L'histoire du groupe
À Hue et à Dia réunit cinq chanteuses autour de chants traditionnels de différents horizons et de leur instrument : la voix. Loin d'une interprétation puriste de ce vaste répertoire, À Hue et à Dia réarrange, s'autorise quelques pas de côté, improvise, toujours au service d'un son d'ensemble qui se veut puissant et singulier. C'est une couleur intemporelle et inédite qui teinte alors les mélodies et porte les textes. Ces langues, les chanteuses d'À Hue et à Dia ne les parlent pas. Pourtant, ces langues inconnues côtoient leurs mélopées sans paroles pour raconter l'universel : les histoires d'amour, le dur labeur, la guerre, la beauté de la vie.
En 2011, les cinq chanteuses se rencontrent autour de l’improvisation : pas de paroles, mais la voix comme vecteur d’émotions et d’énergie. Les circle songs sont un mode d’improvisation qu’elles affectionnent, puisant leur inspiration dans les influences musicales de chacune.
Très vite naît l’envie de mêler improvisations et chants traditionnels. C'est tout d'abord une forte attirance pour la musique des Balkans qui les conduit à travailler en 2013 avec la chanteuse serbe Svetlana Spajic à Belgrade. Elles y approcheront l'énergie et le timbre caractéristiques de ces musiques. C'est ensuite une rencontre avec le musicien malgache Joro Raharinjanahary qui les conduira à élargir leurs horizons musicaux et à aborder d'autres rythmiques, d'autres ambiances. Pour elles, la dimension orale de la transmission de ces chants traditionnels est primordiale : leur répertoire s'étoffe au fil des rencontres.

Illustration d'arrière plan : Suzy Vergez
The Group
A Hue et à Dia is a vocal group made up of five singers who desire to revisit traditional songs from different regions of the world. In phonetics, the expression [a y e a dja] has the effect of phonemes of a foreign language on the ear.
It is however an expression of the French language.
The songs chosen by A Hue et à Dia reflect the multiple cultures that coexist in daily life.
Far from a purist interpretation of the traditional repertoire, the group A Hue et à Dia arranges and complements improvised songs, instrumental and body percussions to find the precision of its language. It is a timeless and original colour which tints the melodies and carries the texts.
Whether they come from cassava fields or wheat fields, many traditional songs come from women and men over the world, whose voices vibrated together while working hard.
The Group’s journey
It was around improvisation that the singers met in 2011. No words, just the voice as a vector of emotion and energy. Circle songs are a form of improvisation that they love, drawing inspiration from the musical influences of each of them.
To go “à hue et à dia” is to go alternately in opposite directions. Like the carters of yesteryear, A Hue et à Dia finds its way from one direction to another, immersed in one signer then another.
Very quickly the singers wanted to mix their improvisations with traditional songs, in order to draw sound material from different cultural sources.
Particularly attracted to Balkan music, in 2013 they went to Belgrade to work with Svetlana Spajic, renowned Serbian singer who passes on vocal traditions from the border regions of Serbia and Bosnia. This was a decisive meeting for the group which gave birth to their desire to extend their approach by learning traditional songs orally, through their different encounters, and then to make them their own.
Since 2013, their repertoire has grown as a result of their encounters with singers of Romanian, Turkish, Malagasy, Iraqi, Italian origin. Improvisation remains present in the artistic approach of the group and compositions are born.
The interpreters
The singers of A Hue et à Dia have very contrasting musical backgrounds, in styles as varied as classical music, jazz, reggae, traditional music. They have taken different paths: academic, self-taught, instrumental, vocal. Whether by voice or with an instrument, they have all at some time experienced improvisation.
And it is A Hue et à Dia that coherence is built: thanks to the particularities of each one, sound emerges and equalises in contrasts.
Workshops around the show
A Hue et à Dia offers voice discovery workshops. These workshops are intended for all ages. We propose to lead workshops of 8 to 12 participants, composed of children, or adults and adolescents over 14.
No prerequisites, neither in song nor improvisation are necessary to participate in the courses. The groups are made up of people who want to sing in groups and take a few steps in vocal improvisation.
Far from any concern for vocal performance, participants can enjoy bringing their voices together and exploring sounds. We offer games of rhythm and harmony, playing with everyone's sound palette. A significant part of the exercises is devoted to acquiring an appropriate listening attitude.
We quickly approach the anatomy of the phonatory apparatus thanks to our playful pop-up model.
We transmit traditional songs of various origins, in polyphony, and can integrate moments of improvisation.
As a group we can use the technique of circle songs, improvisations based on the superimposition of small repetitive musical phrases. Participants have the opportunity to be, in turn, improviser, conductor, spectator, soloist.
This intervention, usually carried out in pairs, lends itself to different formats, ranging from initiation (1 and half hours) to a more complete training: 24 hours divided into 12 sessions of 2 hours, or a 4-day course with 6 hours training per day.
