Titi Robin brings cultures together

A self-taught musician who brings different cultures together, Titi Robin has spent thirty years operating where Gypsy, Eastern, and Mediterranean traditions meet and overlap. A guitarist who also plays the oud and the bouzouki, he is coming to the Ancienne Belgique to present his triple album Les Rives, recorded in India, Turkey, and Morocco.

Thierry “Titi” Robin was born in Angers in western France, where he was in daily contact with Gypsy and Eastern cultures. Those two musical worlds influenced his early career at a time when the term “world music” had still not been invented. “Love stories can rarely be explained rationally,” he told us, talking of his passion for those traditions. “As an artist, you look for something that attracts you. I’m self-taught, I never attended music school, so I’ve always followed my instincts.”

Les Rives ranges across three countries: India, Turkey, and Morocco. Each time, you recorded in the country itself, with local musicians.
Titi Robin: Yes, and each album, moreover, was produced by a local label. Afterwards, the Paris-based Naïve label bought the albums to put a box set together. But each album was first released individually in the country in question. When they were distributed in Europe two years ago, I did a tour with my band and a guest from each country: Murad Ali from India on sarangi (a stringed instrument), Sinan Celik from Turkey on kaval (flute), and El Mehdi Nassouli from Morocco on vocals, guembri, and krakebs.

You’ll be appearing with that trio and guests in Brussels, right?
Robin: Yes, although by now you could call it a sextet. We have done fifty concerts in two years – it has really become a very tight band. It is a dream band, because each musician is a master in his own field. But everyone plays in the service of the band, which produces really lively music onstage.

How do you manage to combine three such different styles?
Robin: Actually, I don’t blend them: we just play my own music and my style – the musicians have to adapt to that. So when they play my music, it’s not like what they do back home. While composing, I took account of their cultures, so they would be at ease and be able to improvise. They are related repertoires: there is a continuity between those traditions that goes a very long way back. So I am reactivating, to an extent, a very old memory, a connection that we seem to have forgotten about these days.

You draw inspiration from those fertile traditions, without imitating them. How do you do it?
Robin: Like everyone else. Anyone who plays jazz is going to try to create a distinctive style. He is in that scene, but tries to have his own language. It’s the same for me. I give myself every freedom, but you need a lot of rigour so as not to get lost. Each composition is a reflection of what I felt at a particular moment. As if I was writing a poem or painting a picture. The source of my music is my life and my dreams.

Titi Robin • 2/12, 20.00, €26/29, Ancienne Belgique, boulevard Anspachlaan 110, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-548.24.24, www.abconcerts.be