Nicole Heartseeker & Mulo Francel

Forever Young

Forever Young brings together two musicians with a passion for breathing new life into old classics.

Globetrotting saxophonist Mulo Francel has entertained audiences worldwide as part of award-winning jazz-world group Quadro Nuevo.

He joins forces with classically-trained pianist Nicole Heartseeker to cast a new perspective on the music of past masters from Bach to Caccini, Schubert, Schumann to Piazzolla.

The result is a fascinatingly relaxed conversation across stylistic and temporal boundaries, showcasing how the greatest works remain forever young and fresh.

For those that like to label things, it’s not classical music and probably not of jazz. Perhaps just a magic moment in the vastness in between.

Saxophonist Mulo Francel describes the basic idea of the album:

“One of those old masters. One of the great ones. Bach. Or Vivaldi. Or Handel. Briefly, I stand with him, and ask whether it would be alright with him if we played his music. If my tenor sax from the Paris of the 50’s would blend into his sounds of yesteryear. A question and the hope of a smile.”

Nicole Heartseeker’s fascination with the study and preservation of historical musical traditions have seen her lead a range of unusual projects, not least – since 2007 – in collaboration with Mulo Francel.

The repertoire for this album has been with these musicians their entire lives and came about, perhaps unsurprisingly, in the most organic of ways.

“An evening with friends and lots of wine. I sat down at the piano and played the Adagio by Marcello & Bach. Mulo took his saxophone and unabashedly dissolved the melodic structures. I wanted to capture the fascination of this moment. That’s how the idea for Forever Young was born.”

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Mulo Francel is a saxophonist and globetrotter.

He is also known as the creative whirlwind of the ensemble Quadro Nuevo. For many years, the multiple ECHO prize winner has travelled the countries of the world playing. From Bavaria to the Balkans to Bolivia and Buenos Aires. Concert tours have taken him from Hong Kong to the opera in Cairo to New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Over the years, he has developed his own authentic style of playing world music. His unmistakable style explores the border areas between tango, classical music, jazz and improvisation.

Mulo Francel has given more than 4,000 concerts worldwide and has received many awards, such as the European Impala, the ECHO Jazz for the best live act and the Golden Record for the Quadro Nuevo album Mocca Flor. The magazine Kulturnews attributed to him the “currently most sensual saxophone sound in Europe”.

Mulo Francel’s saxophone tells stories. Wide-stretched melodic arcs give an idea of how wide-ranging extravagance can transcend the small-scale boundaries of the earthly.

Nicole Heartseeker started on the organ as a young student and continued her masterclass studies on cembalo and piano. She placed an emphasis on the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Max Reger and the preservation of historical musical traditions.

During her intensive study of sacred organ music, she developed the desire to transfer this specific art of music-making to the piano. After her training as a classical musician, Nicole Heartseeker increasingly realized unusual projects.

With her unique blend of classical, jazz and world music, she defies the usual notions of genre boundaries.

Artist Website

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Action Jazz (FR)