Concerts: Electrifying sounds

Beginning March 14, the Francophonic Festival is bringing the hottest acts in global French music to Poland. As part of the Musique Actuelle series, Warsaw, Poznań, Tri-city, Wrocław, Szczecin and Bydgoszcz will host 14 shows featuring the best in world music, rock and pop to cutting-edge electro from artists of French-speaking nations around the globe. Performers include Emilie Simon, Yann Tiersen, Mamani Keita, Marie Warnant, AIWA and Scratch Massive.

Warsaw will host the first and only concert for acclaimed French composer/singer, Emilie Simon. In several cities, Yann Tiersen, best known for his work on the film Amélie, will give performances of multi-instrumental rock-fusion sounds, and Mali's Mamani Keita will delight lovers of West-African rythms with her up-to-date interpretation of world music. On a more contemporary note, Marie Warnant, the rising pop-music star from the Belgian region of Wallonia, will appear in Warsaw, gliding her way through sensual soft rock accompanied by a presentation of short films from talented young directors from France.

The Israeli-French collaboration AIWA, known as the "French Asian Dub Foundation," gives the festival its bite in four performances of a sound that brings traditional folk thundering into the future with its explosive mix of east-meets-west fusion that combines drums, bass, guitars, flutes, vocals and a DJ.

For fans of the Paris club scene, Francophonic also brings in the electro-psychodelic duet Scratch Massive. The group's performance will mark the festival's finale on March 24 in Warsaw.

Ticket prices for this first-ever Polish edition of the Francophonic Festival range from zł.15 to zł.55 for most concerts while a few are free admission.         

For more information, log on to www.francophonic.pl