Sylvie Courvoisier is among today's most original and promising musicians and composers. Born in 1968 in Lausanne/Switzerland, she studied piano, composition and conducting at the conservatories of Montreux and Lausanne until 1994. In 1995 and 1996, she performed at the renowned New Jazz Meetings in Baden-Baden along with Enrico Rava, Marc Ducret, Dominique Pifarély, and Tomasz Stanko. Sylvie received a Swiss Young Creators Award in 1996. Her performances were hailed highlights both at Willisau Jazz Festival and Donaueschingen New Music Festival in 1997. A virtuosic pianist and daring composer, she has been influenced by modern classical composers like Ligeti, Varese, Schönberg, Schnittke or Takemitsu as well as such jazz pianists as Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk. Led by her inner visions, Sylvie's music combinates cleverly composed construction and improvisational freedom - a strong and unmistakably personal mixture of expressionistic, minimalistic, polyphonic and modern jazz languages.
Following her successful 1997 ENJA album "Ocre" (ENJ-9323 2, Stereo: *****, Jazzman: ****), Sylvie's new album "Y2K" uses the barrel organ (orgue de barbarie) as the organic center of her trio. Born in 1943 in Lyon/France and a graduate of Lyon conservatory, Pierre Charial discovered this mechanical instrument in the early seventies and started to open it up for music from composers as diverse as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Berio, Xenakis, Ligeti, Nancarrow, Chick Corea, Martial Solal and many more. Usually it takes him about two days to punch just one minute of music into the cards that control his instrument. In Sylvie's trio, the barrel organ serves as a living sound machine providing the structural frames for the musical interaction between the pianist and Michel Godard, today's leading innovator and soloist on both tuba and serpent. Born in 1960 near Belfort/France and a former student at the conservatories of Besançon and Paris, Godard worked with the Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Musique Vivante and others. He could also be heard with Orchestre National de Jazz, Rabih Abou-Khalil, Samul Nori, Michel Portal, Henri Texier, Ray Anderson, and other living composers and improvisers. A concentrated musical adventure, state of the art. |