Absent from the recording front since his 1996 album Tout reste à dire, Georges Moustaki has made an acclaimed comeback with a new album simply entitled Moustaki. The album, recently released on the Virgin label, finds Moustaki experimenting with new inspiration but never straying far from his musical roots. Highlights include a studio version of Moustaki's very first song Gardez vos rêves (which he wrote over forty years ago and has been singing live in concert for many years) and his own version of Milord (the first recording Moustaki has ever made of the song he wrote for Edith Piaf and which first made his name). This track features modestly at the end of the album, added on as a secret 'ghost track' that is not listed on the album cover. For the first time in his career Moustaki has chosen to work with celebrated French arranger and conductor Jean-Claude Vannier (famous for his work on Serge Gainsbourg's album Melody Nelson and Michel Jonasz's Super Nana).

RFI Musique : How did you end up working with Jean-Claude Vannier on your new album?
Georges MOUSTAKI :  Well, Jean-Claude and I had only actually met one another three times in thirty years - and the third time was when I asked him to do this album with me! Jean-Claude was my own personal choice for this album. My whole life I've only worked with people I really like and respect. What happened was a few years ago my favourite orchestra conductor, a guy I'd made a lot of albums with, passed away. After that I went on to make an album with François Rauber. But when it came to making the new one François already had a really hectic schedule and I felt like drawing on a new source of inspiration for a change. That job fell to Jean-Claude Vannier who brought his own special talents with him.

Despite the fact that your new album features some very sophisticated arrangements I believe you only spent a few weeks in the recording studio…
Things worked exactly the same way as with François Rauber, the guy I made my last album with. Jean-Claude isn't the kind of person who sits in a recording session trying to pull rabbits out of hats. By the time we go into the studio everything's already noted down on paper and all you have to do is shout "three, four" and you're away! Jean-Claude's done all the work beforehand, sitting down with a pen and paper and going through all the ideas in his head. He gave me a bit of guidance with the vocals, too. It wasn't exactly advice or orders, just very precise, professional guidance which he suggested in a friendly, brotherly way.

You've had a very impressive career to date working with a whole host of stars including Edith Piaf, Barbara, Serge Reggiani, Vinicius de Moraes, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Astor Piazzolla, Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hadjidakis…
That's not something I sit down and plan beforehand, you know. It's simply a question of certain circumstances having led me to work with certain people I find really interesting. That's just the way things have worked out. Just before I went out to Latin America, for instance, I discovered Astor Piazzolla. I loved his music and the whole time I was out in Argentina, travelling round on tour, I tried to find people who knew him or knew where I could find him so we could hook up. Well, I met a lot of people in Argentina including Che Guevara's father, but I never found a friend of Piazzolla's. Anyway, after Argentina I headed off to Rio de Janeiro. And there I was sitting in my hotel having breakfast one morning when someone came up to my table and said, "Hi, I'd love to meet you. I'm Astor Piazzolla!"
I've had a great life. I've been lucky enough to write about subjects that really

You're now a major figure on the French music scene and you've lived in Paris for many, many years. Do you still feel Egyptian?
Yes, I do. Egypt's anchored deeply within me and makes its presence felt all the time. If anything, I think my connection to Egypt gets stronger all the time. I don't do it deliberately in a conscious kind of way but every time I open a newspaper I go straight to the Middle East section. I've got this cook who comes from Cape Verde and she's picked up a few Egyptian recipes from my mother so that keeps me happy. And I haven't just remembered my Arabic, I've even got a bit better over the years - I suppose because of this deep connection and affection I feel for Egypt.

But with time, though, don't you think events from youth tend to fade from the memory a bit?
No, I don't think that's possible. Not in my case anyway. I started playing this little game with myself a few years ago, actually. The game consists of remembering the names of all the pupils in all the different classes I was in at school. And I'm proud to say I've managed to remember a surprising number of them, in fact! It's funny, but I remember going back to Alexandria many years after I left to do a concert at the French Cultural Centre and someone pointed out the restaurant where we were going to have dinner after the show. Well, I had no problem finding my way there, I can tell you. I could still find my way down the back alleys. I hadn't forgotten anything!
I remember as a teenager picking up a book in my father's library in Alexandria. It was a book by Roger Ikor called Les Eaux mêlées (which won the Prix Goncourt in 1955). That book made a great impression on me. It's about this immigrant from Eastern Europe who goes to France and totally fits in over there. He becomes French, starts a family and brings his kids up according to French culture. But as time goes by he becomes increasingly nostalgic about his homeland, to the point where he starts trying to get back the accent he'd done everything to lose when he first arrived in France.

Is that a likely outcome in your eyes?
Well, it seems perfectly normal to me. It obviously depends on the length of time you spent in your homeland, though. In my case I was Egyptian for eighteen years before going anywhere else. And I have to say I cultivate my relationship to Egypt with great affection. I always get a real buzz plunging back into a Middle Eastern atmosphere!

Unlike Brazil and the Middle East, Africa doesn't seem to feature too often in your songs…
But my trip to Africa was a really important moment in my life. Musically speaking that trip really made me sit up and open my eyes! But the songs inspired by that trip, which used a lot of African rhythms, didn't go down too well with the record-buying public. I guess that's why they don't figure in a list of my most memorable songs. I've spent so much of my career moving round from place to place... It's not something I've ever done deliberately but for a long time it became almost routine for me to keep changing continents, countries and towns and swapping between different instruments and languages!