La Maison d’Amour La Maison d’Amour

Léonore Boulanger and Maam-Li Merati met each other in Paris in 2011 at a concert of Azerbaijani Master-Musician Alim Qasimov and his daughter Ferghana Qasimova. Maam-Li Merati is an Iranian musician that was born in Kermanshah, near the Iraqi border. In addition to having a Doctor in Musicology, he has worked with artists such as Iranian singer Shahram Nazeri and French novelist and Luis Bunuel’s screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière (for a project devoted to 13 th century Persian poet and Sufi mystic Rumi). Shortly after their meeting, Maam-Li Merati started to teach the art of Persian classical music to Léonore Boulanger, a young French musician that released three albums on the multi-faceted label Le Saule.

During the spring of 2015 they recorded some first lyrical odes, some dastgāhs for two voices and traditional string instruments that would later become the sides A and C of the La Maison d’amour double ten inch on Okraïna. Later, Matthieu Ferrandez, church organist and researcher in electronic music, joined them for sides B and D weaving a cosmic lace, with the sighs of harmonium and acoustic organs.

"You, you traded me for nothing
Me, I still choose that I wouldn't trade a single hair yours
for the entire world"
Saadi Shirazi (13th century)

In the ancient modes of the Radif – a repertoire classified during the Qajar dynasty between 1840 and 1920 – the love poetry of the 13th and 14th century is replayed, brought back to life.