Murmures du large | EP (2025)

Traveller and documentary photographer, I set off at the end of 2022 to sail across the Atlantic with three strangers met on Facebook. Thus began over two months and 5,000 nautical miles of saltwater adventures, from Marseille to Martinique.

Aboard a ten-metre sailboat, I was joined by my faithful companions: books to draw inspiration from, a notebook to jot down my own thoughts, my guitar, and my camera. I also recorded the sounds of the sea, shifting with the moods of the barometer. The waves, the gentle splash of water against the hull at anchor, the bow cutting through the ocean on its long route… Inspired by these whispers from the open sea (“Murmures du large” in French), I began composing several guitar pieces.

Upon reaching South America, I was deeply moved by its rivers and its mountains, its melodies and its people. In Cusco, in southern Peru, I came across a requinto, a ten-string guitar used in Andean music, and perfectly suited to the open tunings I love to explore. Back in France, it was on this instrument that I recorded the EP, alongside my friend Baal on cajón, a percussion instrument also of Peruvian origin.

The music also serves as the original soundtrack for A Drop in the Ocean, the audiovisual logbook recounting our Atlantic crossing, exploring slowness, contemplation, and a generation’s concern about the impact of travel on the planet. Currently being submitted to festivals, the film will be released soon (watch trailer).

Download the EP on Bandcamp : https://yannlenzen.bandcamp.com/album/murmures-du-large

Also available on Youtube : https://youtu.be/DnjztaimZYY

Credits:

• All tracks composed by Yann Lenzen, performed by Yann Lenzen (guitar/requinto) and Baal (cajón)
• Tracks 1–4 recorded in Commequiers, France, with Elias Menebhi-Bernard
• Track 5 recorded in Montreal, Quebec, with Olivier Bole
• Mixing & mastering: Elias Menebhi-Bernard