Back in 2014, when German pianist Michael Wollny released his Weltentraum album, he brought together around his keyboard the drums of his old accomplice and compatriot Eric Shaefer and the roaring bass of American Tim Lefebvre (partner of Wayne Krantz, David Bowie and Elvis Costello), truly laying foundations of an utterly personal and innovative 'art of the trio'. Nearly ten years later, Wollny and his companions have definitively imposed their sound signature on the formula, continuing to develop an orchestral and organic conception in a dense, dark, lyrical music, at once very contemporary in its rhythms and sonorities and as if continually infused by some timeless gothic imaginary referring back to the darkest vein of German Romanticism.

Initiated in November 2015 to mark the 30th anniversary of the Jazzdor festival, the line-up devised by Louis Sclavis in the company of Benjamin Moussay on piano, Sarah Murcia on double bass and Christophe Lavergne on drums now takes on a new twist, becoming a quintet with the addition of trumpeter Olivier Laisney. Inspired by the contrasting sounds of the clarinet's woody sweetness and the tawny colours of the brass, Sclavis has composed a new programme entitled 'India', a direct reference to the title of his famous 1987 album 'Chine'. A series of lyrical and resolutely rhythmic themes which, while only having a distant connection with India in the form of vague reminiscences and diffuse influences, powerfully nourish the imagination of the musicians and take them on a baroque journey of great evocative power.