Francois Couturier

Un jour si blancECM ****

Couturier's latest album belongs to the honoured ECM tradition of solo piano embracing Jarrett, Corea, Bley, Bollani, Tsabropoulos and Alperin. Of these it's closest to the last two and just as tenuously connected to jazz. Its lovely performances, whether spontaneously devised or created from existing material, are the reflections of a gifted pianist first shaped by classical music. But the poet in Couturier, as in his earlier quartet ECM album, Nostalghia: Song For Tarkovsky, answers to diverse inspirations.

Here they include composers such as Takemitsu, Bach and Debussy, poets such as Rimbaud and Tarkovsky's father, Arseni, and painters such as Miró. His responses give rise to some sensuously expressionist improvisations, especially the beautiful Un jour si blanc, Voyage d'hiver, Par les soirs bleus d'été, Moonlightand the almost religious experience of L'intemporeil.

See ecmrecords.com