the second is more complex because it is a time when I compose with other people ... if the audience listens, not my ego embroidered with sequins but the sounds from our ancestors, our inner road, animal totem, then it's a discovery and sharing of shamanism... ITW Scenestr Brisbane / Australia
2018 - WIND HORSE
"The bluesman shaman is already working on his new project and has unveiled a magnificent first track, Down Mississippi John, in tribute to American bluesman John Hurt... For his new stage project in the form of a film concert, Youri Defrance has invited percussionist Robin Vassy (Nishtiman, Badila, etc.). The duo's music will accompany an animated film directed by Réza Riahi and a documentary
directed by the artist, allowing us to witness a ceremony led by Mongolian shaman ENKHETUYA. The artists will enter the studio in early 2018 to record an album scheduled for release later in the year."
Guillaume Schnee - Radio FIP
FESTIVAL BLUES RULES
A meeting of two minds, from rock and metal to blues...
“I've been discovering another world [editor's note: blues] with Youri for the past year. But even without meaning to, I was already into it before. That's also why our meeting happened so naturally,” says Robin Vassy.
The meeting between Youri and Robin is, ultimately, a meeting of souls, a solemn call to collaborate; a shared spirit despite their different musical backgrounds. The meeting between Youri and Robin is, ultimately, a meeting of souls, a solemn call to collaborate; a shared spirit despite their different musical backgrounds. The spiritual side of art was present in both of them, even if they did not start from the same historical musical references.
Yet, on closer inspection, the very reasons for their attachment to the music of their youth have something in common. For Youri, for example, "what interested me about Hendrix was not so much his showmanship but the Cherokee sound, the profound side of his music that spoke to me. I played guitar eight hours a day and even slept with it. It was a bit psychotic, I was a bit crazy... From that point of view, I tried every drug in the world [Laughs]." Robin also shared this depth, to such an extent that their artistic discovery seemed obvious a few months ago... In any case, the duo will leave their mark on the history of the Blues Rules Crissier Festival.
Concert Review at Blues Rules Crissier Festival - Yves Di Cristino
2019 – BLUE WATER
« PRIVATE STUDIO CONCERT AT BISTRICA OB SOTLI« FRONTIÈRE DE LA CROATIE ET DE LA SLOVÉNIE…
The sensation is unsettling, like music captured in the moment and still being constructed as it is played. Unless you are well versed in musicology, it is impossible to tell where the notes come from, from which region or era. Blue Water is a magnificent and unlikely album, functional in its purpose but fluid and strong like the East Current.
Chronique/Sun Burns Out (Berton Benjamin)
Slovenia Tour 2019 //Radio Session : Morin Khuur & Dobro at radiostudent.si
Italia Tour March 2019 //www.larena.it
Italia Tour 9-24 November 2018 // Live Streaming At Sherwood
ITW: The Breath of the Wolf, the Call of the Wild
“The answer is in the question,” as he says. Youri Defrance is a sphinx for whom the answer is never worth the question mark, the finish line, the journey, etc. An interview from the other side of the world. The world of those who will be last
or first when the dead are counted... The call of the Wolf is inevitably the call of the madman.
Biography:
Youri Blow took his first steps in music at the age of 14, playing by ear on a low-end classical guitar, Leadbelly's “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” which he discovered on Nirvana's Unplugged album.
At the age of 21, after various experiences with psychedelic blues rock bands following in the footsteps of Pink Floyd, Hendrix, The Doors, Santana, and others, he decided to spend two months in Peru, which would prove to be a turning point in his life....
Back in France, he set out on his own, inspired by the “mercenary troubadours” of Delta blues, whose hoarse songs would gradually take on the colors of Peru's wild nature... Psychéblues was already in the making.
Nicknamed Youri plays the Delta Blues, he settled in Paris and appeared every night in bars, jam sessions, jazz and blues clubs, and the most unlikely venues in the capital, bringing back the ghosts of Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, John Hurt, and others with his Dobro guitar (Tanglewood) and wild voice. He performed before a very diverse and always spellbound audience. Numerous encounters led him to perform at blues festivals and concerts (Blues sur Seine, House Of Live, Flèche d'Or, Reservoir, etc.). In the meantime, he recorded a Delta Blues demo, “Love is Over.”
In 2006, back in his adopted region (Brittany), now known as Youri plays the Psychéblues, he introduced the Breton public to a second demo, “Papillon de Mars,” followed by a third demo, “Sand Of Fairy,” opening for Elliot Murphy, Beverly Joe Scott, Corey Harris, Boubacar Traoré, Joe Bonamassa, Bjorn Berge, and Alela Diane.
The purchase of a new acoustic guitar (Lo Prinzi) marked the beginning of a new phase of work inspired by traditional music from around the world and classical music. This period culminated in 2008 with Moon Rock My Soul, a debut album on which Youri Blow delivered the refined sounds of his guitar, accompanied by subtle soundscapes that invite the listener on a journey. . Discover him under the name Youri Blow
Since this recording in 2008, Youri has embarked on a two-year journey of self-discovery, two years of solitude necessary to consolidate his very personal musical style, enriched by an initiatory journey to Mongolia to the heart of the Tsaatane tribe. This is reflected in the recording of a new album: “The Corridor,” a long tunnel of introspection leading to light and the deliberate play of opposites. Youri is capable of offering us crystal-clear, almost religious singing in the album's title track, as well as an intensely hoarse voice, probing the depths of a “Strange History.” .
He released his second album, “The Corridor,” in March 2010 and performed at festivals and concerts (tour in France: March/April 2010, Belgium: October/November 2010, Les Nuits de l'Alligator Festival 2011, etc.), tour in Australia (2012), etc.
3rd album: Turning Point (tour in Australia 2014 & the United States 2015)
4th album: ONGOD (tour in France 2016-2017)
5th album: WIND HORSE (tour in Italy 2018)
6th Album: BLUE WATER (Tour in Slovenia 2019)
7th Album: Hadean “Wigwam Live” (Alignée Temple Celtic - Tour in France 2020-2022)
8th Album: Ley Lines Blues “Wigwam Live” (Alignée Temple Celtic - Tour in France 2023-2024)
PRESS REVIEWS:
“A blues of worlds as luminous as it is primitive and introspective, which shines through on the album Ongod, released on Wild House Blues six months ago. The bluesman shaman is already working on his new project and has unveiled a magnificent first track, Down Mississippi John, in tribute to American bluesman John Hurt...
” Guillaume Schnee - Radio FIP - ACTU
“
He first became known as Youri Blow and has now returned to his original surname. Youri Defrance is from Champagne (his region of origin), Brittany (his adopted home) and elsewhere. This bluesman shaman, who went to the taiga to learn his craft, draws his sounds from afar, but the journey is an inner one: with visceral vocal vibrations, electrified dissonances, and organic breaths, Ongod, a luminous album of animist blues, invites introspection and zen. With moving melodies and that extra bit of soul that makes music." Anne Berthod - FFF TELERAMA
“Hovering” is the metaphorical term that best suits this album. The opus “Ongod” offers 14 tracks that suggest and evoke more inner explorations than walks in different remote places on the planet. Youri Defrance plays acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, Morin Khuur (a Mongolian string instrument), vocals, jaw harp, violin, and percussion... A superbly crafted album that is an absolute must-listen!" Dominique Boulay - Blues Magazine
“Between blues, melancholic ballads, and shamanic incantations, Youri Defrance takes us on a journey around the globe and hypnotizes us, as in the 10-minute track “Makah Thunderbird.” This album is more than a series of musical pieces; it is a spellbinding journey, a rich and enriching album. A journey that only lacks images, and we find ourselves dreaming of listening to this music while watching scenes from an upcoming Jarmush film.” David - Froggy's Delight
“Youri DEFRANCE has played the “backpacking” card dear to Blaise CENDRARS to the full. And it was in the depths of the taiga that he was initiated by a shaman of the Tsaatane tribe. Ongod invites us to a rebirth through sound. The cover art by Reza RIAHI reflects this: we see a fetus, but when we unfold the digipack, we realize that the illustration continues on the back, and that the fetus merges with... an ear. Have you lost your “spirit catcher”? Get Ongod and let yourself be enchanted by its sound spirits; they will guide you to a state of serenity with infinite dazzling moments..." Stéphane Fougère - Rythmes Croisés
“L’artiste nous dévoile cette année son quatrième album, un ouvrage dans lequel il tient tous les instruments, même les plus improbables, et où il assure toutes les harmonies vocales avec une véritable réussite. En quatorze compositions, c’est un véritable tour du monde des musiques les plus insondables que nous offre Youri Defrance à force de chants diphoniques tantra et khargiraa mais aussi d’instrumentations tirées de ses guitares, morin khuur, guimbardes, violons et autres harpes.”Fred Delforge - ZICAZINE
“France’s unique and soul-shimmering bluesman...His songs are both familiar and foreign, melding traditional charm with his evolving landscapes.”Scenestr Brisbane / Australia
"Highway One" from our new session with Youri Blow aka Youri Defrance, a French artist who brings blues, psych rock, and world music together in a combination you've never heard before.Daytrotter Studio (Rock Island, IL) - Paste magazine
“Rauh, bellend, fast nie zärtlich - aber immer faszinierend und voller persönlicher Offenheit singt hier einer Lieder, die den Blues konsequent als Weltsprache verstehen und mit
Dialekten aus Sibirien und der Mongolei ebenso anreichern wie aus Afrika oder Lateinamerika.”Raimund Nitzsche - GIG REVIEW - WP Magazin / Germany
“Youri Blow poogt gelukkig niet om met blues en Mongoolse volksmuziek tot een synthese te komen, hij laat meer zijn intuïtie spreken.”Vpro - ALBUM REVIEW - Radio 6 / Netherlands
"Youri Blow exudes a streak of genuine passion, delivering every last lyric with fiery venom. His body is possessed by a passion for transporting his audience with soulful original tracks..."Chris Wood - GIG REVIEW - Watch Out For / Melbourne
"Youri Blow, an amazing French singer and guitarist. He’s going to perform his most recent album release ‘The Corridor’. It’s this beautiful dark and ethereal sound, quite different from anything I’ve heard.” Says Matt Grant.Matt Grant "Artistic Director" - PEATS RIDGE FESTIVAL / Sydney
"Youri Blow has created an intricate and elegant album, full of fantastic arrangements and a distinct atmosphere."Layla Clarke - The [AU] Review / Australia
"The Corridor is an impressive guitar-driven collection defined as "psyche-blues" that will inspire a new generation of blues rock artists to tread the fine line between the utterly familiar and fresh experimental sound techniques. An album that is likely to endure the test of time and continuous play, the sounds meld with the mood rather than hijacking the senses. "
Lisa Haynes - The Dwarf / Australia
"The Corridor, paru en 2010, véritable pont entre le delta du Mississippi et les steppes d'Asie centrale."Julien Bordier - Mag l' Express N°3310 / France
“Overall, “The Corridor” takes on a rather explorative nature, a rather uncommon but nonetheless enthralling idea for an album. Although not the easiest album to listen through, Blow should still be applauded for achieving what must have been an incredibly difficult album to compose. Worth a listen if you have a mind seeking adventure. Très interessant .” Peter McGee - Blues Bunny / Ecosse
“Youri Blow's talent is to meld all the power and diversity of all these dynamic and elemental horizons into an album that works wonderfully well holistically.”
Guy Sangster Adams - Plectrum / Angleterre
"The Corridor , album de voyage entre intérieur et extérieur, ici et ailleurs, hanté par l'expérience et la magie."Stéphane Deschamps - Les Inrocks Mag N°762 / France
“Vanaf de eerste minuten van ‘The Corridor’ fnuikt Youri Blow de eerder aangehaalde clichés met aangename Noord- Amerikaanse blues. Het is evenwel vooral het tweede nummer (‘Muddy Streams’), met de klank van een rauwe, gammele gitaar die rechtstreeks van op een plantage uit de Mississippidelta lijkt te komen, dat hij bluesfans tot ver buiten Frankrijk in bosjes kan doen vallen. Verder is in dit nummer een tweede stem te horen die refereert naar zijn Mongoolse trip.”Bert Mestdagh - Kwadratuur / Belgium (Flemish)
“Nous avions decouvert Youri Blow avec l album "Moon Rock My Soul" sorti fin 2008. Il nous y faisait decouvrir des influences diverses allant du Blues à l expérimental. Aujourd'hui, il revient avec un album bien différent, même si l'on sent toujours un fond de Blues dans ses compositions.”Jean-Pierre Lhoir - Music in Belgium / Wallonia
INTERVIEW TELEVISION : FRANCE 3 https://www.francetvinfo.fr/culture/musique/le-blues-de-youri-blow-voyage-en-mongolie_3343255.html
Emission Radio :
Slovenia Tour
https://radiostudent.si/glasba/samotni-potnik/ zobje-modrosti-25-youri-defrance-v-živo
Emission Radio :
Australia Tour
https://soundcloud.com/wildhouseblues/sbs-radio- youri-blow-interview