Matinier

Enja Records presents Ballads 4 - The World. Chet Baker, Abdullah Ibrahim, Jenny Evans, Dusko Goykovich, Walter Norris, Maria João and others.

French pianist Francois Couturier was inspired by Soviet film director Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986) in creating the music on this album, but it should be noted at the outset that the album does not contain any music actually used in Tarkovsky's films in general or his 1983 movie Nostalghia in particular. Rather, Couturier, who states his admiration for Tarkovsky in his brief liner notes, saying that has "seen all his films over and over again," tried to evoke the mood of those films in writing these pieces of music, several of which share titles with them.

Over a period of five years, Swiss directors Norbert Wiedmer and Peter Guyer documented the activity of legendary producer Manfred Eicher, the founder and driving force behind ECM Records, whose advocacy of progressive jazz and of classical composers like Arvo Pärt, Meredith Monk, Valentin Silvestrov, and György Kurtág changed the landscape of contemporary music in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The film Sounds and Silence: Travels with Manfred Eicher was released in 2009 and this 2011 soundtrack album is made up largely of tracks taken from previously released ECM albums that Eicher produced, some from as early as 1980. Most of the pieces are low-key and understated and feature chamber ensembles, although there are several piano tracks and several featuring orchestra or chorus. The album has a mix of selections from ECM's classical and jazz repertoire, and from the label's specialty, the many pieces that lie somewhere in between the two.

Orange is a reference to Georges Perec. Just as in Perec’s literary works everyday events and common keepsakes stand for a collective memory, so the music moves in a way that speaks of a shared expanse: different modes are assembled like a puzzle, creating an overall picture of associative images. In Perec’s creations, key words and places become way stations in a labyrinth of memories.
"Je me souviens" is a key sentence around which the Parisian poet Georges Perec (1938-1982) has constructed a patchwork of narrative aphorisms. At the same time, he is open to interpretation, and so Perec’s work acts as a stimulus for Michael Riessler, as he brings his musical perceptions and awareness into play…

Admittedly, the title is misleading, the album is neither showy or flashy, in fact quite the opposite, it is an introversive and lyrical CD. Thrill Box refers to his instrument and Peirani’s unique way to play the accordion is full of surprises. He makes it sound like an organ, a piano, a wind instrument or a human voice, counterpoint and radically reduced passages alternate with dynamic parts, multitoned elegies and percussive parts. Peirani also sings in unison with the accordion, revealing an excellent voice that, along with his accordion prowess, initially got the attention of Youn Sun Nah…

French pianist Francois Couturier was inspired by Soviet film director Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986) in creating the music on this album, but it should be noted at the outset that the album does not contain any music actually used in Tarkovsky's films in general or his 1983 movie Nostalghia in particular. Rather, Couturier, who states his admiration for Tarkovsky in his brief liner notes, saying that has "seen all his films over and over again," tried to evoke the mood of those films in writing these pieces of music, several of which share titles with them.

François Couturier leads his Tarkovsky Quartet on their third album dedicated to the great film director Andrej Tarkovsky. The two previous volumes, released in 2006 and 2011, were greeted with unanimous international praise; the musical and human experience during the recordings and subsequent tours and concerts revealing the huge potential of the highly original formation consisting of piano, cello, saxophone and accordion.