Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Sylvie Courvoisier – Mark Feldman Quartet: Hotel Du Nord

187

Sylvie Courvoisier – Mark Feldman Quartet: Hotel Du Nord

By

View read count
Sylvie Courvoisier – Mark Feldman Quartet: Hotel Du Nord
Hotel Du Nord is shot through with heightened sensitivity. In the wake of To Fly To Steal (Intakt, 2010), the group did a series of European tours and this experience of playing together has resulted in heightened musical understanding.

The quartet's musical currency—with the original lineup intact—is as informed by Twentieth Century chamber music as it is by creative improvised music, which means their work is about deft strokes as much as rhetorical flourishes. Pianist Sylvie Courvoisier's "December 2010" highlights this for all of her co-leader's heat. The compositional framework incorporates plenty of space, and all four members make the most of it. Drummer Gerry Hemingway is a master craftsman in the art of working with a group, while bassist Thomas Morgan's economy has the effect of making the ear yearn for what he's going to play next.

The slightly unsettling piano motif which is a recurrent factor in violinist Mark Feldman's "Plan A" renders his work positively unearthly. However, that impression is counteracted by Morgan, whose work is both exploratory and the sun around which the other players seem to orbit. In the suspension of momentum, a point made stark by Hemingway's skittering brushes, the tension builds as a consequence of players falling silent. When Hemingway solos it's with a singular lightness of touch, whilst Feldman's solo is as close to trenchant as anything this group produces.

"Inceptions" is a stark example of where the group's currently at. Courvoisier goes under the piano lid to supplement the sonic palette, and utilizes a low area of the keyboard for further emphasis, while Feldman's sly yet tonally true lines have the perhaps unsurprising effect of counterbalancing Morgan's work. Hemingway's playing is of an order which suggests this is molecular music—or at least it would if it wasn't for the fact that this is a group which always has a firm collective identity.

Track Listing

Hotel Du Nord; Dunes; Plan A; December 2010; Little Mortise; Inceptions; Gowanus.

Personnel

Mark Feldman: violin; Sylvie Courvoisier: piano; Thomas Morgan: bass; Gerry Hemingway: drums.

Album information

Title: Hotel Du Nord | Year Released: 2011 | Record Label: Intakt Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.