Jazz and improvisational pianist with some classic as well as modern inspiration, Bourget "displays impressive technical qualities and shows inexhaustible creative inspiration. An energetic music, extremely dense, as well as uncommon harmonic richness" (Pierre Boulet).
Canadian pianist Claude Marc Bourget stopped his amazing musical career in the middle of the 1980’s to turn into a brilliant writer who has already published several books. At 50 years young he has returned to the euphonic highlights with an album of extraordinary maturity, brilliance and lyricism, crossing jazz and classical soundscapes, which in turn appear both impressionist and contemporary. Improviser Bourget has not lost touch with his talent but instead has grown and gained in reflection rather than embracing conformity, repetition, or freezing formulas sometimes present in the musical world. One must follow his long phrases, his always subtle rhythms, his moments of blues, and freedom in the themes and contrasts.
Claude Marc Bourget’s playing is intense, especially in the silences, clearly influenced by Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett and Glen Gould. For Bourget, solo improvisation is an art in itself; his choice of art, a way to bring us to the end of a road in a subtle manner and with the assurance of a master. The high quality of this recording is remarkable. Claude Marc Bourget, indeed has chosen to celebrate his return in the magnificent concert hall of Domain Forget in Charlevoix (Canada), playing a Hamburg Steinway, sustaining each note with velvet hands. There are no effects of the studio here and no technical artifice. It’s the piano, the pianist and the natural echo of the hall Françoys Bernier, installed on the awesome St. Lawrence River … to discover. |
TRACKS
1. OPENING
PART I
2. NORTHERN RESTLESSNESS
3. INTERLUDE
4. PLAYS OF WINDS
5. DANCE OF THE LARGE BIRD
6. SECRET ICE
PART II
7. SECOND TIME
8. LULL IN ASHES (BRAHMS)
9. SONG OF DESTINY (BEETHOVEN)
10. SONG OF PAST
11. TIDES OF HOPEWELL ROCKS
PART III
12. DRIPPING OF WHITENESS
13. UNGRUND
14. RIVER IN THE AIR
15. AWAKENING CYCLE
16. CODA
17. RISING DEATH (ADAGIO)
65:14 |