SHUKAYAKU – EN
SHUKAYAKU
SOUND CLEARINGS – Live music for cultivated and abandoned spaces !
Born out of a deep love for nature and biodiversity, Shukayaku forges an intimate connection with the natural world. From March through November, the trio offers an immersive and poetic experience in the heart of gardens—from the wildest to the most landscaped.
Botanical conservatories, rose gardens, forest gardens, community gardens, winter gardens, Japanese gardens, green rooftops, arboretums, orchards and groves, urban parks, sanctuary gardens, or simple clearings—whether public or private—each garden transforms into a living stage where every element plays a part in the performance.
We are three musicians from diverse backgrounds, all focused on creativity, brought together here by a shared passion: to play for and with nature—insects, birds, and humans—to honor biodiversity through sound, to inspire a way of experiencing nature through listening, all while reinventing our relationship with traditional concert venues. Listening to and respecting each biotope lies at the heart of our approach. We craft an original musical repertoire, adapting to each season, each light, and each ecosystem, while paying particular attention to the venue’s natural acoustics. Music that slips between the bark of oak trees, embraces the breath of the wind, and celebrates abundance and diversity…
Our project is based on a threefold intuition:
- The garden is, by its very nature, a natural stage — acoustically rich, sensorially fertile — a sensitive space for creation and poetry where we resonate and share.
- Life itself is an inexhaustible source of musical inspiration : circadian rhythms, heartbeats, the fluttering of wings, the song of insects, the movement of the wind, and the cycles of flowering are all scores we must learn to listen to.
- Music can create a new form of presence, of attentiveness to others, and of shared engagement with ecology—without preaching or didacticism.
Our musical intentions :
It all begins with listening, with an understanding of our instruments and the many ways to make them sound, and with the desire to interact with one another just as all living beings in nature do. We aim to offer music that is unique in its context and in the quality of the listening experience at that chosen moment. Our freedom of expression and our improvisational practices will give prominence to surprising counterpoints, wild melodies with articulate phrasing, and earthy, shifting rhythms.
Céline RIVOAL : accordion
Christelle SÉRY: electric guitar
Claudia SOLAL : voice
Céline Rivoal
Céline Rivoal broadens her musical horizons through her performances—whether in solo concerts, with small ensembles, or with orchestras (e.g., the Ural Orchestra, conducted by Dimitri Liss; the Radio France Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Fedosseyev).
She has performed at various venues and festivals (Avignon, Jazz à Nevers, Les Folles Journées in Nantes, the Radio France Festival in Montpellier, etc.) and participates in projects involving traditional repertoire, new compositions, and improvisation.
She has had the opportunity to work with composers such as Yves Chauris, Lucien Guérinel, Jean-Yves Bosseur, Christophe Rocher, Jean-François Charles, Ariadna Alsina Torres, Benjamin De la Fuente, Gonzalo Bustos.
For several years now, she has been active in Brittany through her involvement in improvised music, which has allowed her to perform and/or collaborate with Avreeayl Ra, Rob Mazurek, Jean-Luc Capozzo, Michael Zerang, Hélène Labarrière, Jean-Luc Thomas, Joëlle Léandre, Christopher Rocher, Frederic Bargeon-Briet, Isabelle Duthoit, Franz Hautzinger…
She is a member of the musical ensembles Nautilis (which she joined for the creation of Regard de Breizh (Nautilis plays Guy Le Querrec) and Sillages (dir. Gonzalo Bustos), in Brest.
A former student of Max Bonnay, Céline Rivoal holds a teaching certificate in accordion and a research master’s degree in music and musicology focusing on Sofia Gubaidulina’s accordion works: “The Accordion, That Breathing Monster”.
She teaches accordion and musical improvisation at the CRR in Brest. In her accordion classes, she aims to diversify and expand the repertoire; to introduce young students to creativity; and to nurture their imagination and their joy in playing with sounds. When teaching improvisation, she focuses on sound exploration, the musical connections between musicians, and form..
Christelle Séry
An active musician in the field of composition, Christelle Séry blurs the boundaries between her written and oral, acoustic and electric, classical and popular musical practices. A classically trained performer and self-taught improviser, her approach is particularly attuned to the relationship between gesture and timbre.
Renowned for her experience in ensembles (Cairn, Intercontemporain, Accroche-Note, Miroirs étendus, Archipel nocturne), she has also passionately developed a solo career, as evidenced by her albums « Pages acoustiques« , « Ave Golondrina« , and « Pages électriques » (named a “Coup de cœur 2019” by the Académie Charles Cros). Her eclectic and colorful playing style has evolved as she has freely explored the world of French jazz, guided by the people she has met along the way. She performs with Ortie Brûlante alongside Géraldine Keller, the Nautilis Ensemble (led by Christophe Rocher), and the Moger Orchestra.
Her passion for live performance has taken her down paths marked by diverse artistic styles, where musical theater, contemporary jazz, rock, and performance art converge. Notably, she performed for five years in « Dracula » by the Orchestre National de Jazz (Fred Maurin) and is currently appearing in « Cover« , a piece by dancer Maud Pizon, alongside Yuko Oshima and Olivia Scemana.
With Nadoz (meaning “needle” in Breton), a duo with clarinetist Etienne Cabaret, she has created a repertoire inspired by the ancestral functions of music; their album will be released soon. In 2025, she joined the legendary Surnatural Orchestra for new adventures that embrace the unexpected.
“A complete musician” Citizen Jazz
Claudia Solal
An adventurous musician and poet, Claudia Solal was born in France in 1971. She has been writing since she was very young, in both French and English. She is best known for her extensive performances on the French and international jazz and improvised music scenes. Her diverse heritage (Algeria, Scotland, Russia), her unique collaborations, and her wide-ranging artistic experiences have played a major role in the development of a singular artistic language, blending written material with improvised songs. After setting the works of Dickinson, Wilde, Shakespeare, and Joyce to music, she immersed herself in writing her own lyrics and began receiving commissions for pieces from other composers (Bernard Struber, Christophe Rocher, and others). Her first collection of poems, « Printemps Interdit« , was published in 2022.
Following her highly acclaimed debut albums— »Butter in My Brain« , hailed as a masterpiece by « Le Monde », and « Punk Moon » in 2025, a duo project with Benjamin Moussay—she received a resounding reception (4F Télérama). In 2020, « Hopetown » (CHOC Jazzmagazine) marked the continuation of her collaboration with Benoit Delbecq, which began in Chicago in 2015. She currently performs in a trio with Didier Petit and Philippe Foch (Les Ferrailleurs du ciel—2018 Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros / tours in Mexico, China, Korea, the Baltic States, Finland…), with Françoise Toullec (La Banquise), Christophe Rocher (Ensemble Nautilis), and in a trio with Jean-Charles Richard and Marc Copland. “Cérémonie de thé”, a new trio with Hasse Poulsen and Simon Drappier, was formed in 2024.
Claudia Solal has also been actively involved in teaching voice and improvisation (workshops, master classes) since 1998. She taught at the CRR in Strasbourg from 2005 to 2024 and currently works at the PSPBB (Paris). Starting in September 2025, she will teach at the École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot.
« A total artist—playful, embodied, theatrical—constantly striving to give meaning to sound ». Jazzmagazine
« Solal has a voice made for poetry. She could be James Joyce’s daughter. ». Télérama
