Flamenco guitar without ruffled shirts, Franz Schubert next to a club remix, and Goethe in arabesque melismas, as well as a cover that downright evokes the comparison with Beatles Sgt. Pepper. Who does such a thing, in a time of smoothed surfaces? Two Franco-born guitarists are exploring new ways of the flamenco guitar and are bringing them successfully on the stages of the Republic for years as Caf? del Mundo. The one, Jan Pascal, comes from classical music, the other, Alexander Kilian is not only a jazz guitarist, but has also learned the Panduri from Georgian master Zaza Miminoshvili and is also hailed in Georgia during performances with this three-stringed lute. For both of them, the European idea is not a political theory, but the heart project and lived reality of a young generation. That they dedicate their new album to this idea and call it “Beloved Europe” has resulted in their travels. At a music festival on the Greek refugee island of Samos the parallels to the ancient myth of the “abduction of Europe” came to their mind: “Europe is in danger, even today,” says Jan Pascal. “You just have to replace the bull with potentates, protectionism and nationalism. We all have existential fears in us, but the question has to be how we handle them. To be guided by our fears or by art. The art of loving. The love of art. “For Pascal and Kilian no question. They seek the connection in the music. For four years they unceremoniously gathered what they needed for “Beloved Europe”. Intuitive, curious, open to chance encounters and influences.
