In 2006 I was invited to a cittern weekend in Corte, Corsica, and it was there that I met Henri Agnel, who invited me to play with his company in Marseille, so in 2007 I packed once again and moved to France. I also met my dear friend Damien Delgrossi during that weekend in Corte, and he was instrumental in putting me in touch with the best Corsican musicians - see the Corsica and Ange Lanzalavi galleries for photos from that part of my journey in France and Corsica.
Early on in my French soujourn I met French-Canadian piper, singer and raconteur Robert Amyot MacKinnon. It is to my great regret that I don’t have any pictures of our time together. We worked a lot and became great friends as well. Who knows - maybe some photos besides our work with Góntia in Corsica will surface.
I worked a lot in France, Germany and elsewhere during these years - here are a few of my fondest memories from that time.
My dear friend Ian Chisholm has supplied me with top-quality instruments for decades. As I was getting the Góntia project together in the late 00s, I commissioned a baritone cittern from him, which he built in 2009, and I collected in spring 2010. Here I am trying it out in public for the first time at The Royal Oak in Lewes, Sussex, where I also happily reconnected with Dan Quinn!
with Pedro Caldeira Cabral, whom I had met back in London, playing an impromtu duet in Suhl, Germany, 2011
Rocking in Germany, 2011
Pigna Auditorium, Corsica 2012
My dear friend and colleague Oleg Timofeyev invited me to play at his guitar festival, which at that time was in Iowa. 2012
with Oleg Timofeyev, Iowa City, 2012
with Julien Coulon, 2012 ©JacquesMaton
with Pedro Caldeira Cabral in the Rokokosaal der Regierung von Schwaben, 2013
Guitarra et Cetera, with Oleg Timofeyev, Germany, 2013
Góntia Mk III with Séb Benoit and Christophe Tellart, 2014
on tour in Manchester, 2014
with Sébastien Benoit, 2014
a concert in Corsica, after I had gone back to live in France, 2015
At the Coimbra Library with David Wyn Lloyd and members of the Coimbra Orchestra, 2015
Guitarra et Cetera, with Oleg Timofeyev, 2015
Rudolstadt, 2015
Rudolstadt, 2015
with Tiarán Ó Duinnchinn, 2015
Solo Concert, Windros Festival, 2016
Solo Concert, Windros Festival, 2016
Windros Orchestra with Jitka Šuranská, 2016
Windros Orchestra with Naraa Naranbaatar, Jitka Šuranská and Mattis Kleppen, 2016
Windros Orchestra 2016
still fingerpicking, 2018