The Weight of Light Benoît Delbecq

• 1 The Loop of Chicago 08:00
• 2 Dripping Stones 03:07
• 3 Family Trees 04:15
• 4 Chemin sur le Crest 03:21
• 5 Au Fil de la Parole 02:25
• 6 Anamorphoses 07:37
• 7 Havn en Havre 05:30
• 8 Pair et Impair 09:47
• 9 Broken World 04:51
• Total Runtime 48:53

Info for The Weight of Light

“Internationally acclaimed pianist and composer Benoît Delbecq issues The Weight of Light on Pyroclastic Records, his first solo release in more than a decade. Following intentional exploration and years of extended research, confronting the smooth and the striated within his playing, the Paris-based artist now offers open-eared listeners new, deeply personal connections to the music inspired by movement- centric perspectives on shadow and light.”

Benoît Delbecq is one of the few true improvising piano geniuses of our times. He has steadfastly created his own musical universe of sound, impeccable craft and beauty that is wondrous, resonant and free in the best sense of the word.” (Fred Hersch, pianist and composer)

“[Music of] exotic and mysterious qualities” (ill Shoemaker, JazzTimes)

“Delbecq likes to go beyond normal technique. He puts things on and between the piano strings to make it a raw and sensitive percussion machine.”(Ben Ratliff, The New York Times)

"To understand his sense of nuance and subtlety, Delbecq writes he "drew the record cover pretty fast, but the shadow took me days. I wanted to render something mysterious about the shadow of this mobile.” His music has the same attention to detail, however small, fragile and insignificant it may seem. When you reduce music to its essence, every detail gets more weight. Check out the attention given to the wooden objects used to mute the strings, and his obvious reference to the African balaphon. Delbecq's music is beyond categorisation, and a true delight." (Stef Gijssels, freejazzblog.org)

Benoît Delbecq, piano

Benoît Delbecq - Piano
Born in 1966, Parisian pianist Benoît Delbecq gures today among the innovators of the international contemporary jazz scene. His reputation and in uence have been growing steadily since the early 90’s, and the New York Times recently described him as « an original and unconventional pianist » who « expertly » invents a « serene » music. An inspired adventurer, a goldsmith of prepared piano and a visionary poet in the art of electronically recycling his own statements, he actively participates in the new aesthetic breakthroughs of today.
A former student of Mal Waldron, Alan Silva, Muhal Richard Abrams and Steve Coleman among others, Benoît’s international pro le took o around 1992 from appearances at Paris’s cutting-edge club « Les Instants Chavirés », in parallel with the founding of Kartet, The Recyclers and the Hask Collective, all of which helped revitalize the Paris creative music scene. Since then Benoît has been touring around the globe. He performs solo piano and solo electronics, leads or co-leads a number of bands from duos to quintets, and is involved in many multi-disciplinary productions of theater, dance, the visual arts, cinema etc. His music features mesmerizing grooves that shake out ashing, lunar melodies. An invitation to a voyage into a magic land (in Le Monde).

« Prix de la Sacem » in 1995 (with the collective Kartet), Benoît was awarded the « Prix de la Villa Médicis Hors les Murs » in 2001, and received the prestigious fellowship of the Civitella Fundation New York (2009). His last CDs, The sixth Jump (trio with bass player Jean-Jacques Avenel et drummer Emile Biayenda) and Circles and Calligrams (solo) both received the « Grand Prix International du Disque Charles Cros » 2010 and are part of the ten albums of the year for the New-York Times and Le Monde

This album contains no booklet.