Release Date: 11 April 2011
Label: ECM Records
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 602527425269
Release Date: 11 April 2011
Label: ECM Records
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 602527425269
Description
Following on from 'Nostalghia - Song for Tarkovsky' and the solo piano album 'Un jour si blanc', this new recording completes a trilogy for François Couturier and opens a new door for his quartet, known henceforth as the Tarkovsky Quartet. The unique band founded by the French pianist continues to draw inspiration from the films of Andrey Tarkovsky as its frame of reference expands. Allusions to Pergolesi, Bach and Shostakovich are to be found in the compositions here, as are compelling group improvisations.
Tarkovsky Quartet was recorded in the rich and responsive acoustics of the Auditorium RSI Lugano, site of many great ECM recordings, and the sleeve photo is by Tarkovsky himself. It includes liner notes by Charles H. de Brantes, Director of the Andrey Tarkovsky International Institute: "It is to a true inner world that François Couturier and the Tarkovsky Quartet give us a splendid access. Here are poetic ballads in which the voices of the piano, cello, accordion and saxophone rise up, answer one another, entwine, fade, and return."
Since 2006, when 'Nostalghia' was released, the quartet, comprising three French musicians - pianist François Couturier, saxophonist Jean-Marc Larché and accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier - together with German cellist Anja Lechner, has become a regular presence on the concert circuit and at the festivals. They have made impressive contributions to ECM events in Dinant, Frankfurt, Athens, Florence and Umbria.
"Mixing classical rigour with improvisation both formal and free, what emerges is austerely beautiful, etched in sombre hues and redolent of an unslakeable thirst to connect with a deeper well of the spirit." - The Irish Times on the earlier 'Nostalghia - Song for Tarkovsky' album.
Personnel: François Couturier (piano), Anja Lechner (cello), Jean-Marc Larché (soprano saxophone), Jean-Louis Matinier (accordion)
Tracklisting
Signum Quartett
Mette Henriette
Fred Hersch; Drew Gress; Joey Baron
Dino Saluzzi; Jacob Young; JosE MarIa Saluzzi
Keith Jarrett
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra; German Hornsound; Olari Elts
Bennie Maupin; Herbie Hancock; Buster Williams; Frederick Waits; Billy Hart; Bill Summers; Charles
Arve Henriksen; Trygve Seim; Anders Jormin; Markku Ounaskari
Maria Pia De Vito, Francois Couturier, Anja Lechner & Michele Rabbia