Impression Stream

1. Yedi (S. Guillaume)
2. Habanera (S. Guillaume)
3. Three Lines (S. Guillaume)
4. Valse Errante (S. Guillaume)
5. Ambivalence (V. Mendoza)
   SUPSPENDED MUSIC (ASCAP) administered by MODERN WORKS
6. Navarinou Road (S. Guillaume)
7. Seguiriya (S. Guillaume)

8. Aside (S. Guillaume / S. Erçetin / A. Banville)
9. L'Île Aux Cygnes (M. Grailler)
10. Chant Corse (H. Tomasi)
    @1932 Première Music Group - Catalogue ALPHONSE LEDUC EDITIONS MUSICALES
11. Hearsay (S. Guillaume / S. Erçetin / M. Papapetropoulou / A. Banville)
12. Like An Angel (D. Lockwood)
    JMS Editions Musicales

“For several years now, I've been looking for a way to subtly combine my world as a jazz musician with that of chamber music. With Stamboulian cellist Sedef Erçetin and her Athenian pianist accomplice Maria Papapetropoulou, I dreamed of occupying the violin's place in an emblematic trio form. With the addition of percussionist Antoine Banville as a precious travelling companion, the trio finds a balance of colors and rhythms in which the meanders of my writing and improvisations slip through. May this little journey through a dozen small, impressionistic and intimate tableaux take you as far as the pleasure we had in making it.”

I chose the most emblematic chamber music formation, the piano trio, to subtly cross our universes, occupying the place of the violin with my soprano saxophone.

Inviting Athenian pianist Maria Papapetropoulou to join this experiment was an obvious choice. Indeed, Sedef and Maria have a great musical complicity which has been illustrated in the “Metamorphosis” duo for over twenty years, a duo for which I wrote a special piece for cello and piano a few years ago, a composition which undoubtedly prefigures the desire to push further the specific writing for these instruments.

For this formation, the mission is to combine the impressionistic and intimate aspect of chamber music with the language of a jazz soloist; so we had to add a more rhythmic element with percussion that subtly colors the intimate atmospheres while proposing singular paths for the improvising soloists. Percussionist Antoine Banville has been a friend and fellow traveler for many years: he is the drummer in my quartet, with whom we have recorded numerous albums. His deep understanding of the intricacies of my writing made him a natural choice for this project.

With this ensemble, I'm trying to offer a fine combination of these two universes that fascinate me and in which I like to lose myself. While remaining faithful to my own harmonic universe and to the role of improvisation in my writing, the repertoire gives pride of place to original compositions, conceived for the musical singularities of each of the quartet's members. These creations can sometimes be mixed with revisited repertory works, and why not tinted here and there with world influences (Mediterranean, South America...) to invite the listener to travel a little further.”

Stéphane Guillaume
https://stephaneguillaume.com