Stephane Wremble @ The Press Room

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Rolling Stone Magazine has called him "a revelation". Woody Allen recruited him to score the theme for the smash film "Midnight in Paris", and he performed the irresistibly catchy original song, "Bistro Fada", live during the 2012 Academy Awards. He has headlined at Lincoln Center, played major festivals, recorded with mandolin legend David Grisman, toured with master violinist Mark O'Connor and shared stages with everyone from Elvis Costello to Patti Smith to The Roots. The Gitane guitar company has even named a model after him. To say that Stephane Wrembel— who learned his craft among the Gypsies at campsites in the French countryside— has already had a remarkable career would be an under-statement. This virtuoso guitarist from France has truly just begun to make his mark as one of the most original guitar voices in contemporary music. 

This September, Wrembel delivered Dreamers of Dreams, his highly anticipated seventh studio album, recorded outside of New York City, where he has called home for over ten years. The album, which Wrembel recorded with his band—bassist Dave Speranza, rhythm guitarist Roy Williams, and drummer Nick Anderson—finds the multifaceted musician corralling a myriad of influences into a hybrid that simultaneously reflects where he has been, and points to where he is headed. Although he built his reputation as a stylist in the mode of the iconic French Sinti guitarist Django Reinhardt, Wrembel now revels in transcending and expanding. "I'm digging deeper and deeper into my roots," he says about the album. 

Born in Paris and raised in Fontainebleau, the home of Impressionism and Django, Wrembel first studied classical piano, at the age of four. "My teacher played with many renowned musicians," he says. "She was very old school but she taught me how to interpret and how to make a phrase from beginning to end. My entire classical training from ages 4 to 16 was about how to interpret." In his mid-teens, Wrembel discovered that he had an affinity for guitar. "I started practicing very intensely," he says. "I was a big Pink Floyd fan; that remains my favorite music. I spent hours learning David Gilmour's style. When I was 17, I decided to become a professional musician. I knew I had to practice 18 hours a day, and after I got my high school diploma I decided that was what I was going to do. I had a classical background, a passion for rock music, and then I found out about Django. I fell in love with the very strong impressionist feel in his music." 

To further his knowledge of music overall, and to gain experience, Wrembel immersed himself in the Gypsy culture. "When I first started going to the camps I learned that music is not only the notes," he says. "There is an atmosphere to it. By going there I started learning the atmosphere of what it really means to play Sinti style guitar. In the camps you play all day long, nonstop. You don't learn technical things. The culture doesn't use names for things; they just practice melody. By playing and playing and playing you become entranced. The music just comes by itself."