Solah (previously ‘Jesus is my son’) is the contemplative solo project by the experimental guitarist Grégory Duby.

From experimental noise to silence

Grégory Duby is a guitarist active in the field of noisy and improvised music, living and composing in Brussels, Belgium. During 10 years, he played in the noise rock trio k-branding. Thereafter he formed the experimental band Zoho (with Aymeric de Tapol, Arnaud Paquotte and Benjamain Chaval). He has played with experimental musicians such as Olivier Toulemonde and Ben Bertrand. In his solo project Solah, he emphasizes with his electric guitar the silence within melodies.  Beside his activities as a musician, he owns the label FF HHH and manages with two friends Mandaï Distribution, an international independent distributor of alternative music.

Undress the music to its essence

The project Solah contains elements of minimalism, folk music and contemporary music, as well as compositions based on ambient, oriental and medieval music. Aspiring to create melancholic and naked music, Grégory Duby’s influences range from Erik Satie to Derek Bailey via Popol Vuh and Lorren Connors. Solah invites the audience to listen contemplatively to the electric guitar.

First releases under the name Solah

“Toujours sans espoir” was released in September 2020 following the invitation of Diana Duta to record in her studio ‘Jambes’. For the first time, the songs were recorded on a folk guitar.  The album mixes arabic track as Uskudaren (a free interpretation of the Turkish song), Blues du dix-quatre-vingts (a bluesy vision of Maqam Bayat) and some improvisations.

The 31st January 2021, Solah recorded four free improvisations. The same day, the tracks were mixed, mastered, then released on the label TACOM and finally the unique copy was sold.

Love trilogy

[under the former name ‘Jesus Is My Son’]

“Tout a une fin (même l’amour)” (Engl.: Everything has an end and so has love; released by Cheap Satanism Records) is the 4th album by Jesus Is My Son. It marks the end of a trilogy about love which started in 2016 with the LP “SOLAH#2” (SOLAH meaning “Songs Of Love And Heat”, released by ini.itu). This first part was dedicated to the themes deception and searching the love. “Faust et l’Enfer de Dante” (Engl.: Faust and the Dante’s inferno), the second part of the trilogy was released in 2017 by Cheap Satanism Records. The themes centered on love in progression, doubts and promises.

“Tout a une fin (même l’amour)” tries to find a balance between the fact that on the one hand, each love story is limited and on the other hand, love is eternal. The album addresses the solitude that exists inside a romantic relationship, the ignorance of tomorrow, and the fear of its ending. It accentuates that love incorporates also lightness thanks to the innocent trust in love.

In parallel of “Tout a une fin (même l’amour)”, Jesus is my son releases a 7 inches on Lexi Disques composing of 2 lighter songs. Peaceful and tense on ‘Innocence’ with its clear melody and natural harmonics and with an arabian feel and detachment on ‘Insouciance’.

The beginning

The first release of Jesus is my son is the 4-title ‘Sacrifice Odieux’. The music of this EP is hot, suffocating, slow and desertic. April 2010, the album ‘Je suis Dieux’ is issued. With this second release, Jesus is my son’s music becomes more mystic, more aggressive, more distorded. The sound and the themes are close to Olivier Messiaen’s church organ music.

In February 2012, the second full album named ‘1914-1918’ is released. The subject of the album is the great war. This album is not about battles or politics. The scope of the album is outside the action. It relates the lifes of the soldiers between battles, the survival in the trenches, the fear to disappear. It tells also about decimated families, about the long silences before the fights. With this album the war is told through its non-events and gives it its real dramatic meaning.

In March 2015 and 9 years after the first EP: ‘Sacrifices Odieux’. the album is re-recorded and 6 extra tracks are added. The new songs were composed during the years following the 4-titles. Some tracks were finalized quite quick, some others were re-worked from time to time until now. This release as the 4-titles is an album of contemplation. An heavy, minimal and sweet album.