Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Alban Darche: L’OrphiCube
Alban Darche: L’OrphiCube
ByThe free-spirited Darche drew inspiration for this project from cubist painter Robert Delaunay, who wanted to reflect the light impressions of the sun and the moon on his lyrical chromatic paints on canvas. In the same manner, Darche attempts to capture immediate acoustic memories embedded in the consciousness, transforming them into an imaginary soundtrack of life. Darche calls this project an orchestra in variable geometrysix musicians structuring the complex architecture of each composition and solidifying its strength, while three other musicians add colors and shades to the composed blocks of music. Their roles change with each composition, adding new perspectives and accumulative insights to a set of carefully structured compositions. At first look (or first listen), the overall colors are revealed but with repeated listening, watching or even readings into the compositions, other layers and subtleties are stressed, such as the specific movement or the aesthetic references, gaining a new, more detailed, light.
Most of the musicians in this project took part in Drache's recent Le Gros Cube homage to the British megalomaniac band Queen, Queen Bishop (Yolk, 2013). Darche and the other eight musicians' vocabulary encompasses elements of chamber jazz, contemporary music, popular chanson songs and even art rock, but with a distinct, timeless style of their own. Darche's compositions are as multilayered as a cubist painting but more dramaticsometimes even theatricaltheir stories exposed by a number of narrators, each stressing a different perspective as well as the varied colors and timbres of each instrument, all structuring their tension and ultimate release in a masterful manner. Often, on compositions like "tbbm" or "Pour mieux rebondir," Darche emphasizes a playful interplay that adds another dimension to the choir of voices. All the compositions add and expand former themes and are developed as a long suite.
Masterful: a beautiful masterpiece.
Track Listing
4 brothers; tbbm; La Martipontine; Le Triangle du Douboto; Une chanson pour François; Pour mieux rebondir; Les Parapluies; Codex etc; Requiem.
Personnel
Alban Darche
saxophone, tenorAlban Darche: saxophone alto; Christophe Lavergne: drums; Sébastien Boisseau: double bass; Nathalie Darche: piano; Marie-Violaine Cadoret: Violin; Didier Ithursarry: accordion; François Ripoche: saxophone alto droit, saxophone tenor; Sylvain Rifflet: Saxophone tenor, clarinets; Matthieu Donarier: saxophone tenor, clarinets.
Album information
Title: L’OrphiCube | Year Released: 2013 | Record Label: Pépin Et Plume
< Previous
What Is Jazz
Comments
About Alban Darche
Instrument: Saxophone, tenor
Related Articles | Concerts | Albums | Photos | Similar To