ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
So what do you get when you mix 1970s funk with the music of Madagascar, Duke Ellington and sprinkle in a bit of Earth, Wind & Fire?
(SOUNDBITE OF MATHIS PICARD'S "FEARLESS")
SCHMITZ: You get "The Sound Orchestra." And the musician behind it...
MATHIS PICARD: Hello. My name is Mathis Picard, and I am a French Malagasy pianist, composer and producer.
SCHMITZ: He says his global sonic fusion is meant to make people dance.
(SOUNDBITE OF MATHIS PICARD'S "FEARLESS")
PICARD: The process and the result of this music is connected to something humans have been doing forever. It's only written by hand, and it's played by human beings. There's no electronics involved.
(SOUNDBITE OF MATHIS PICARD'S "FEARLESS")
PICARD: That's me breathing and feeling the rhythm of the piece while I'm playing it. This is human music, so all the grunts and the breathing and the clicks, we keep it in there because that's what's happening. Humans are playing music.
(SOUNDBITE OF MATHIS PICARD'S "HO AZY")
PICARD: Each song for me is a meditation on what really anchors me in life and what I think truly matters, which is love, nature, and body, mind and soul health.
(SOUNDBITE OF MATHIS PICARD'S "HO AZY")
PICARD: Oh, my sweet mom. I imagine my mother in her native Madagascar when she's a kid, running through the hills with her cousins. And running around, I see the colors of the hills, a very beautiful maroon red and some beautiful palm trees.
(SOUNDBITE OF MATHIS PICARD'S "HO AZY")
SCHMITZ: That was musician Mathis Picard. "The Sound Orchestra" debuted on November 6. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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