Clément Janinet’s European quartet, Garden
of Silences, is releasing its debut album.
The bandleader, alongside Arve Henriksen,
Ambre Vuillermoz, and Robert Lucaciu,
explores and creates points of intersection
between free improvisation, Baroque, popular,
repetitive minimalist, and world music.
Clément Janinet the best-known violinists of his
generation who, although deep into jazz, emerge
from it to retain only freedom of play and style
while exploring the realms of contemporary, world,
and traditional music. In his European quartet, he
carries forward and expands the aesthetic of his
long-standing bands – including Ornette Under the
Repetitive Skies, Space Galvachers, and La Litanie
de Cimes, all closely associated with BMC Records
– by entrusting the new repertoire to musicians
from diverse cultures. Garden of Silences seeks
out and creates points of intersection between
free improvisation, Baroque, popular, repetitive
minimalist, and world music. The dialogue among
the four musicians, inspired by the instrumentation
of Dave Douglas’s album Charms Of The Night Sky,
liberates itself from the constraints of musical
traditions and genres: the legacy of Monteverdi,
Buxtehude, and Dowland engages with the world
of Swedish Nyckelharpa, intense improvisations
blend with microtonal music, and contemporary
chamber music meets folk dances and songs from
the oral tradition. In this intimate and profound
musical material, born of wide-ranging influences,
the bandleader once again shows one of his greatest
strengths by crafting unique and thought-provoking
compositions from the most varied musical
impressions.
Clément Janinet is an outstanding violinist of his
generation who has rightfully become one of the
leading figures of French jazz. He has been working
regularly with BMC Records for several years: he
released the second, critically acclaimed album of
his Ornette Under the Repetitive Skies quartet (ffff –
Télérama, Choc – Jazz Magazine, Élu – Citizen Jazz)
on the label, as well as his second album with the La
Litanie des Cimes trio, and his third album with the
Space Galvachers trio; he also appears on the album
recorded with the new lineup of L’Arbre Rouge. For
decades, Arve Henriksen has been a leading figure
on the European music scene, whose work was
recognized with numerous awards and a Grammy
nomination. From solo projects to immersive
audio, and from rock to free improvisation and
contemporary music, he is at home across a wide
range of genres and styles, releasing multiple
albums on ECM Records. Ambre Vuillermoz is
primarily active in contemporary classical music;
in addition to solo and chamber music productions,
she is a member of the Ars Nova ensemble, which
has maintained a close working relationship with the
BMC over the past decade through the Péter Eötvös
Contemporary Music Foundation. German-Romanian
double bassist Robert Lucaciu, hyperactive in
international collaborations, recently appeared as Evi
Filippou’s duo partner on an album released by BMC
Records, and also plays on the fresh debut album of
Daniel Erdmann’s Thérapie de Couple sextet. Garden
of Silences is a co-production between Jazzdor,
Jazz Sous Les Pommiers, Djazz Nevers, Le Petit
Faucheux, Le Comptoir, Media Music, Théâtre de
Caen, and Le Luisant.