Jazz Articles about Francois Couturier

Francois Couturier: Nostalghia - Song For Tarkovsky

by Budd Kopman
March 1, 2007

Nostalghia is a breathtaking and beautiful record that elicited some of the deepest emotional responses I have ever had to music--any music. Standing on its own, this recording does not demand that one even know who Andrei Tarkovsky was; but finding this out only deepens the musical experience, signifying the success of this project. Pianist Francois Couturier has written music that is meant to evoke the emotions elicited by the films of his favorite director. A Russian ...

Francois Couturier: Nostalghia - Song for Tarkovsky

by AAJ Italy Staff
January 25, 2007

Album di grande fascino, questo che il pianista e compositore Francois Couturier ha dedicato al grande regista russo Andrei Tarkovsky, nel ventennale della scomparsa. Condotto in quartetto con il sassofonista Jean-Marc Larché ed il fisarmonicista Jean-Louis Matinier, abituali collaboratori di Couturier, con l'aggiunta della violoncellista Anja Lechner - splendida interprete dello strumento che Eicher, come usa fare con i suoi “pezzi pregiati", dosa in numerosi progetti della ECM - il lavoro contiene solo musica originale, ispirata liberamente dal cinema di ...

Francois Couturier: Nostalghia - Song for Tarkovsky

by Brad Glanden
October 29, 2006

Working in the former Soviet Union during the Cold War era, Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky encountered the repression typically endured by artists operating under the Kremlin's control. Unable to channel his frustrations into explicitly anti-authoritarian films, Tarkovsky instead concentrated on the equally savage conflicts of spirituality.

Though the authorities in Russia backed him financially, his films were rarely shown there, but were exported to the West to make it seem that Russia endorsed free expression. As a result he was ...

Francois Couturier: Nostalghia - Song for Tarkovsky

by John Kelman
September 28, 2006

Sight and sound are often inexorably linked. In the earliest days of silent film, musicians would provide live accompaniment to images on a screen. While scoring cinema has become an integral part of the visual narrative, music as homage to film is less common. Pianist François Couturier--familiar to ECM fans for his work with oudist Anouar Brahem and violinist Dominique Pifarély--has created a work here that, in its dramatic scope and unerring honesty, is an emotive rather than illustrative song ...