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Benoit Delbecq 4: Spots On Stripes

By John Sharpe

In the animal kingdom both spots and stripes contribute to the camouflage which keeps the wearer hidden from either potential predators or prey. There's something similarly disorientating about this enigmatic album from French pianist Benoit Delbecq. Renowned as someone who has taken John Cage's idea of prepared piano into the jazz sphere, Delbecq has studied with sources as varied as free jazz bassist Alan Silva, legendary post bop pianist Mal Waldron and composer Solange Ancona, a former student of Olivier ...

Benoît Delbecq - Jorrit Dijkstra - John Hollenbeck: Linger

By Glenn Astarita

Thes New England-based record label, Driff Records, was established in 2012 by Jorrit Dijkstra (reeds, electronics) and Pandelis Karayorgis (piano) with the intentions of creating “transatlantic improvised music." Dijkstra and drummer, composer John Hollenbeck have enjoyed a productive working relationship since the 1990s, and invited forward-thinking French pianist Benoît Delbecq into this beguiling and uncanny improvisational trio setting for Linger. It definitely goes against the grain, even by free jazz nomenclatures. But the intermixing of acoustic and electronics yield some ...

Black Motor, Tomasz Stanko and Other New Releases

By Maurice Hogue

Finland's power trio, Black Motor, is sure to get your own motor running with a pair of tracks from a live recording issued by We Jazz. The music comes from a We Jazz festival held in Berlin in October last year which showcases some of their artists. This week's show also features music from the heart and soul of Polish Jazz and one of the most important players in improvised music, Tomasz Stanko who passed away July 29th. As well, ...

Benoit Delbecq 3: Ink

By Glenn Astarita

Berlin-based bassist Miles Perkin handles the duties previously held by revered French bassist Jean-Jacques Avenel (Steve Lacy, Pharoah Sanders) who passed away in 2014. Therefore, this enterprising piano trio led by Frenchman Benoit Delbecq surges forward with the similar level of ingenuity conveyed on The Sixth Jump (Songlines, 2010). In addition, Congolese drummer Emile Biayenda intersperses a world music vibe during various tracks while seamlessly integrating a tightknit jazz component into the mix. On a side note, famed pianist Fred ...

Benoit Delbecq 3: Ink

By John Sharpe

French pianist Benoit Delbecq came late to the piano trio, having spent 20 years on a variety of other projects. His previous foray into the terrain, The Sixth Jump (Songlines, 2010), featured bassist Jean Jacques Avenel (who sadly died in 2014) alongside Congolese drummer Emile Biayenda, who first toured with the pianist in the Central Africa in 1994 and has been a regular collaborator ever since. Canadian Miles Perkin has since taken on the bass chair, completing an adaptable ensemble ...

Benoit Delbecq / Francois Houle: Because She Hoped

By Glenn Astarita

The superior recording quality, tinged with reverb and a capacious aesthetic, serves as a third instrument on this studio recording by French pianist Benoit Delbecq and Canadian clarinetist Francois Houle. Both artists occupy that progressive, cutting-edge space within modern jazz contexts. With their third duo outing, the musicians use extended techniques in an intimate setting. Here, unorthodox treatments coalesce with sublime dialogues, spiking breakouts and melodic intervals, all executed with a sense of intimacy. Ethereal, and at times ...

Benoit Delbecq: The Sixth Jump / Circles and Calligrams

By Jerry D'Souza

Pianist Benoît Delbecq makes his debut trio recording with The Sixth Jump, released simultaneously with Circles and Calligrams, which Delbecq describes in a solo outing. The first disc amplifies his skills as an empathic leader whose inventive thematic explorations are woven in spontaneous interaction with his mates. The second lets him explore the dynamics of the piano elaborately, his sense of purpose expressively accomplished.Benoit Delbecq TrioThe Sixth JumpSonglines2010 Delbecq uses ...

Andy Milne / Benoit Delbecq: Where is Pannonica?

By George Kanzler

Occasioned by a commission from Chamber Music America's French-America Jazz Exchange and realized during a three-week composing/recording residency at the Banff Centre in Canada in 2008, this is a fascinating project, pushing the boundaries of the piano duo format. Using Steinway D grands that were often--mostly in Benoit Delbecq's case--altered with prepared devices (objects on strings) and alternative playing techniques (strumming or hitting strings inside the piano), plus manipulating sounds with five-channel effects, the subtle use of electronics and a ...

Andy Milne & Benoit Delbecq: Where Is Pannonica?

By Martin Gladu

Andy Milne & Benoit Delbecq Where Is Pannonica? Songlines Recordings 2009

Welcome to the third dimension. The product of their 2008 winter residency at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, Where Is Pannonica? seals the longstanding, twinlike affinity between pianists Andy Milne and Benoit Delbecq in one truly astonishing soundscape. And although Nantes puts itself forward as an answer to the title's inquiry, it's possible the question is instead concerned with identifying ...

Andy Milne and Benoit Delbecq: Where is Pannonica?

By Matt Marshall

At times while listening to pianists Andy Milne and Benoit Delbecq's Where is Pannonica? you may find yourself asking, “where is the piano?" Which isn't to say that traditional piano tones are ever completely silenced on the record, but that they are rarely the only tones. On three tunes, Delbecq is cited as using Dlooper, an audio application that, according to the pianist, is “a multi-track looper that can superimpose eight stereo channels, and output them on eight different channels." ...

Francois Houle / Evan Parker / Benoit Delbecq: La Lumi

By John Eyles

Recorded at the Innovations concert series in Montreal in 2005, this trio teams Evan Parker with the established duo of Benoit Delbecq and François Houle, who have been together for a decade. The pair is known to play a wide variety of music--from classical to world to jazz and improvisation--all of it extremely well. Both technically and temperamentally, they are suited to Parker; the threesome sound well-adjusted to each others' instincts, and should as this was not just a one-off ...

Benoit Delbecq: Phonetics

By Francis Lo Kee

Benoît Delbecq is a unique and diligent musical explorer who deserves your listening attention. Phonetics and some recent performances provide a helpful introduction to two very developed aspects of his musical being. In his solo piano playing (heard at the Jazz Gallery last month) Delbecq used a prepared piano technique that turned his grand piano into a grand African thumb piano of sorts. It was no mere gimmick: Delbecq carefully changed the “preparations while he talked to ...