Couturier, Francois - Un jour si blanc
Toimitusaika: Noin 7 - 14 arkipäivää
For François Couturier "Un jour si blanc" is the second volume in a planned trilogy, and an extension of the earlier "Nostalghia", which was dedicated to filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. The highly poetic approach - both in the playing itself and in the referential and allusive conception - is evident in this solo piano album. This first solo disc from the French pianist is also a richly creative contribution to the unaccompanied piano genre established at ECM. Couturier now joins the distinguished list of pianists who have recorded solo for the label - including Chick Corea, Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett, Marilyn Crispell, and Stefano Bollani. The new album's starting point was a poem by Andrei Tarkovsky's father, Arseni Tarkovsky, which gives the disk its title. After this, the recording opens up associatively, making improvisational interconnections. "I wanted to pay tribute to some great artists I particularly like", says Couturier. These include Johann Sebastian Bach, Arthur Rimbaud, the painters of the Blaue Reiter group, Claude Debussy, Franz Schubert, Toru Takemitsu, Joan Miro, and more. Couturier addresses the range of his enthusiasms on the piece "Lune de miel" which quotes liberally from "I fall in love too easily". But if standard jazz is a component of this disc it is filtered through the focus of a player steeped in the European tradition, a player who can access the history of classical music and contemporary composition. A real sense for structure is apparent, even when Couturier is in full improvisational flow. François Couturier first recorded for ECM with the Tunisian oud player Anouar Brahem on the pan-cultural album "Khomsa" in 1994, subsequently becoming a member of Brahem's highly popular trio documented on the recordings "Le pas du chat noir"(2001) and "Le voyage de Sahar" (2005). He also recorded in duo with the violinist Dominique Pifarély (album "Poros", 1997). "Nostalghia: Song for Tarkovsky", recorded in 2005, brought Couturier's music to a new audience. The disc was also warmly received by the international press. The Irish times wrote: "Composer and pianist Couturier evokes the emotional and spiritual climate of Tarkovsky's films. Mixing classical rigour with improvisation, both formal and free, what emerges is austerely beautiful, etched in sombre hues that are redolent of an unslakeable thirst to connect with a deeper well of the spirit, one that may be felt but never quite known."