Kaleidoscope Michel Haumont & Joël Gombert

• 1 Kaleidoscope 02:33
• 2 Leonardino 03:04
• 3 To My Sister 02:26
• 4 Laurine 02:14
• 5 Gerard & Josette 03:25
• 6 Berceuse pour Maya 03:14
• 7 Nuit étoilée 02:36
• 8 Gigue 03:18
• 9 Home 03:33
• 10 Sylvie’s Waltz 03:31
• 11 Morning Picking 03:05
• 12 Sofa 03:26
• 13 Adolescence 02:47
• 14 Valse du printemps 01:59
• Total Runtime 41:11

Info for Kaleidoscope

They really couldn’t have found a better title for their first joint album. With their “Kaleidoscope,” Michel Haumont and Joël Gombert create scintillating and colorful facets of their music and conjure musical images that you will never tire of.

The light French touch – nonchalant and elegant – of these two fingerstyle guitarists place them in the tradition of Marcel Dadi. They carry on an intimate dialogue of ballads, waltzes, jigs and ragtime pieces from their own pen, a dialogue whose complexity and compositional maturity is evidenced, above all, by the plain fact that it sounds unbelievably light.

In Joël Gombert, Michel Haumont found a soulmate who speaks his language, who is tuned into, and harmonizes perfectly with, every detail in the voice leading, the bass line, the harmony and every melody.

Michel Haumont, guitar
Joël Gombert, guitar

Michel Haumont
is “a friend of great clarity and economy”, wrote the trade press appreciatively when describing the playing style of the French fingerstyle guitarist, who has the rare talent of never letting his audience sense the difficulty of even the most complex compositions. This famous Frenchman developed his virtuosic playing from the tradition of his erstwhile mentor Marcel Dadi, and ever since then, he has earned himself an outstanding reputation as a composer. Artists like Maxime Le Forestier, Georges Moustaki and Pierre Bensusan have already made use of his services.

Today, this highly popular Parisian artist plays instrumentals at his own leisure, with serenity, elegance and aplomb, be it British fingerstyle, American ragtime, French musette waltzes, or Mediterranean music of the 20th century. Michel Haumont, with his joyous melodies, elegant tone and pleasant grooves, is unquestionably among the crème de la crème of European fingerstyle guitarists.

Booklet for Kaleidoscope