The Tom Bourgeois Quartet is an outstanding new ensemble working at the intersection of jazz and contemporary music: their debut album offers a personal, jazz-infused interpretation of pieces by the early 20thcentury composer Lili Boulanger. The album is released through an international collaboration, and also features two guest musicians with close ties to BMC Records, Veronika Harcsa and Vincent Courtois.

The new quartet of Tom Bourgeois offers a personal, jazz-infused interpretation of Lili Boulanger’s compositions. These lyrical pieces faithfully preserve all the harmonic flavour and melodic flow of early 20th century music, made all the more pleasurable by transparent structures and simple, clean instrumentation. Passed away at a tragically young age, Marie-Juliette Olga “Lili” Boulanger (1893–1918) was born into a family of musicians, who early recognised her musical talents. At the age of five, she accompanied her sister Nadia Boulanger to lessons at the Paris Conservatoire, and then began to play various instruments herself. Her musical studies were hampered by a chronic illness until the age of 16. She was the first female composer to win the Prix de Rome: in 1913, her cantata Faust et Hélène, performed several times during her lifetime, was awarded. Her compositional style was most influenced by Claude Debussy and Gabriel Fauré. The album features two guest artists: Veronika Harcsa, who has worked with several Belgian musicians since her studies in Brussels, enriches the songs not only with her voice but also with her own lyrics, while Vincent Courtois adds his supple sound and his experience in contemporary classical music. The release of Lili is the result of a long-term collaboration between Igloo Records and BMC Records.

The music of Tom Bourgeois intersects modern jazz and contemporary music. He composes for all kinds of line-ups from solo instruments to large ensembles; in addition to his own bands, he is a member of bands such as Odil, Vestige and the Jelle Van Giel Group, and has scored more than a dozen film scores. He founded his new quartet dedicated to the works of Lili Boulanger in 2023 with renowned musicians from Belgium. Their two special guests joined the BMC Records catalogue many years ago. Veronika Harcsa released her contemporary improvisational and classical projects such as Schubert NOW! and Debussy NOW!, the two albums of her group with Gábor Gadó, the Bartók album of the Modern Art Orchestra, or Different Aspects of Silence with Kornél Fekete-Kovács, the Robert Balzar Trio and Dan Bárta. Vincent Courtois has appeared on four albums on the label, The Demons of Tosca, recorded with Sebastien Brun and Robin Fincker (2019), Carmen Rhapsody by Aki Takase, Nothing else with Daniel Erdmann and Robin Fincker, and Twigs with Sanne Rambags and Julian Sartorius (2023).