Preludes & Songs François Couturier & Dominique Pifarély

• 1 Le surcroît I 01:54
• 2 La chanson des vieux amants 04:47
• 3 A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square / Les ombres, Pt. 2 07:26
• 4 Les ombres, Pt . 1 / Lament 10:34
• 5 Le surcroît II 01:44
• 6 Song for Harrison / Solitude 07:39
• 7 Vague 03:46
• 8 What Us 05:39
• 9 I Loves You, Porgy 06:13
• Total Runtime 49:42

Info for Preludes & Songs

François Couturier and Dominique Pifarély, defining figures in creative music in France, renew their special connection on Preludes and Songs, an album of sensitive interaction, improvisational flair, and wide ranging artistic reference. Almost three decades have elapsed since the last ECM album by the pianist and violinist (Poros, recorded in 1997), and although there have been shared musical adventures in the interim, this recording amounts to a reassessment and realignment of their duo work: “The idea was not to go back to where we first stopped,” Dominique Pifarély explains, “but to start from the point that each of us had reached during this long pause. Therefore we had to really pay attention to each other’s musical personality, since we had built different ideas and forms meanwhile. We absolutely wanted to respect each other’s route, and find a passage to each other.”

Preludes and Songs, then, brings their story forward, with its programme including compositions by both players and a scattering of pieces that have become jazz standards: Duke Ellington’s “Solitude”, J.J. Johnson’s “Lament”, George Gershwin’s “I Loves You Porgy” and Manning Sherwin’s “A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square” are all transformed and liberated in these interpretations, as is Jacques Brel’s “La chanson des vieux amants”. “We consider this Brel song also as a ‘standard’ - for French-speakers, anyway, and maybe a bit abroad - even if not often played by jazz musicians.” If improvisation is one of the roads by which Pifarély and Couturier have arrived where they are today, everything played by the duo is informed by their feeling for jazz, classical, and new music idioms: they glide between them easily, seamlessly. (And, in passing, one might note that Ellington, Gershwin and J.J. Johnson also declined to be restricted to a single genre…)

The album opens with François Couturier’s “Le surcroȋt”, its title from a collection of poetry by André du Bouchet. François wrote this piece originally for an adventurous project with Pifarély and countertenor singer Dominique Visse, back in 2004. And Pifarély’s “What Us” incorporates and adapts material from a setting - also composed for the same project – of one of Paul Celan’s verses from Lichtduress, a poem that reflects on “Was uns zusammenwarf” (What threw us together).

A poetic sensibility, then, irradiates much of Preludes and Songs, but not all its allusions are literary. “Song for Harrison,” for instance, turns out to be a reflective portrait of François Couturier’s dog, “a charming cocker spaniel.” Here, Harrison eventually disrupts Ellington’s “Solitude”, banishing, perhaps, the Duke’s despair…

Dominique’s “Vague”, with undercurrents and lurching pulse like the swing of the sea, appeared previously in an extended quartet rendition on Tracé provisoire, released by ECM in 2016, and his dark-hued composition “Les ombres” has also been embraced in the Pifarély Quartet’s repertoire. “I like to give several versions of a piece,” he reasons, “rather than to consider that you have to abandon it as soon as it’s engraved.” New perspectives keep opening up, not least in a resonant acoustic space like the historic Reitstadel Neumarkt, renowned as a room for classical music, where the album was recorded and every textural nuance faithfully captured. “We really want to take advantage of the richness of the sounds of our instruments. In concert we usually play without a PA, so we like to have a real sounding space.”

Dominique Pifarély, François Couturier,
Recorded at Reitstadel Neumarkt in October 2023, mixed at Bavaria Musikstudios in April 2024, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Dominique Pifarély
modernized jazz violin, combining extraordinary technical skills with an inclusive idea of music-making. He has been soon very in-demand as a straight jazz player, but was soon in some of the more adventurous groups in Europe, too, including Mike Westbrook’s band (On Dukes’ Birthday, hatART) and the Vienna Art Orchestra.

In 1979, he began touring with bassist Didier Levallet and guitarist Gérard Marais as a trio. In the 1980s he began leading his own bands, as can be heard on 2 records, Insula Dulcamara (1988) et Oblique (1992).

In 1985, Pifarély started to work with reedist Louis Sclavis and in 1992, they formed the Sclavis/Pifarély Acoustic Quartet, featuring guitarist Marc Ducret and bassist Bruno Chevillon, and recorded for ECM. In the late 1990s, he started a duo work with pianist François Couturier, and they recorded a prominent album (Poros, ECM, 1997).

In the 2000’s, Dominique Pifarély leads different personal projects. Impromptu is a development of the collaboration with François Couturier, adding counter tenor Dominique Visse and a work on contemporary poetry. He initiated numerous text/music experiences with french writer François Bon and actors Violaine Schwartz and Pierre Baux. The Dédales Ensemble is a acoustic nine piece band. He founded in 2007 a trio with keyboard player Julien Padovani and drummer Eric Groleau, and the Dédales Ensemble (“Time Geography”, Poros éditions, 2013), played in duo with Michele Rabbia or Vincent Courtois,

In his mature style, the classical violin tradition and the swing lessons combine with a contemporary European sonic exploration ; his technical mastery and quick imagination allow him to move seamlessly between these worlds.

He regularly performs in whole Europe, and has been touring in USA, Canada, Japan, India, Middle East, Latin America or Africa.

François Couturier
began learning the piano at the age of six. After studying classical piano and musicology (graduating in 1977), he met bassist Jean-Paul Céléa in 1978 in Jacques Thollot's quartet, with whom he formed a duo. Between 1981 and 1983, he toured with John McLaughlin, with whom he also recorded. Over time, he played with French jazz musicians such as André Ceccarelli, Eddy Louiss, Michel Portal, François Jeanneau and Daniel Humair. From 2001, he toured frequently with oud player Anouar Brahem, on whose recordings "Le pas du Chat Noir" (2001) and "Le Voyage de Sahara" (2005) he took part. They first met at the Carthage Festival in 1985; Couturier played on Brahem's "Khomsa" (ECM) as early as 1994.

In 2006, François Couturier's album "Nostalghia - A Song for Tarkovsky" was released on ECM with saxophonist (soprano) Jean-Marc Larché, accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier and cellist Anja Lechner; the album is dedicated to film director Andrei Tarkovsky and his films. They also presented the music from the album at various festivals, first in Bergamo in 2006. In 2007, he played in the quintet "Passaggio", with whom he recorded two albums on the Label Bleu label, and in the "European Jazz Trio" with Celea and Wolfgang Reisinger. François Couturier also plays in a duo with violinist Dominique Pifarély (album "Poros" on ECM, 1997) and with pianist Jean-Pierre Chalet. He recorded “From Machaut to Berio” with the countertenor Dominique Visse.

François Couturier has recently recorded the albums Planisphères (1993), L'Ibère (1995), Nostalghia - Song for Tarkovsky (2006) and Un Jour Si Blanc (2010) under his own name. The pianist is currently under contract with the ECM label.

In 1981, François Couturier received the Prix Django Reinhardt.

Booklet for Preludes & Songs