Exhibitionism is without doubt the qualifier that fits the least well with the personality of Khalil Chahine, one of the most discreet and talented of French composers. And the choice of this title for his ninth album, despite the spell of K, perfectly illustrates what he thinks of this vanity fair that is the profession of the artist. It is on the contrary, in the sweetness and the balance that come to settle in the hollow of our ears the nine compositions of the album, which, without being a break with its predecessors nourished by symphony orchestras and strings, stands out in more ways than one. Yet they are there, the strings, luminous and sensitive under the fingers of a quartet made up of Analuna Chahine, Christophe Cravero and the Brunard brothers, but here the winds prevail. Stéphane Chausse, a talented multi-instrumentalist, deploys the majesty of his playing, whether he takes up the clarinet, the flute or the saxophone, or even the Ewi, this “electronic wind controller”. And we are surprised from the first title, to be suspended in the vibration of his clarinet, in unison with a mandolin and a violin.

The surprise comes above all from Tranquilla Moça, a quiet movement which evokes the evidence of love, sung by the Portuguese Salvador Sobral, whose voice, touching mixture of grace and inspiration, slips like a beneficial water on the words of Jenna Thiam, giving to hear what Writing with Water, an aquatic ballad where the guitar flirts with saturation, implies. Khalil Chahine definitely excels in songwriting. This ninth opus confirms what has been going on for many years, the talent of an artist who only delivers his intimacy and his feeling of the world through his music.