L'Imparfait des Langues

Updated on Oct 21, 2023

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Released 2007 L'imparfait des Langues (2007) Lost on the Way (2009) Release date 2007 Genre Jazz		Length 56:03 Artist Louis Sclavis Label ECM Records

Recorded April 2005, at Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-les-Fontaines African Flashback (2005) L'imparfait des Langues (2007) Producers Manfred Eicher, Louis Sclavis Similar Lost on the Way, Napoli's Walls, L'Affrontement des Prétendants, Les violences de Rame, Silk And Salt Melodies

Canop e trio l imparfait des langues

L'imparfait des Langues is the twelfth album by French jazz musician Louis Sclavis, and his fifth for ECM Records.

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 10 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.

Music

Sclavis was keen to challenge his compositional habits and brought together an ensemble with which he had had little previous experience. 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 Sonic Youth-style overdriven guitar of Maxime Delpierre's "Convocation" to the heavily processed vocals of "Annonce" and the repetitive "Le verbe".

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