Sakina Abdou

You have heard Sakina Abdou express herself in many contexts, in musical fields both broad and eclectic. With this solo album, she invites herself within, focus and anchors herself for the first time in her own language, where she summons the many influences which have nurtured her.
Through «homemade» recording, naked, raw, without effects or tricks, we meet her on her own, at home. Grab a chair or settle in the floor next to her, on the edge of the bell, almost touching, and find yourself captured in a sound recording quite close, almost macroscopic.
You can follow her and walk along, through the musical arch built from collected moments. You will feel the solitude of the musician in the room and the ghostly presence of a few guests, mute witnesses of the recording process.
In this living snapshot, you can sit next to her to live through her 43 minutes of music. You will follow the story she's telling to herself, quite privately, a story infused with raw humanity, simple and moving. 43 minutes of musical playing, of renewed dynamics, of comparing and contrasting the piece, with a technique precisely on the edge of control, which reveals the tension of a formal frame, as well as its breakaways and releases.
A disc to listen to and live.

We have previously heard Toma Gouband with Evan Parker and the pianist Marta Warelis with Dave Douglas and Andy Moor. Sakina Abdou first played with Gouband in Will Guthrie's gamelan ensemble Nist-Nah, and Warelis in the frenetic Amsterdam improvisational collective Doek.
With this archetypal line-up and a singular history, this wide variation already gives us a taste of the vast, mysterious and unimagined musical territory they will explore together, as well as the wide range of influences and possible references that can be generated at any moment in a space that pushes this many boundaries.
Surrounded by the astral touch of the Polish pianist and the vegetal strokes of the French percussionist, the saxophonist released her first trio album in the fall of 2024 on the New York label Relative Pitch Records, who offered her a second "carte blanche". The music is free and invented on the edge, breaking down improvised themes, exploring the idea of collective play as if caressing a torn canvas, celebrating the idea of a fabric woven from bits and pieces, shot through with ashes, echoes and ghosts, like a taut thread that binds, connects, stretches and contains multiple stories.
After a first solo album acclaimed by the international press (The Wire, The Quietus, The New York City Jazz Record, Freistil, We jazz magazine, etc.) Sakina Abdou positions herself with this second opus where we least expected to find her.

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• audio •

• interviews and links •

• quotes •

«This isn't just a display of brilliant technique: Abdou's playing packs an emotional punch»
Stewart Smith for "We Jazz"

«tenor saxophonist Sakina Abdou passes through warm melody to strangled, passionate squall with grace and reason, somehow both calm and electrifying, suggesting the recently passed Pharoah Sanders but in her own voice»
Stuart Broomer - "The Free Jazz Collective"

«C'est une musique de paradoxe: à la fois aérienne, dans ses soudaines bifurcations et diablement terrestre, plantée dans la raucité des anches»
Franpi Barriaux - "Citizen Jazz"

«The five-part «Planting Chairs» explores a range of colors and techniques, united by Abdou's supreme focus and emotional openness»
Stewart Smith - "The Wire"

«Sakina Abdou is a Lille-based saxophonist and flutist who has come to prominence through her collaborations with Eve Risser (Red Desert Orchestra), Raymond Boni, as well as members of the Muzzix collective in her hometown.
With Goodbye Ground, her debut solo she makes a declarative statement of personal musical purpose. Sticking on the recording to alto and tenor saxophones, Abdou's statement is not in a single vernacular, however, as she ranges freely from a post-Ornette melodic liquidity to a post-Coltrane tonal density without any sense of simplistic derivation or pastiche. No matter when, her sound is emotional and evocative, steeped in some kind of blues, one that connects pasts and presents with imagination and verve»
Scott Thomson - "FIMAV"

• biography •

Saxophonist Sakina Abdou is one of the few female jazz and improvised music artists in Northern France.
Based in Lille, she explores jazz, free improvisation and contemporary and experimental music with artists such as Eve Risser's Red Desert Orchestra, Raymond Boni, Yacouba Moumouni, Satoko Fujii, and the daring experimental collective Muzzix. But it's as a solo artist that her strong, multi-faceted identity shines through: a raw, powerful sound, both precise and raw, that stubbornly explores perspectives between rage and appeasement, drama and irony. She draws on all her influences to anchor herself in the present and history, reformulating her own language and making her voice heard.


«She can be as fiery as she is fierce, but what has impressed me about "Goodbye Ground" is Abdou's ability to bring moments of swing-derived blowing to the equation, evoking Lee Konitz as much as Peter Brötzmann. She spent two months at home recording the album, which draws upon a number of strategies, but in the end it becomes clear that Abdou masterfully balances spontaneity and structure. She's definitely one to watch»
Peter Margasak - The Quietus

After a decade of playing on the French scene as a "side" (Claude Tchamitchian, Bruno Angélini, Ensemble Dedalus, invitations in Will Guthrie's Nist-Nah, etc.), she has decided in 2022 to create, support and defend her first project as lead saxophone soloist, "Goodbye Ground":
A concert form that follows the release of her eponymous debut album on New York label "Relative Pitch Records", the latter's release will be followed by an international tour: Torino Jazz Festival, FIMAV (Victoriaville), Vancouver International Jazz Festival and Ottawa Jazz Festival, Festival Météo, Radio France, Jazz à Vienne etc. She is now preparing for the autumn release of her very first trio on the New York label "Relative Pitch Records", which has given her a second "free rein" order...

« I can't dream of anything better than incerating myself in sound and spreading myself endlessly in ears and hearts»
Sakina Abdou - "Fifteen Questions"