Peemaï
Peemaï
“Experiencing a Peemaï concert means letting your ears travel to places they don’t expect.”
Open Jazz / France Musique – Alex Dutilh
Peemaï draws its roots as much from the traditional music of Southeast Asia – from Laos to Indonesia – as from the energy of urban cultures that inspire its four musicians. Their music, free and without borders, blends hypnotic rhythms, catchy melodies, and reinvented traditional chants, with joyful audacity and refined improvisation. Each concert is a living, generous experience, carried by a powerful groove and jubilant complicity.
Molam (the rural blues of Laos) meets electronic grooves and rock textures; the pulsations of Javanese gamelan rub up against sounds evoking Hendrix or Coltrane. Peemaï invents a singular musical fusion, at the crossroads of Asian music, jazz, rock, and electronic sounds.
Formed in 2016 at the Scène Nationale de Sète, Peemaï gave its first concert at the Vientiane Jazz Festival in Laos and followed up with a Southeast Asian tour.
In 2017, enriched by their experiences and a collaboration with Laotian musicians, Gilles Coronado replaced David Vilayleck and Peemaï released its first eponymous album, co-produced by Shreds Records and Collectif Koa, distributed by L’Autre Distribution, and met with great success (FFF Télérama, ÉLU Citizen, Jazz News Album of the Month).
A true globe-trotting band, Peemaï has a genuine affection for touring in Asia, having performed there in 2016, 2019, 2022, and soon in 2025, in Laos, Cambodia, China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore—affirming both its international reach and its constant desire to merge aesthetics and cultures.
This project was created with the support of the OcciJazz creation/residency program.
In pictures
Press review
TELERAMA – JANUARY 2018
” […] the inventive groove constantly takes us by surprise, whether it’s with a soaring brassy drop, gnawa karkabous or raging trip-hop rap. “
Anne Berthod
JAZZNEWS MAG – DECEMBER 2017
” […] and their first album a real energizing candy with almost infinite flavors. “
Mathieu Durand
OPEN JAZZ/FRANCE MUSIQUE – APRIL 2017
” To experience a Peemaï concert is to make your ears travel where they don’t expect to. […] The miracle is a collective sound. Very unusual and nicely insolent. “
Alex Dutilh
