Various Artists - Magic Moments 11 (ACT MUSIC 2018)

Presenting the 11th edition of ACT's popular Magic Moments series. This CD presents sixty-seven minutes of the best of current jazz. Thoughtful moments sit alongside pure joy and entertainment. With Michael Wollny, David Helbock, Vincent Peirani, Iiro Rantala, Joachim Kühn New Trio, Ida Sand, Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu et al.With ACT-releases of 2018: 01 David Helbock’s Random ControlAfrican Marketplace 02 Andreas Schaerer / Luciano Biondini / Kalle Kalima / Lucas NiggliPlanet Zumo 03 Jin JimHouse Of The King 04 Benjamin Schmid & Andreas M. HofmeirConcertino vom Lande - Beim Fernsehen 05 Laila BialiQueen Of Hearts 06 Lars Danielsson & Paolo FresuAmigos 07 Vincent Peirani / Living BeingEnzo 08 NESAhlam 09 TonbruketDig It To The End 10 Emile Parisien Quintet / Vincent Peirani / Michel PortalLe clown tueur de la fête forain...

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Michael Wollny, Nils Landgren, Ida Sand, David Helbock, Iiro Rantala, Jin Jim, Benjamin Schmid, Andreas M. Hofmeir, Laila Biali, Lars Danielsson, Paolo Fresu, Vincent Peirani, NES, Tonbruket, Emile Parisien, Michel Portal, Joachim Kühn, KUU!, Julian Wasserfuhr, Roman Wasserfuhr, Jörg Brinkmann, Andreas Schaerer, Kalle Kalima

1 African Marketplace ( Abdullah Ibrahim) 04:23

2 Planet Zumo ( Kalle Kalima) 03:43

3 House Of The King ( Jan Akkerman) 04:31

4 Concertino vom Lande - Beim Fernsehen ( Christof Dienz) 01:59

5 Queen Of Hearts ( Laila Biali) 04:55

6 Amigos ( Lars Danielsson) 02:50

7 Enzo ( Vincent Peirani) 04:27

8 Ahlam ( Nesrine Belmokh & Matthieu Saglio / Leïla Guinoun) 04:41

9 Dig It To The End ( Dan Berglund) 04:05

10 Le clown tueur de la fête foraine III ( Parisien, Touéry, Gélugne & Darrifourcq) 03:59

11 Barcelona - Wien ( Joachim Kühn) 03:50

12 Thank You Iceland ( Kalle Kalima, Frank Möbus & Christian Lillinger / Jelena Kulji?) 04:15

13 Hello Dave ( Michael Wollny) 04:06

14 I Have Nothing Left For You ( Ida Sand) 04:34

15 Cello Bello ( Julian & Roman Wasserfuhr) 04:08

16 Tears For Esbjörn ( Iiro Rantala) 06:01

Curated by Siggi Loch

Cover art by Jiri Geller: Sugar Happy, 2012

with the kind permission of the artist

Youn Sun Nah - essentials (3 CD Box) ACT MUSIC 2018

"This woman is a vocal miracle, absolutely awesome" - ZDF heute journal (DE) "One surprise after another, from a performer, who can turn anything into an art song." - The Times (GB) "One of the most beautiful voices of today's jazz." - Le Figaro (FR)The premium collector's edition of the three pioneering albums at a discounted price. She Moves On LentoSame Girl She Moves OnAn important step in a new musical direction, recorded in New York with an American band: pianist Jamie Saft, together with one of the most sought-after session musicians Brad Jones (bass) and Dan Rieser (drums) built the backing band for Youn Sun Nahs amazing singing. And a special guest on the guitar ensures the jazzy country and folk character of the album: Marc Ribot. In addition to her own compositions, "She Moves On" co...

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Youn Sun Nah / vocals, kalimba, music box, kazoo

Ulf Wakenius / guitars

Lars Danielsson / bass & cello

Vincent Peirani / accordion & accordina

Xavier Desandre-Navarre / percussion

Jamie Saft / Piano, keys

Brad Jones / Acoustic Bass

Dan Rieser / Drums

Marc Ribot / Electric & Acoustic Guitars

1 She Moves On ( ) 50:38

2 Lento ( ) 45:46

3 Same Girl ( ) 47:08

Vincent Peirani: Living Being II - Night Walker (ACT MUSIC 2018)

Vincent Peirani is a jazz musician who is equally at home in world music, or classical music, chanson or pop. Yet what the listener will hear from his new album is that he has transformed the accordion into the baddest of rock 'n' roll axes.

Vincent Peirani / accordion, accordina & voice

Emile Parisien / soprano saxophone

Tony Paeleman / fender rhodes & keys

Julien Herné / electric bass & electric guitar

Yoann Serra / drums

Valentin Liechti / electronics on 12

1 Bang Bang ( Sonny Bono) 03:26

2 Enzo ( Vincent Peirani) 04:29

3 Le Clown Sauveur De La Fête Foraine ( Vincent Peirani) 02:43

4 What Power Art Thou ( Henry Purcell) 05:55

5 Opening ( Vincent Peirani) 03:52

6 Kashmir ( Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham ) 05:41

7 Stairway To Heaven ( Jimmy Page & Robert Plant ) 03:26

8 Night Walker ( Vincent Peirani) 06:55

9 K2000 ( Vincent Peirani) 01:42

10 Falling ( Vincent Peirani) 04:40

11 Unknown Chemistry ( Vincent Peirani) 06:15

12 Smoke & Mirrors ( Vincent Peirani) 04:42

Produced by Vincent Peirani

Recorded by Boris Darley at ICP Studios, Brussels, March 20-23, 2017

Assistant: Paul Edouard Laurendeau

Mixed by Boris Darley and Vincent Peirani at Studio Holy Oak

Mastering by Klaus Scheuermann

Cover art by Olafur Eliasson

Emile Parisien Quintet - Sfumato live in Marciac (ACT MUSIC 2018)

Parisien’s “Sfumato” concert at Jazz in Marciac on 8 August 2017 was unforgettable and has been captured for ever on both CD & DVD. His quintet was augmented at this concert by illustrious guests: US trumpet star Wynton Marsalis, French jazz legend Michel Portal and Parisien’s alter ego and long-established duo partner Vincent Peirani. Multi-layered, innovative and experimental, “Sfumato live in Marciac” is packed full of tension, excitement and turbulence. And yet is firmly grounded in jazz, brimming over with playfulness and adventures of improvisation; it is a testament to the intensity and to the magic of live jazz.

Emile Parisien / soprano saxophone

Joachim Kühn / piano

Manu Codjia / guitar

Simon Tailleu / double bass

Mário Costa / drums

Guests:

Wynton Marsalis / trumpet

Vincent Peirani / accordion

Michel Portal / clarinet

1 Le clown tueur de la fête foraine I ( Emile Parisien, Julien Touéry, Ivan Gélugne & Sylvain Darrifourcq) 05:14

2 Le clown tueur de la fête foraine II ( Emile Parisien, Julien Touéry, Ivan Gélugne & Sylvain Darrifourcq) 06:56

3 Le clown tueur de la fête foraine III ( Emile Parisien, Julien Touéry, Ivan Gélugne & Sylvain Darrifourcq) 04:13

4 Temptation Rag ( Henry Lodge) 05:42

5 Transmitting ( Joachim Kühn) 12:43

6 Balladibiza I ( Emile Parisien) 08:22

7 Balladibiza II ( Emile Parisien) 04:56

8 Missing A Page ( Joachim Kühn) 08:09

9 Préambule ( Emile Parisien) 08:00

10 Missing A Page ( Joachim Kühn) 07:47

11 Le clown tueur de la fête foraine I ( Emile Parisien, Julien Touéry, Ivan Gélugne & Sylvain Darrifourcq) 07:39

12 Le clown tueur de la fête foraine II ( Emile Parisien, Julien Touéry, Ivan Gélugne & Sylvain Darrifourcq) 06:54

13 Le clown tueur de la fête foraine III ( Emile Parisien, Julien Touéry, Ivan Gélugne & Sylvain Darrifourcq) 04:16

14 Temptation Rag ( Henry Lodge) 13:38

15 Transmitting ( Joachim Kühn) 12:43

16 Balladibiza I ( Emile Parisien) 08:21

17 Balladibiza II ( Emile Parisien) 04:58

18 Arôme de l’air ( Joachim Kühn) 13:21

19 Poulp ( Emile Parisien) 13:43

Recorded live in concert by Nicolas Djemane at Jazz in Marciac on August 8th, 2017

Mixed by Boris Darley in April 2017

Mastering by Klaus Scheuermann

Produced by Emile Parisien

Video editing by Alice Fave & Nicolas Lecart

Cameras: Florence Pradalier, Cedric Alliot, Ugo Gillino & Mathias Touzeris

Audiovisual director: Jean Marc Birraux

DVD authoring by Platin Media Productions

Parisien / Peirani / Schaerer / Wollny - Out of Land (ACT MUSIC 2017)

For once, here’s a band for which the word 'supergroup' is completely apposite. Swiss vocalist Andreas Schaerer, German pianist Michael Wollny, French accordionist Vincent Peirani and his saxophonist compatriot Emile Parisien are four of the brightest and most charismatic stars in European jazz, and they have now formed themselves into a quartet. Between them, they have so far garnered no fewer than twelve German ECHO Jazz awards, as well as just about every distinction of importance in their own countries. They are in their mid- to late thirties, and their new live recording “Out of Land” demonstrates why they are at the very pinnacle of jazz musicians of their generation. It is because they are re-defining the possibilities of their instruments; not just cutting loose from the boundaries of jazz, but doing it in a way which energizes and inspires audiences of all generations.

The pivot and connector for this top-flight group of musical allies and equal partners has been Peirani. He had previously played with all three of the others, and has brought them together. The quartet member he has had the closest connection with is Parisien: they have been kindred spirits since working together in Daniel Humair’s quartet. They work as a regular duo, and in the group “Living Being”. Michael Wollny had been enlisted by Peirani at the end of 2012 for the latter’s ACT debut CD “Thrill Box”, and the two have continued to bring their combined “resourcefulness, erudition and shared relish for risk” (John Fordham in The Guardian) to their 2016 ACT album “Tandem”. Schaerer had first met Peirani two years previously, when he had invited the Frenchman to join his band “Hildegard Lernt Fliegen” as a guest for their concert in Paris. After that, both wanted to do more together, but the overladen state of their diaries conspired against it. It was only when Schaerer received invitations from Budapest and Berne which gave him carte blanche to put together any project he wanted, that he was able to enrol Peirani for a project - for which the accordionist also wanted to involve both Parisien and Wollny…

The four searched long and hard for the right name to put on their new band’s birth certificate. Schaerer sent Peirani a whole raft of suggestions, including the indeterminate “Out of...”. To which Peirani responded promptly with “Out of Land”. “That was it, we'd nailed it,” remembers Schaerer. The phrase “Out of Land” is intended to bring to mind that specific sense of leaving solid ground, and of venturing into terrain where it is far from obvious how things are going to develop. That was certainly a part of the concept: staying open to the ideas of the others, keeping the excitement intact, seeing what will happen musically in the moment. They did three days of rehearsals without prior preparation, and then went off to appear on stage together. Schaerer found it all very fulfilling: “It is simply a dream, almost a spiritual form of making music. It’s about being able to address one’s own visions in conditions of complete spontaneity, and also about transparency of communication with the others. These musicians can really do that!”

That capacity of all four musicians to interact and co-create which Andreas Schaerer has described here begins with the Swiss vocalist himself, one of the great singing improvisers of our time. He has a vast vocal compass; his stylistic palette ranges from classical art song to crooning and scat. He can produce all kinds of improbable sounds, and is able to imitate many instruments – including various parts of a drum kit. His recent arrival at the ACT label was marked with the release of “The Big Wig”, a major composition for 66- piece symphony orchestra. Accordionist Vincent Peirani, originally from Nice, is another musician making huge waves on the European scene. He too has received numerous awards and distinctions, the “Prix Django Reinhardt” and “Victoires du Jazz” in France and an ECHO Jazz award in Germany - his profile on the scene is huge. Peirani is able to magic an astonishing, maybe unprecedented range of sounds out of his button accordion and accordina. He is an inheritor of the great French accordion tradition, and that shines through in his playing, but his own expressive purposes take him further. Peirani’s spiritual brother is Emile Parisien, and not only because both can improvise over anything from Wagner tunes to hiphop. And like his band-mates, Parisien takes his instrument acoustically and compositionally into new domains. That is also true of Michael Wollny’s piano playing, which is full of fantasy and always capable of springing surprises, whatever the context - and he plays in many. Wollny is one of the very few German jazz musicians - of any era - to have carved out a substantial profile internationally.

“Out of Land” does put on record one first meeting: Wollny and Schaerer had never in fact previously played together. The listener can sense the unleashing of huge performance energy, impetus and joy right from the outset. Schaerer comments: “A whole lot of the things we had discussed in rehearsal were over-ruled once we got on stage. It was done quite consciously, the music in the moment simply demanded something different. That works with this band. It just gets airborne.” The listener gets that sense of flying with the band right from the start of Peirani’s tune “Air Song”. This highly melodic miniature brings its own powerful emotional updraft. The rhythmic and dynamic exuberance in Peirani’s tune “B&H” are overwhelming, while Wollny’s “Kabinett V” overflows with the desire for sonic experiment and discovery. Schaerer’s “Rezeusler” inspires the group to a combined burst of creative inspiration. This tune has evolved through various guises. Schaerer first imagined it as an uptempo roaster for sextet, it then morphed into a through-composed ballad for full orchestra, and is here in completely new clothes as a suite for quartet. The sounds of Peirani’s accordion, Schaerer’s voice and Wollny’s piano swirl and eddy impressionistically, before they all dig in together for a heart-on-sleeve finale. “Ukuhamba” is a fourteenminute all-encompassing jam session-like epic, which brings the album to a close. This album brings the listener tinglingly close to a moment of creation by four brilliant musical alchemists. The result is pure gold.

01. Air Song (Vincent Peirani)

03. B & H (Vincent Peirani)

03. Kabinett V (Michael Wollny)

04. Rezeusler (Andreas Schaerer)

05. Ukuhamba (Andreas Schaerer)

Emile Parisien / soprano saxophone

Vincent Peirani / accordion

Andreas Schaerer / voice & mouth percussion

Michael Wollny / piano

Produced by the artists

Executive Producer: Siggi Loch

Recorded live in concert at bee-flat Bern, April 10, 2016

Mixed and mastered by Martin Ruch at Control Room Berlin, November 2016

Vincent Peirani & Michael Wollny - Tandem (2016) ACT MUSIC

"What this Nice-born Parisian coaxes out of the piano accordion is something the likes of which has never been heard before. You can tell it is a future legend who is playing here!" – Süddeutsche Zeitung. The French accordion player, singer and composer Vincent Peirani was born on 24.4.1980 in Nice. At the age of 11 he began playing the accordion, initially classical music. As a teenager he already won numerous international awards. At 16 he discovered jazz and soon took up the study of jazz in Paris. At the beginning he faced scepticism with his accordion and his classical training, but he quickly convinced the critics with an entirely new way of looking at the instrument, made a name for himself in France's jazz scene and was soon playing with the creme de la creme of French jazz, the likes of Michel Portal, Daniel Humair, Renaud Garcia Fons, Louis Sclavis and Vincent Courtois. 

Parallel to that he pursued many of his own projects, drawing from the widest range of genres – from jazz, chanson and world music through to classic and even heavy rock. Since 2011, Peirani has been playing regularly in the quartet of the Korean singer Youn Sun Nah, the most successful female jazz artist in France in recent years. Through this engagement he also made the acquaintance of Swedish guitarist Ulf Wakenius and ultimately the boss of the ACT label Siggi Loch. Peirani played on the Wakenius album "Vagabond" recorded in February 2012, also astonishing and enthralling live audiences everywhere. "Thrill Box" came out in May 2013 and was Vincent Peirani's first album as a leader – star-studded with pianist Michael Wollny, bassist Michel Benita and saxophonists Michel Portal and Émile Parisien. The album showcases the entire wealth of facets of Peirani's musical influences, and reveals more impressively than ever before what an intelligent and artful composer he is, and what a masterful and profoundly musical instrumentalist and storyteller.

01. Song Yet Untitled 4:16

03. Hunter 3:55

04. Bells 3:13

05. Did You Say Rotenberg? 5:02

06. Sirenes 5:05

07. Uniskate 4:03

08. Vignette 4:02

09. Fourth of July 4:33

10. Travesuras 6:20

Vincent Peirani, accordion

Michael Wollny, piano