Raphaël Imbert bases his reflection on his own experience as a resident of a village in Haute Provence, Oraison, which is the only village in France to have given its streets the names of soldiers who died in combat during the Great War, or in an act of resistance during the Second World War. The name ‘Oraison’ is thought to have Provençal origins and to mean ‘the place where the wind blows’. Where the spirit blows!

Oraison, a series of original compositions which take the form of a textless secular oratorio, is an opportunity for Raphaël Imbert to propose a spiritual and narrative journey with a precise plan, a series of evocative portraits, a different way of remembering, a means of living and reliving through a memory enriched by creation. A deep and communicative emotion that can flower to the full in the ‘classical’ quartet format of sax, piano, double bass and drums.