Eric Seva, Daniel Zimmermann – 2 Souffleurs sur 1 Fil (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 40:58 minutes | 694 MB | Genre: Contemporary Jazz, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Les Z’Arts de Garonne
For his seventh album as leader, saxophonist and composer Eric Séva surprises us, as usual, with a singular album, which once again, does not resemble the previous one. He designs his music by liking to take risks and get out of his comfort zone, which is also the best definition of a jazz musician. Always inspired and anxious to renew himself, Eric Séva offers us the seventh chapter of his work, carried by an ambitious orchestral dimension, where he surrounded himself with a quartet of musicians from classical music that he integrated into his trio (composed of bassist Kevin Reveyrand and drummer Jean-Luc Di Fraya). Attentive to the harmonious mixture of sound textures, Eric Séva did not opt for a predictable string quartet, but preferred to mix the strings and woodwinds in a low register, in order to cover the appropriate sound carpet that gives wings to his saxophone (mainly tenor and sometimes soprano). Moreover, he is the only improvising soloist of this formation without harmonic instruments, where the quartet, composed of an alto violin (David Vainsot), a cello (Grégoire Korniluk), a bass clarinet (Nicolas Fargeix) and a bassoon (Philippe Hanon), scrupulously plays the scores and the arrangements written with a masterful hand by Eric Séva. This album, wonderfully well arranged from start to finish, offers a coherent and strongly moving musical narration, around various journeys evoked by soundscapes carried by an acoustic chamber music, elegant and sophisticated. ‘Adeo’ means ‘To go to’, because the music must be shared and addressed to the public. The emotions felt by the musicians must project themselves and travel inside each listener and spectator. This is the motto of Eric Séva who learned music at popular balls in Seine-et-Marne in the dancing that his parents held and that is the reason why melody, rhythm, singing and dancing are so important in his compositions. – – the perfection of a puzzle, which has the great merit of being both accessible and demanding. Through his previous albums, from ‘Imaginary Folklores’ to ‘Resonances’, via ‘Crossed Spaces’ or ‘Sonic Nomad’, Eric Séva has always put the notion of travel at the center of his music, exploring each time a new formal and sonic preoccupation. And it is this common thread that innervates ‘Adeo’ through its different climates, its formidable palette of colors and the richness of the alloy of the timbres. The melodies, sounds and rhythms contained in these compositions are a call to travel, real or imaginary, where scholarly music is inseparable from popular music. The eight songs of the album are carried by this theme, and it is no coincidence that the album ends with a relevant arrangement of a Romanian dance by Bartok (Tanz Aus Butschum), who better than anyone knew how to combine the requirement of classical music with the accessibility of popular music. With this final dance, Eric Séva created a clever bridge between written music and improvised music. The album starts brilliantly with Accano around a harmonious research where we can hear the sound of the band perfectly well, where all the instruments sing and dance in a sound atmosphere that Astor Piazzolla would not have denied. With Expected Movements, the expectation of a movement and the patience it generates are at the center of this composition which advances slowly and surreptitiously, around the echoing canon played by the quartet. A subtle sound illustration of the Covid-related lockdown. The Seventh Door is certainly the flagship track of the album. We know the magical and mystical meaning of chifre 7 that Eric Séva points to with this seventh album, around an instrumentation carried by seven musicians! Of course, these are open doors that lead to a new door each time…. – – Sowers of Sounds, located at the center of the album, is a metaphor on the art of composing, where the composer sows sounds hoping for a harmonious harvest that can be shared among all. With Suspended Time, it is a slow melancholic ballad carried by a beautiful melody, which alludes to confinement. Time stops and it is a moment of observation and letting go, in order to better be able to rebondir…Et this is precisely what is happening with Au Jour Le Jour, a pop and joyful song that evokes a way of living the present moment in all simplicity, around a slightly wobbly and charming ritornello. The artistic introspection of ’Adeo” is embodied by these Essential Dances coming from the depths of Eric Séva’s interior gardens. These essential dances, played on the soprano saxophone, embody movement and expression, they are essential and vital to move forward.
Tracklist:
1-01. Eric Seva – Libertango (04:50)
1-02. Eric Seva – Luz d’Eus (05:02)
1-03. Eric Seva – Oblivion (06:31)
1-04. Eric Seva – Méditation profane (08:27)
1-05. Eric Seva – Les valseuses (04:28)
1-06. Eric Seva – Caravan (04:29)
1-07. Eric Seva – Mademoiselle (07:09)
