Art Mengo promises a “festive and quirky” concert with the Toulouse Contour
For the 40th edition of the Fête de la musique, the departmental council welcomes, in its enclosure, Tuesday, June 21, the children of the country Art Mengo, Yvan Cujious and Magyd Cherfi either the Toulouse Contour and a concert of support for Ukraine.
can you introduce us to what the Toulouse Contour is?
The Toulouse Contour is three nerdy fifties (laughs), who cover nerdy songs for nerdy concerts and with the hindsight and the distance that we can have at our age, Magyd and me in any case, on the job. And so it’s really something very festive where you don’t take yourself seriously and it’s a step aside for everyone, something out of step with what you do individually. And it’s really pleasant because the public responds well since they know the songs that we cover like “Le Sud” by Nino Ferrer for example. Songs popular at their time, in the 1980s but also in the 1970s which constitute a good part of our repertoire, we take up those of Cabrel, Juliette, Pierre Groscolas, Pierre Vassiliu, the Fabulous Trobadors… And then of course, the he shadow that has been hanging over Toulouse for a long time since we are playing a “Nougaroyen” medley.
Obviously, it is the notion of pleasure that predominates in this project…
Really ! And it’s also a little bit the idea of stopping on what has been done, of taking a break from what we usually do and paying tribute to all these songs that have rocked us. and who made us who we are culturally, who integrated us. And then they are great songs! And the formula is quite sober, it’s just accordion, percussion or piano or guitar, it strips the songs of everything and in fact it’s more than enough to evoke those years. And on stage we are joined by Laurent Derache on accordion and by Franck Camerlink on percussion and drums.
Apart from covers, have you built a repertoire of your own?
Magyd wrote four titles and me two on this album, which allowed us to dig a furrow that extended well to all three of us. We will no doubt go towards original compositions thought up together on a future album. This would give renewed interest to our project.
Where are you in your career and will we see you back on stage in a solo version?
I am coming back to settle in the Toulouse region after a trip to Belgium and I have signed with a producer. I’m preparing an album as well as an Olympia for January 16, 2024. Everything is set, I’m settling into my new life, I already have about ten songs and I’m going to write others soon…
Two nice dates
The departmental council of Haute-Garonne is one of the few public authorities to offer, as every year, a concert as part of the Fête de la musique. The Town Hall of Toulouse has indeed decided not to organize anything on the Place du Capitole, thus wanting to “rediscover the essence of the event”, oriented towards spontaneous amateur practice.
It should be noted that the Collective Job, route de Blagnac, will celebrate its 20th anniversary with local festivals which will take place, outdoors and under a marquee, from June 21 to 25, bringing together, in particular at the initiative of Music’Halle, dozens of professional and amateur musicians.