Philippe Laurent

François Ravard est un électron libre. De la folle aventure Téléphone aux Stades de France des Insus, en passant par les iconiques Marianne Faithfull, Serge Gainsbourg, Jean-Pierre Mocky ou Les Rita Mitsouko, il raconte son incroyable parcours en forme de montagnes russes, avec l’aide de son ami Philippe Manœuvre. …

Laurent Cugny Big Band Lumiere - Santander (1991) {EmArcy 838 266-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 321 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 116 Mb
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© 1991 EmArcy / Phonogram / PolyGram | 838 266-2
Jazz / Modern Big Band / Contemporary Jazz / Progressive Jazz

This is a sensational album that seemlessly merges big band conceptions with progressive electric instrumentation, without sacrificing any of the artistic values that can be found in either when in the right hands. This is absolutely a must own for anyone who appreciates sublimely crafted intelligently played music, and especially for anyone who appreciates jazz in the least, though pegging the project as jazz misses the point.

Inspired by a fable by La Fontaine, Rameau produced perhaps his most brilliant music for his penultimate great work, blending reality and the surreal on several levels. This passionate new production by José Montalvo stunningly choreographed by Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu, sets new standards in entertainment, charm and ingenuity. The sharp and spectacular multimedia staging does full justice to Rameau's dazzling burlesque, confirming Olivier Rouvière's statement that ‘Les Paladins' is the last laugh of a witty 77-year old composer’. Recorded live in 2004 at the Paris Théâtre du Châtelet in true surround sound, both the virtuoso cast and Les Arts Florissants are in top form, clearly enjoying themselves in the masterful hands of William Christie.

Laurent Cugny & Orchestre National de Jazz - In Tempo (1996) {Verve 532 438-2}
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© 1996 Verve / PhonoGram / PolyGram | 532 438-2
Jazz / Modern Big Band / Contemporary Jazz / Progressive Jazz

Produced by Laurent Cugny and Daniel Richard for L'orchestre National de Jazz. Laurent Cugny - Bandleader. Ranks alongside George Gruntz as prime European contemporary composer, leader. His large orchestra is remniscent of Gil Evans big band in final stages; his pieces have quirky, unpredictable quality, as do his recordings.

Laurent Grappe "Le Luxe De La Reflexion!"Métamkine | MKCD YYY | 2001
Avant-Garde, Musique Concrète, Experimental| EAC (FLACs) NO LOG, SCANS | 323 MB
Filefactory | Métamkine | (7z) | Released 2001

After several stays in Lebanon, and having experienced the country’s permanent tension, we wanted to address the complexity of representation that communities develop towards their own language when facing domination from an outside culture.
This work is a “sound being” and the result of my meeting with Isabelle Bassil. “We have forgotten something, but to learn what has been forgotten, we need to access the suffering from those who haven’t yet accessed to oblivion,” says Philippe Vaernewyck in the last interlude of the work, and a fragment taken from one of our numerous discussions on the luxury of reflection. Through Isabelle’s life, a Lebanese girl using Arabic speaking with all the distance of a foreigner’s experience, we can recall the idea of a poetic phonography of intimacy with texts and culture. Behind each of Isabelle’s choices (Khalil Gibran, Najib Mahafouz, or a popular tale like “the heart of a mother” for instance), lies a portrait, a souvenir, an emotion, a claiming, an Arabic memory in any case. For each piece, we carefully positioned the microphones to create the situation that would allow the necessary gap to the reception of this expression. From a musical standpoint, we tried and built a sound dramaturgy to bring the listening on the course where the voice creates the movement. We hope to trigger off imagination, opening to a poetic interpretation of sense by overtly playing on the recognition of the sound sources that evoke both journeys and (y)our native language. Our music includes electro-acoustics and concrete aesthetics. We let sounds exist by themselves. The sounds and sequences were often played using our memory of our first stays there, adding an idealized perfume to it. Le luxe de la réflexion! (The luxury of reflection!) is an attempt in valuing the Arabic language, presented as an oral and written language, and beyond this, represent when languages are experienced as stigmata. We tell of people whom ghettoized native language involves insecurity.
This piece was first conceived as a work for a tape and one actor, and was first shown on January 6 1996 at L’Embarcadère in Lyon, as part of the collective event “comme un murmure” (”as a whisper”). It was then decided to use it as a training material (Inter Service Migrant) around this concept so “Le luxe…” has been shown around 20 times in France. The acousmatic version has been created using high-end sound techniques to ease focus on the qualities of listening, and played in Le Festival d’Albi, Les 38èmes Rugissants, Futura, Le Festival. Inter. Musi. Impro. Libre in Beirut, Le 102, Les Instants Chavirés, Le Vandémiaire, Le nomade’s land, Le Cirque clandestin des frères Kasamarof.

Laurent Cugny & Orchestre National De Jazz - Yesternow (1994) {Verve 522 511-2} (Miles Davis related)
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© 1994 Verve / Phonogram-Polygram | 522 511-2
Jazz / Modern Big Band / Contemporary Jazz / Fusion

I'm very fond of Miles' '70s "electric" period, especially the dark, deep live albums he recorded during this time (namely Dark Magus and Agharta). This disc, which gives MD the big-band treatment, offers many pleasures of its own, although, for my money, neither Cugny nor anyone else (save maybe Bill Laswell) has ever reached the same primal place that Miles did during this time. Excellent album! This album is something special. Great atmosphere, 60 minutes of pure enjoying.

Hippolyte et Aricie was Rameau's first surviving lyric tragedy and is perhaps his most durable, though you wouldn't know it from the decades we had to wait for a modern recording. Now there are two: this one, conducted by Marc Minkowski, and William Christie's version on Erato. Choosing between the two is tough. Minkowski uses a smaller and probably more authentic orchestra, and with the resulting leaner sound, the performance has more of a quicksilver quality accentuated by Minkowski's penchant for swift tempos. His cast is excellent. The central lovers in the title are beautifully sung by two truly French voices, soprano Véronique Gens and especially the light, slightly nasal tenor of Jean-Paul Fourchécourt. In the pivotal role of the jealous Phèdre, Bernarda Fink is perfectly good but not in the exalted league of Christie's Lorraine Hunt. So there's no clear front-runner, but anyone interested in French Baroque opera must have at least one.