L'Imparfait des Langues

Last updated
L'imparfait des Langues
L'imparfait des Langues.jpg
Studio album by
Louis Sclavis
Released2007
RecordedApril 2005
StudioStudios la Buissonne
Pernes-les-Fontaines
Genre Avant-garde jazz
Length56:03
Label ECM
ECM 1954
Producer Manfred Eicher, Louis Sclavis
Louis Sclavis chronology
African Flashback
(2005)		L'imparfait des Langues
(2007)		 Lost on the Way
(2009)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
All About Jazz Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [1]
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]
The Guardian Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [4]

L'imparfait des langues ("The Imperfection of Language") is an album by French jazz musician Louis Sclavis, recorded in April 2005 and released by ECM in 2007, his fifth for label, and twelfth overall.

Contents

Background

Sclavis had received a commission to premiere a new project at the Monaco Festival Le Printemps des Arts in Monte Carlo, in April 2005. Having put together an ensemble, Sclavis sketched the compositions for L'imparfait des langues in ten days. The concert was cancelled at short notice due to the death of Monaco's Prince Rainier. Without a venue, Sclavis and his group booked into a recording studio in Pernes-les-Fontaines and recorded the music in a single day. [5]

Music

Sclavis was keen to challenge his compositional habits and brought together an ensemble with which he had had little previous experience. [5] The players were not "pure jazz", but worked in many different styles of music. Structurally, many of the pieces are based on short 8 or 16-bar phrases and equal emphasis is placed on texture and sound as well as melody. The album has a wide textural diversity, from the "aggressive improvisation" of "L'idée du dialecte" and the Sonic Youth-style overdriven guitar of Maxime Delpierre's "Convocation" to the heavily processed vocals of "Annonce" and the repetitive "Le verbe." [6]

Track listing

All compositions by Louis Sclavis, except "Premier imparfait «a»" and "Premier imparfait «b»" by Louis Sclavis and Paul Brousseau and "Convocation" by Maxime Delpierre.

  1. "Premier imparfait «a»" – 1:46
  2. "L'idée du dialecte" – 6:57
  3. "Premier imparfait «b»" – 1:01
  4. "Le verbe" – 6:42
  5. "Dialogue with a dream" – 3:59
  6. "Annonce" – 1:40
  7. "Archéologie" – 6:12
  8. "Deuxieme imparfait" – 2:16
  9. "Convocation" – 1:16
  10. "Palabre" – 4:00
  11. "Le longs du temps" – 5:30
  12. "L'écrit sacrifié" – 2:25
  13. "Story of a phrase" – 7:32
  14. "L'imparfait des langues" – 3:57

Personnel

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References

  1. ↑ Kelman, John. "Louis Sclavis: L'imparfait des langues album review @ All About Jazz". All About Jazz. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  2. ↑ Jurek, Thom. "L' Imparfait des Langues - Louis Sclavis | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  3. ↑ Fordham, John (2 February 2007). "CD: Louis Sclavis, L'imparfait de langues". the Guardian. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  4. ↑ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 1273. ISBN   978-0-141-03401-0.
  5. 1 2 "ECM Records". ECM Records. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  6. ↑ Louis Sclavis | L'imparfait des langues
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