AISHINKA

Aishinka, winner of the 'First Prize Albert Michiels' at the B-Jazz International Contest in 2019 and winner of the ‘Jazz Maastricht Professional Award’ in 2020, is a musical project born in Brussels in 2016, exploring transmission through world songs and time. It was her friendship and a shared common musical sensibility with Emmanuelle Duvillard that inspired Louise Andri to develop a repertoire that brought together different cultures and expressions (tradition, jazz…) and to create this ensemble of three female voices, soprano saxophone, piano , bass and drums. Currently, the repertoire is essentially based on traditional Bulgarian songs (as they were harmonized in the 50s and 60s), revisited with the freedom of improvisation of jazz, with the intention of perpetuating the musical memory passed on by the older generations, while making it evolve in today’s world. Ever since and everywhere on Earth, humans have been evolving by transmitting their experience and the richness of their culture from generation to generation. It thus contributes to the « All » that is humanity, which connects us to this unique « memory ». We do not know where we are going or why we are doing it, but we all want to perpetuate our species and leave our knowledge, our ideas, our feelings to those who will follow us. Hence the name Aishinka, meaning « love of evolution » in Japanese (this is also the title of an album of the Bulgarian composer Ivan Spassov).

A new album recording and release is planned for the end of 2023.