Simon Sandoz’s path
Born December 14th 1992, Simon grows up in Geneva in a neighbourhood called Les Grottes, known for its alternative / counter-culture mindset. At already twelve years old, alongside his school friends Mathias Liengme and Raphael Real, Simon creates a reggae band named Positiv. The small band evolves and gets bigger with the addition of the very talented drummer Noé Tavelli, the lovely voice of Lorraine Dinkel and the basses of Arthur Jacot and then Primo Viviani. Under that composition, Positiv starts to build a fine reputation, playing throughout different key venues in Geneva. Years passing, the gained experience allows Positiv to collaborate with famous and well-established artists such as Al Campbell, Ranking Joe, Dawn Penn or Errol Organs. Meeting the legendary drummer Leroy « Horsemouth » Wallace, Studio One reggae beats pioneer, particularly leaves a mark on the young musicians.
Their first album, « Never Know », is released in June 2013 following two years of intensive work. A few months later, the band is forced to split as many of its members leave Geneva in order to carry on with their studies.
Simon Sandoz, « General Sandoz » from now on, seizes the opportunity to work on a solo project: the creation of an album made of four different types of music, oscillating between soul, reggae, dub and hip-hop, entitled Many Moods.
Many Moods:
The new album of General Sandoz is of an original concept. It is divided in 4 distinct parts, each of them being linked to a specific style. Not wishing to choose among his fondness for reggae, soul, hip-hop and dub, the young musician decides to pay tribute to all of them. Thus, the album contains 4 tracks of each kind, being sixteen tracks!
For his first studio session, Simon surrounds himself again with the legendary drummer Leroy « Horsemouth » Wallace and M. Liengme & P. Viviani, his faithful acolytes who, in the meantime, created the duo « Primate ». This collaboration leads to a Roots and Rocksteady tainted reggae.
The four tracks of the second part highlight soul music. Former Positiv member, guitar player Raphael Real along with his father-drummer Hervé Provini and C.J. Nicholson on the bass (a trio called The Reals) bring their psychedelic influence to the soul compositions of General Sandoz.
Following that soul thing, we enter the realm of Hip-Hop made of electronic drum and efficient samples. Simon Sandoz’ conscious and technical rap is majestically cadenced by the beats of another good friend from the neighbourhood, Antoine Marin, part of the collective called SAJ Prod. In this third chapter of Many Moods, the atmosphere is mind-blowing and the words striking.
At last, this project brings us back to the musicality of Jamaican culture. The reggae tracks of the first part are revisited in order to offer us original and dancing dub versions of them. These tracks are mixed in an analog mode by Till Girardier (Stone Lab.), member of the Bassement collective of Djs.
The outcome of this collaboration will delight, without a doubt, all the rub a dub style lovers. Old style.
A surprise adds itself to this session: the mix of a soul song matching dub and soul as a potty ingenuity touch to the album.
The whole album has been recorded at Evidence Music Studio by Nicolas Meury (Little Lion Sound). Produced by Evidence Music.
To conclude, General Sandoz offers an album made in a collective and local way, full of friendships and talents built over the years around the same, multicultural and unique neighbourhood in Geneva called Les Grottes. Many Moods is an achieved, sharp and thorough project, which will delight the lovers of diversity.
