Cyril Cyril release their second album ‘Yallah Mickey Mouse’ for Bongo Joe Records, the Swiss duo combine their talents for a punky, globally influenced fusion of raw and politically-charged songs

Cyril Cyril is made up of two Cyrils and their combining creates a raucous and complex mix of DIY sounds with globally conscious roots. Their second album Yallah Mickey Mouse is raw and rocking – mixing tough plucking and rhythmical patterns and percussion from Lebanon, The Levant and North Africa – with their signature sound carrying over from their previous 2018 long player Certaine Ruines.

Cyril Yeterian is the former singer and accordion player for Swiss, Cajun blues outfit Mama Rosin – a three-piece that “stirred the ghosts of the rogue bayou, the clammy Mardi Gras of some electric Louisiana”, releasing four albums before they went their separate ways in 2015. Yeterian is also one of the owners of Swiss record label, record store and global taste makers Bongo Joe Records. The second Cyril, Cyril Bondi, is a long time key figure on the Swiss experimental music scene and is a founding member of the band Plaistow. In the field of experimental music, he has worked with projects such as Diatribes, La Tène and Komatsu. Bondi leads the Insub Meta Orchestra, a large experimental ensemble of 60 musicians, and is one of the coordinators of the label/collective INSUB.

Recent single from the album Al Boustan is groove laden, swirly and psychedelic, with more electronic and punky infusion, shades of Manchester perhaps, New York underground also. Much of the album is politically charged and reflective, capturing the mood of the times with each heady production. The Cyrils’ knowledge, skill and passion is evident throughout. “Al Boustan looks at how our narcissism and the narrow fascination of ourselves deserve to come up against the unalterable force of the elements that decorate our daily lives,” explains Cyril Yeterian. “The trees will always grow and the moon will rise and set as long as a human eye looks up to the sky. Nevertheless. Against everything. We are many and we are nothing.”

First single from the album Le Gens has proved timely. “The idea of the song was paradoxically born at a moment where we were completely fed up with how extreme tourism had become in both the most popular spots close to us and all around the world,” Yeterian adds. “What turned out really odd is that a few months later, everything was stopped by the covid. And suddenly there was no one in the streets, and we realised our song could be understood as the nostalgia we have about the time we were gathering altogether. So we invite anyone to get this song the way they prefer!”