Circles and Calligrams Benoît Delbecq

• 1Circles and Calligrams06:02
• 2Ando09:12
• 3Meanwhile04:53
• 4A Lack of Dreams06:11
• 5Alpha01:28
• 6Flakes01:19
• 7BioBeat08:56
• 8Le sixième saut03:44
• 9Fireflies06:54
• 10Mille Nandie remix05:14
• Total Runtime53:53

Info for Circles and Calligrams

Delbecq's second solo piano record on Songlines showcases his brilliance at its most concentrated. He extends the piano with an array of preparations that he works seamlessly into his playing, improvising interlocking vamps and lines that create a whole new world of sound. His melodic-harmonic language is a very individual combination of tonality and dissonance that appeals to both avant-jazz and contemporary classical fans. Impeccable high-res recording.

Delbecq refines improvisation with versatility on his solo disc. He plays a 92-key Bösendorfer, a piano that is an extension of his nimble fingers. His approach is marked with choice delineation between the abstract and the written and he strikes the perfect balance between the two.

Some of the tunes Delbecq played with the trio are reworked here. 'Ando' finds the melody navigated with a lyrical air and while the chords are emphasized to complement the runs, he also uses the body of the piano as a percussion instrument. The two vistas of the tune are stunning in their own right and Delbecq has the vision to make them so. A conglomerate of piano, plucked strings and prepared sounds make-up 'Biobeat.' The beat is pliant and Delbecq infuses it into the melody, romping along while hammering home a complement of rumbling chords. The pieces fall in neatly, the angularities wrapped in a singing, dancing body. Delbecq is an exciting presence who is enticing in his approach and marvelous in his execution of the music. (allaboutjazz.com)

Benoit Delbecq, Piano

'Delbecq figures today among the most inventive musicians on the European scene... Enlightened experimenter of a music decidedly personal in the way it links apparently contradictory influences from the freest improvisation and the ultra-sophisticated constructions of contemporary composers such as Ligeti or Conlon Nancarrow, Delbecq has succeeded in transcending this apparent dispersion in a coherent universe, at once limpid and mysterious, that draws its liberty from a conceptional rigour which has few equals in contemporary music....A music of nocturnal poetry, apparently fluid and deceptively slack, all minute shimmerings and the play of braided textures, controls the flows and effects of superimpositions (of intensity, speeds, materials) — something on the order of inspiration.' Stéphane Ollivier - Les Inrockuptibles

Awards:
THE NEW YORK TIMES Critic's choice Oct.2010
Critic's choice 2010 - AllAboutJazz New York
Best of 2010 - The Georgia Straight - Vancouver
Best of 2010 - France Musique
Best of 2010 LE MONDE

Note: Track 10 was originally recorded in 48kHz, remixed and remaster at 96kHz.

Benoît Delbecq - Piano
Born in 1966, Parisian pianist Benoît Delbecq gures today among the innovators of the international contemporary jazz scene. His reputation and in uence have been growing steadily since the early 90’s, and the New York Times recently described him as « an original and unconventional pianist » who « expertly » invents a « serene » music. An inspired adventurer, a goldsmith of prepared piano and a visionary poet in the art of electronically recycling his own statements, he actively participates in the new aesthetic breakthroughs of today.
A former student of Mal Waldron, Alan Silva, Muhal Richard Abrams and Steve Coleman among others, Benoît’s international pro le took o around 1992 from appearances at Paris’s cutting-edge club « Les Instants Chavirés », in parallel with the founding of Kartet, The Recyclers and the Hask Collective, all of which helped revitalize the Paris creative music scene. Since then Benoît has been touring around the globe. He performs solo piano and solo electronics, leads or co-leads a number of bands from duos to quintets, and is involved in many multi-disciplinary productions of theater, dance, the visual arts, cinema etc. His music features mesmerizing grooves that shake out ashing, lunar melodies. An invitation to a voyage into a magic land (in Le Monde).

« Prix de la Sacem » in 1995 (with the collective Kartet), Benoît was awarded the « Prix de la Villa Médicis Hors les Murs » in 2001, and received the prestigious fellowship of the Civitella Fundation New York (2009). His last CDs, The sixth Jump (trio with bass player Jean-Jacques Avenel et drummer Emile Biayenda) and Circles and Calligrams (solo) both received the « Grand Prix International du Disque Charles Cros » 2010 and are part of the ten albums of the year for the New-York Times and Le Monde

Booklet for Circles and Calligrams