Nora Benamara - Amnesia (Jazz Thing Next Generation, Vol. 104) (2024) [Official Digital Download]

Music as a possibility to process things; this has become a matter of course for Nora Benamara. Anyone who delves into the pieces of her group's extraordinary album debut can discover a variety of facets, both lyrically and musically. Some go deep, but still retain a certain degree of lightness, of sensual, joyful expression. "My music was created out of emotion and intuition," the singer, composer and band leader emphasized. The wonderfully poetic texts in turn speak of a lot of reflection, sometimes almost philosophical thinking and daring—even dreaming. Her pieces speak of longing for a home, of utopian places, of doubts, of an intense connection to nature. They are the results of a personal inner "odyssey" as she wrote: "a search for deeper connections, a pursuit of the beautiful and the cathartic in the search for finding one’s place in the world."

The fact that she chose "Amnesia" as the title for the quartet's first album is due to the power of the song of the same name. "It represents the album." Nora Benamara speaks in this context of different energy waves that flow through her. Amnesia serves her "as a metaphor for forgotten, fallen asleep parts of myself." The music awakens these parts and restores the energy of connectedness, whether with love or with nature: important vital energy. She is totally absorbed in her music, in her songs, and all the more so on stage. She is in complete harmony with what she expresses there. "Something absolutely honest and authentic is expressed."

Nora Benamara is German-French national with a multicultural family background (her father is Algerian and her mother German); she lives in Leipzig as do the other members of her quartet. Pianist Olga Reznichenko and bassist Lorenz Heigenhuber also play together in the highly acclaimed trio Reznichenko, which recently released its second album. The singer has known the drummer André van der Heide the longest. The two met during their music studies in Weimar. This quartet has existed for about three years. "Most of the pieces were composed in the coronavirus era due to the desire for a quartet program. I worked a lot on the compositions and came to the band with clear ideas and conceptions. At the same time, I considered it important that the three contribute their personalities. There is plenty of room for improvisation in every piece.” It is not surprising that concrete stylistic considerations did not play a role in this rich cosmos of elements (which also includes a piece with a duduk, the Armenian woodwind instrument). She wrote the texts mostly in English: "It felt more natural and is also a universal language." She admitted that the French language songs on the album indicate that she is now moving more in the direction of her mother tongue as a songwriter.

Nora Benamara was born in 1992. She grew up in a small village near Fontainebleau south of Paris: "a life in nature". There was a lot of music in the family, not least thanks to her father, an opera singer. He also played oud, the Arabic lute. Classical and Arabic music, especially Arabic-Andalusian, was part of everyday musical life. Nora studied classical piano from an early age. Her interest in pop music led her to teach herself guitar. She listened to the Beatles, Devendra Banhart, Joan Baez, French chansons and Pink Floyd and discovered the music of Björk, Radiohead and Nina Simone.

Nora Benamara completed her first degree in visual communication in Roubaix in the northeast of France . An Erasmus year abroad took her to Rome in 2013. The stay became a turning point. "The time made me realize that I feel most comfortable in music as far as my artistic expression is concerned." She had her first small appearances as a singer with guitar in Rome. She made the decision there to switch to a music education in Germany. The Frenchwoman had already heard jazz time and time again, especially singers. But she had no definite idea of study opportunities. It was clear to her that "this could be an exciting door to developing one's own language." That’s an example of the artistic curiosity that drives Nora Benamara. In Weimar, she was taught and supported by teachers as diverse as Michael Schiefel and Jeff Cascaro. The first compositions were created as part of study projects. She composed pieces for a quartet as her degree thesis. "When composing, I noticed that I particularly like this line-up."

While still studying, Nora Benamara formed the duo Nômade with the Brazilian guitarist Igor Seiji and the duo Sununu with the Palestinian-Syrian pianist and singer Aeham Ahmad, with whom she released an album in 2020. With her quartet and "Amnesia", this dazzling, atmospheric debut album, the multi-talented woman has now taken a huge step toward a career that focuses on the full range of her personal expression.

Tracklist:
01 - Amnesia
02 - Contemplations
03 - Home on Earth
04 - Utopia
05 - Comète
06 - Lonely Like Laika
07 - Non Lieu
08 - Spirits
09 - The Girl of the Tree


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