New Releases
Sylvain Rifflet - Beaux-Arts
Label: Sans Bruit
Release date: February 01, 2012
After several years playing with Rockingchair («1:1»/ENJA-2010) saxophonist, clarinettist and composer Sylvain Rifflet now presents his first solo project. An unusual, variable arrangement for trio with guitar and string quartet. «Beaux-arts» is a free exploration of the relationships between music and the other arts at the crossroads between jazz, rock and contemporary music.
La Caravane Passe - ROADBOOK
Label: Echo Echo
Distribution in France: L'Autre Distribution
Release date: November 07, 2011
ROADBOOK is a double album which includes a re-release of their previous album « Ahora in da Futur» and on the second cd, a live recordings and four remixes by DJ Click, Tom Fire, La Caravane Passe and Sayag Jazz Machine.
With “Ahora in da Futur”, directed by Camille Ballon (No One is Innocent, Java, etc.) the group has taken a few clandestine travelers on board: Rachid Taha, R.Wan, Erika Serre, Marko Markovic, La fanfare Ziveli – a bright and varied bunch ready to embark for another journey into a multi-coloured neverland.
Mathis Haug - Playing my Dues
Label: Dixiefrog
Distribution in France: Harmonia Mundi
Release date: October 27, 2011
With his new release, Mathis Haug finally delivers his first album under his own name. At age 35, this composer and musician of French and German origins returns to the roots of his inspiration: folk and blues. “Playing my Dues” contains 10 subtle songs and confirms the musical inventiveness of this artist. The minimalism of the arrangements leaves space for a voice with a very particular colour, which touches the heart and soul from the very start. This album evoke the melancholy, the complexity of love, and life as a daily and a fundamental experience; all of this on a foundation of airy acoustic guitars, of gentle slide themes, of a sparse but efficient acoustic bass and of subtle rhythms.
Kip Hanrahan - At home in Anger
Label: American Clavé/YellowBird
Distribution in France: Harmonia Mundi
Release date: October 01, 2011
For more than thirty years now Kip Hanrahan, musician, producer, and creator of the label American Clavé, has been exploring old connections and new ways of developing Latin Jazz. The results are legendary: unusual, multi-layered music, played by outstanding musicians. No doubt, the man knows about traditions, but he questions them and transforms them with determination.
Hanrahan, the son of Irish and Russian Jews, grew up in the New York Bronx – the quarter of Hispanos, Italians and Irish immigrants – his young years provided him with the ideal basis for a convincing, completely original musical symbiosis, coming from the heart, without concessions and sometimes grating – and always passionate.
Amongst the collaborators for this , his 13th album, dealing with human suppression and marginalization, we find old musician friends Steve Swallow, Milton Cardona, Alfredo Triff, Fernando Saunders, Don Byron, Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez and many more.
Kenny Werner - The Institute of Higher Learning
Label: Halfnote
Distribution in France: Naïve
Release date: October 01, 2011
Following his solo recording released by French label OutNote, Kenny Werner once more with his favourite big band: The Brussels Jazz Orchestra
Long regarded as one of Europe’s premier big bands – a group that “manifests love,” according to Grammy-winning arranger Maria Schneider – The Brussels Jazz Orchestra has joined hands with Kenny Werner to create a winning ”tableau vivant” of spirited writing and performance. The Institute of Higher Learning features a sumptuous 3-part suite, “Cantabile”, that reinforces Werner’s place among forward-thinking jazzmen in a singular way. Textural, rhythmic, evincing cascading swirls of color, it was inspired by Bob Brookmeyer and is dedicated to him.
Pierrick Pédron - Cheerleaders
Label: ACT
Distribution in France: Harmonia Mundi
Release date: September 29, 2011
Nine dreams of a cheerleader are set to music on the album, each telling a different story, sometimes rather simply and concentrating on the melody, sometimes in a very expressionistic and dreamy manner – the various tracks depict nightmares, fantasies and memories, evoking different emotions for each. The only cover song of the album is “Miss Falk’s Dog” – a theme by Henry Mancini that captivated Pédron ever since he heard it on the soundtrack of an episode of the TV series “Colombo”.
Fatoumata Diawara - Fatou
Label: World Circuit
Distribution in France: Harmonia Mundi
Release date: September 29, 2011
Fatoumata Diawara has packed a lot of experience into her 28 years. Amongst other projects, she starred in Cheikh Oumar Sissoko’s film ‘La Genese’. Moving to Paris in her early twenties she spent six years touring internationally with the theatre troupe Royal de Luxe, going on to star in the musical ‘Kirikou et Karaba’, while recording and touring with Oumou Sangare and writing her own film script. All of which has fuelled her passion to develop her own music, composing, arranging and playing her own material, blending Wassalou traditions and wider influences into a spacious acoustic environment where the warm tones of her voice can glide and shine.
Balkan Brass Battle - Balkan Brass Battle
Label: Asphalt Tango Records
Distribution in France: L'Autre Distribution
Release date: September 12, 2011
Prepare yourself: here comes the heavy, heavy monster sound! From the wild, wild East – Romania & Serbia – the two foremost Gypsy brass bands are taking the stage to see who blows hottest and hardest. There’s gonna be a showdown! For the first time ever, Fanfare Ciocarlia and Boban & Marko Markovic are taking the stage together. Neither act is willing to play support. So both bands will be on stage at the same time, getting their game on and going toe-to-toe. A sound clash? More like a Battle Royal! The Gypsies are ready to get into the ring! Following the great tradition of brass battles from the Balkans to New Orleans, this fraternal brawl will determine who is King!
Denis Colin - Subject to Live
Label: Chant du Monde
Distribution in France: Harmonia Mundi
Release date: September 08, 2011
With his new formation, la Société des Arpenteurs (Sound Purveyors), Denis Colin seems to be at ease just as much in the groovy titles as on more sombre, often haunting pieces. The group has just been on tour , playing with guest artists Jacques Schwarz-Bart and Philippe Sellam, amongst others. Denis Colin has also brought other great artists into this new group, including Benjamin Moussay on Fender Rhodes and Julien Ormé on guitar, as well as a terrific brass section. Improvisation, dialogue, cohesion, the obvious desire to create together, as a group, are obvious in these concert recordings. La Société taps into the groove of “great black music” to offer compositions that blow across the French jazz scene like a diabolically stirring wind. A unifying project and a superb album that retraces the best moments recorded live during the tour.
Ping Machine - Des Trucs Pareils
Label: Neuklang
Distribution in France: Codaex
Release date: September 01, 2011
With its third album, the big band (14 musicians) continues its quest for the creation of a variety of original genres; for modernity and maturity. In his new compostions, Fred Maurin favors a poetic musical architecture and contrasts, highlighting the links between jazz and popular music on the one hand and contempory music on the other. In this ongoing research, Ping Machine enjoys pushing the rules : melodic and harmonic explorations, use of spectral techniques of writing, microtonal or serial development, confrontations of blocks of sound, interweaving of writing and improvisations, in order to project the listener into real image sequences, a sound conducive to create an escape from the predictable.
Harold Budd - Nighthawks
Label: Edsel Records
Release date: July 20, 2011
Harold Budd, American pianist and poet and English artist John Foxx (ex. Ultravox, an adventurous musician, writer and photographer) have recorded a new album called “Nighthawks” featuring Ruben Garcia, now on release in the UK by Edsel Records… This has been packaged as part of a three disc set that also includes Budd’s and Foxx’ “Translucence + Drift Music”. Originally released as a double album and strongly influenced by the Budd, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois collaboration “The Pearl”, “Translucence + Drift Music” is one of the very great existing ambient albums. It was completely remastered for the reissue.
Baba Zula - Gecekondu
Label: Essay Recordings/Doublemoon
Distribution in France: La Baleine
Release date: July 15, 2011
For their latest masterpiece, Baba Zula have brought on board some truly inspirational artists such as Asian Dub Foundation co-founder Dr. Das, Nu Jazz mastermind Bugge Wesseltoft and other magnificent guest musicians including Titi Robin. They built their “gecekondus” (literally : overnight constructions, built without permission) – under the cover of darkness and, by the break of dawn, they had become part of the city map. Their approach is reflected in their choice of instruments: traditional instruments, both archaic and electric, are coupled with electronic sampling. The result is an emotionally charged journey into the very specific world of the gecekondu – a world supposedly void of any intrinsic culture… The masters of psychedelic folk have created a trance album in which they express their vision of the fragmentation of urban existence.
Brian Eno - Drums Between the Bells
Label: Warp
Distribution in France: differ-ant
Release date: June 20, 2011
The new album resulted from a collaboration between Eno and Rick Holland, a poet who wrote the lyrics to Drums Between the Bells.
Eno has always found great inspiration working with other big thinkers: His long, influential career as an artist, musician and record producer has seen him team up with the top names in rock and pop, including David Byrne, U2, Daniel Lanois, David Bowie and Robert Fripp and most recently, . (Eno’s last album, 2010’s acclaimed Small Craft on a Milk Sea, was collaboration with musicians Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams.). Under all the talking lies a tapestry of pillowy synths, minor-key melodies, chiming guitars, skittering drums and the other sonic touches that define all of Eno’s recent work. The man has a sound — you can spot an Eno track, or at least a very good imitation, with a simple taste of the ingredients. His is a well-defined palette, and one that works.
