Article
Spotlight 1
Albums
Aquarelle
Barem
Biosphere
Chubby Wolf
Collard-Neven
Cuni & Durand
FareWell Poetry
Field Rotation
Fonogram
Keith Freund
Freiband
Buckminster Fuzeboard
Harley Gaber
Richard Ginns
Grauraum
Hilton/Phillips
Jenny Hval
Jasper TX
Kenneth Kirschner
The Last Hurrah!!
Letna
The Lickets
Melorman
Penalune
Mat Playford
Radiosonde
Salt Lake Electric Ens.
Will Samson
Janek Schaefer
Phillip Schroeder
Silkie
Sølyst
Swimming
Nicholas Szczepanik
Talvihorros
Kanazu Tomoyuki
Luigi Turra
Watson & Davidson
y0t0
You
Compilations / Mixes
Bleak Wilderness Of Sleep
Lee Curtiss
Deep Medi Volume 3
Goldie
Goldmann & Johannsen
Heidi
Mindfield
Priestley & Smith
SM4 Compilation
EPs
Agoria
Bop Singlayer
Botany
Duprass
Margaret Dygas
Fennesz
Golden Gardens
I Am A Vowel
Mobthrow
Dana Ruh
Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven:
Between The Lines
flau
The Belgium-based Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven describes Between The Lines' piano pieces as music that came to him effortlessly, as music that “surface(d) naturally, without being summoned”; he also characterizes the album as perhaps the “most personal I have ever made.” Its thirteen pieces certainly do sound as if they're so close to his heart, that they naturally poured forth with little struggle. Apparently, the album originated from bits and pieces he'd accumulated over a fifteen-year span, with half-finished songs and scraps of melody gathering dust in his drawers. Refined on technical grounds without being stuffy, the emphasis here is on melodic, song-based rumination rather than strict classical form—more Bill Evans than Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, if you will. Consistent with that song-based approach, the album's thirteen pieces are relatively short, with most falling somewhere between two to six minutes in length. They're consistently pretty too, not to mention filled with emotion, whether that be melancholy, jubilance, or even mournfulness.
Collard-Neven brings an elegant touch and command of tempo to the settings. Never overbearing, he also opts for tasteful restraint, and consequently one is never left wishing he'd play fewer notes. That's not to say, however, that all of the pieces are minimal in design; the third “Falling Star” piece is certainly dense though not gratuitously so, and the title track's thick clusters and cascades resonate vibrantly. He chooses his song titles carefully too, as in many cases the mood of a given piece clearly matches the title selected: “Northern Lights” conveys the grandeur of the titular phenomenon, and “Leaving Valparaiso” and “Lost Paradise” are suitably wistful. Similar in spirit are the pensive and reflective “Moon Smile” and “A Kiss by the Sea,” which feels especially suffused with memories of romantic longing.
A few echoes of other artists and music surface in interesting ways. During the plaintive “Falling Star 2,” for example, a subtle hint of “My Man's Gone Now” emerges in the song's melodic progression, and when Collard-Neven's voice is heard softly murmuring during the bright “Gus” and autumnal “Dust's Hope,” one can't help but be reminded of the similar vocal sounds Keith Jarrett and Glenn Gould added to their own recordings. Aside from the pianist's exquisite rendering of the material, it's Between The Lines' strong melodic dimension that distinguishes its songs most of all.
September 2011