Music Festival at Enghien-les-Bains

Text: Nick Forrester

The up market Parisian suburb of Enghien-les-Bains, on Lake Enghien, is famous for its smart Spa resorts, hotels and its spectacular lakeside casino. This July however, there is more to this leafy suburb than a expensive turn of the roulette wheel and astronomically priced drinks. Two festivals will be gracing the area offering a range of arts, international music and Jazz.

The Centre des Arts Enghien-les-Bains is only a short train ride from Gare du Nord and it is holding an arts festival between the 12th and 19th July. The Bains Numériques # 5 is a free, week-long festival of performances and installations which explore the relationship between the physical and digital world.

There are 24 performances all situated in or around the Arts Centre. On the music front there are big-name French DJ's Yuksek, Laurent Garnier and Rubin Steiner with his new 2010 project Rubin Steiner and the Simple Machines. There is also Berlin project Moderat, touring after the release of their 2009 album by the same name. They play mellow electronica with echoing vocals and seem to be the most down-tempo musical outfit at the festival.

There are also a number of dance and video performances which aim to blend the physical and digital worlds. Taiwanese production, Ville Aliénée by Lee Pei-Ling focuses on the stress involved with using everyday technology, and is displayed through an illuminated multimedia dance performance. Elsewhere Cinematique by Compagnie Adrien M, a performance that places humans in a digital landscape, one that we are perhaps surprised and reluctant to accept as a bountiful imaginative source.

Digital Village on the 17, 18 and 19th July which has 10 stands presenting the works of universities and research laboratories in an effort to support those institutions which lack the facilities and creative tools to use digital technology. The different stalls aim to create a visual or physical realization of the digital world, be it in a 3D virtual environment or a race track combining the 3D and physical worlds.

With all of this going on, one could be forgiven for forgetting the Enghien Jazz Festival, which runs from 29th June to 4th July. This will be a slightly more glamorous occasion than the arts festival, organized by Lucien Barrière hotel group. It takes place in the Casino's performance theatre and the outdoor stages shared with Numériques # 5. 

French Jazz musician André Manoukian is opening up the festival on the 29th. Manoukian appeared brandishing his new, tritely titled, album So In Love, on France 2's 'On n'est pas couché'.  Robin McKelle and Fred Wesley, the Funkiest Trombone Player ever, will offer some lively jazz and will combine to make an interesting vocal and trombone double, (with an accompaniment of sax, drums, bass and piano). There are also the likes of Ben L'Oncle Soul, offering some more regular indie sounds, and the sensual voice of Patricia Barber. For a look at the rest of the program see the website.