Libera X

The free improvising quartet Libera X practises meeting different improvising traditions. Music from the Mediterranean countries, Africa and the Middle East have always been seedbed of spontaneous expressions for soloists and ensembles. Breaking free from American jazz (free or other), keeping the techniques and rhythmical aesthetics, the quartet Libera X means to regain such freedom which existed also in the North of Spain before the decline of pure rhythmic and its corollary, sometimes so sensual and spiritual (groove, duende, tarab…) and restarts with that non-written music of instantaneous expression. We do not mean to rule out any opportunities, but to privilege the use of all sound components (timbres, noises, melodies, rhythms, harmonies, modes and scales etc.) This availability allows the quartet to open up to all improvisers operating in that field of music which is usually labelled as traditional, without falling in global mixtures or in the aleatory juxtaposition of sonorities (except when it is required by a situation). The quartet’s target is meeting, not mixing, according to a principle of mutual respect, listening, concentration and serenity. The Purpose is not to deny the differences but to use these as the key-stone of an immediate and really concerting musical proposition. They use both acoustic and electric or electronic instruments in a total freedom. The instrument, utilization of sound samples played in real time, all that associated to a standard instrumental way, which permits to multiply the approaches and modulate them relating to meetings on the scene. The origins of each member are as different as their sound propositions (Australia, Armenia, Sardinia and Corsica). Their evolution in cosmopolitan metropolis permit them to share and compare their familiar traditions, trough the prism of a unifying urban modernity. Proposing an instant music straight away, with the audience awareness about immediate character and the risk that it means, creates real excitement and expectation that makes listening easier both for the musicians and those people for whom that music is made.

Gianluigi DETTORI (el. bass), Pierre LUCIANI (guitar), Ed HOSDIKIAN (sax) and Dylan KENT (drums) first met in that multicultural melting pot that is the town of Marseille, and they decided to fuse their knowledge made by classical studies and jazz, ethnomusicology from university and direct experience. They had been formed in Musical Colleges or Berklee in Boston, in master classes with Scala or London Symphony soloists, the Victorian College of Arts, the DAMS with Umberto Eco or the Sorbonne in Paris.

They had been living in metropolis like Sydney, New York, Paris, London, Rome or in traditional countries like Armenia, Corsica, Sardinia and Australia, impregnating with every multiform culture they met. They have collaborated, singularly or in ensemble, with artists from jazz like Michel Petrucciani, Mike Stern, Marc Ribot, Jamaladeen Tacuma, Fred Frith, Bill Frisell, Cecil Taylor, Alain Mion, Sunny Murray and Jorge Rossi, from classical music like Leon Spierer from The Berliners or Salzburg and Scala soloists, from ethnical music like Levon Minassian (Peter Gabriel), Okay Temiz, Senem Diyici and Chemirani brothers or pop music like Collage, Jacques Higelin, Tom Jones and Liza Minnelli. They performed at Ronnie’s Scott, North Sea Jazz Festival, Conway Hall or in Festspielehaus in Vienna not to mention the various clubs in Europe, Australia, The United States and… they haven’t unpacked yet!

Gear

sax, guitar, el. bass & drums