Each year since 2010, music has been invited to the high slopes of Chamonix with the Cosmo Jazz festival. An exceptional rendezvous which matches the verticality with the words of the soul. Oona Skari gives us her version of the 2018 event, illustrated with photos taken by Felix Olsson and a moon by Jean-Philippe Azaïs.
Free us from the intensity of the morning
It is a question of releasing oneself, of letting go of the steam which releases the trees from the morning mist and of whose soft perfume comes to intrude upon our senses until it almost completely envelopes them. The body is therefore at the mercy of nature and its enchanting airs. With the movement of the clouds mixing with those of the body carried by human and instrumental melodies. The rhythm coats from then on, as if by magic, the natural architecture of the surrounding peaks.
With a movement of the pelvis
A dialogue establishes between man and nature. From the epicentre to the roots, the energy pierces the ground and rises back up through the rock until it reaches the soul of each. At first there are the toes, comfortably installed in a pair of shoes or unsheathed in the fresh air for the purists, then the bones of the ankle which fidget to every beat and which raise the rhythm into the kneecaps. If connection is total, the kneecaps engage the pelvis in unrestrained Elvis type movements. For the most passionate, the upper the body ignites in a movement of generalised euphoria.
And that which makes the peaks tremble…
In this week of interaction between urbanity and verticality, everybody willingly lets themselves go according to the various concerts judiciously installed in four corners of the valley. Human bodies find themselves encircled by Chamonix’s imposing peaks and are snatched away by the stentorian voices of the singers whose intense resonance completely invades each of those present .
La Chica’s sublime Venezuelan French voice made the small audience, gathered in silence in Vallorcine church due to the torrential rain, shiver. Rain, which quickly dissipated the following day in front of the furious rhythm from the group Arat Kilo. Mamani Keita in a highly contagious good mood and with a natural groove managed to transport the crowd at Émosson.
Rolling back over to the French side and leaving Switzerland for the moment to find China Moses accompanied by a choir of around sixty at the summit of Brévent. As is often the case in Chamonix, the cosmic onslaught is not a brake for the crowds of people who, coming from multiple horizons, will not allow themselves to be to dissuaded by the weather report. Buffeted by the high mountain winds and the drops of rain, the kagool clad gang drew together demonstrating a sense of solidarity and conviviality .
Felix Olsson
Returning to the valley, away from the bad weather, 10LEC6 took control of the human souls and awoke the bestiality which sleeps within each of us. Within the furious rhythms in ethnic tones, bodies are in direct link with the cosmos.
Felix Olsson
For a cosmic fusion
The rest of the week unfurled under a hot and narcotic sun. The cool of the evening in the Parc Couttet revived the crowds and brought together the generations with mixed vocal tones, hang, piano, duduk, cello or even double bass. The Cosmo, the meeting place between sky and earth, between man and verticality, between music and mountains, was crowned with a magnificent eclipse of the moon to close this eighth ceremony of a cosmic communion.
Jean-Philippe Azaïs
