Andy Emler : a baltic autumn odyssey celebrating Ravel and Vapaat äänet (www.vapaataanet.fi)
from 10/16/2016 to 11/4/2016 in Estonia, Latvia and Finland
From October 16th to November 4th pianist, composer and improviser Andy Emler invites his listeners in Estonia, Latvia and Finland to a dreamlike immersion in his own solo fantasia on Maurice Ravel. Bassist Claude Tchamitchian and drummer Eric Echampard will join on the last week of the tour, to perform a few concerts with the lyrical and acclaimed Andy Emler Trio. This Baltic Odyssey will reach its peak in a burst of Franco-Finnish musical delights on November 1st and 3rd in Helsinki and Espoo. On these dates Mikko Innanen and a good crowd of his fellow leading musicians will join forces with the Gallic trio to celebrate twenty years of Vapaat äänet’s tours.
Andy Emler / portrait by Sylvain Gripoix
www.andyemler.eu/my-own-ravel-solo-andy
Andy Emler “My Own Ravel” on tour
ESTONIA Eesti Kontsert
16/10 Viljandi, Pärimusmuusika Ait
17/10 Alatskivi Castle / “Muusika Eestimaale”
18/10 Jõgeva, Kulttuurikeskus / “Muusika Eestimaale”
LATVIA French Institute in Latvia
19/10 Valka, Music School
20/10 Valmiera, Cultural House
21/10 Madona, House of Culture
22/10 Vecpiebalga, cultural house
23/10 Luzvana, Manor house
24/10 Talsi, House of societies
FINLAND kiertuetiedote suomeksi
25/10 Salo, Veturitalli, Salon taidemuseo
26/10 Pori, Palmgren konservatorio / Validi Karkia -klubi
28/10 Loviisa, Keskus Centralen / with Claude Tchamitchian
01/11 Helsinki, Malmitalo / with Gourmet ” Cosmopolitan Sideshow”
Vapaat äänet Twenty Years -concert #1
04/11 Jyväskylä, Siltasali / solo + JAO workshop band
“My own Ravel“ – Arnaud Merlin (a Radio France’s producer and journalist)
“Everything here brings Ravel to mind, and yet none of the music heard is actually his. Lulled by his Spanish-tinged rhythms, carried away by some dance from the past (a waltz or a furlana, a pavane or a rigodon), Andy immersed himself in his liquid world of mirroring water games. Feeding on his orientalist archaisms, he studied his music’s clockwork, taking over its drones and bells.
Since Jean Echenoz had turned Maurice Ravel into a novel-like figure, it made perfect sense for Andy Emler to create a fiction out of his work : a counterpart in music to tell another version of Ravel’s story.”
Listen: 01 Ouvertoire – 02 Le retour de l’oiseau – 03 Iberodanse
Andy Emler : My notes with Ravel…
I have always been attracted to and moved by artists from the late 19th and early 20th century. Most especially composers and their music.
Ravel is one of those whom I most listened to, one whose music has left a particularly vivid memory in me…
In 2006, Jean Echenoz published “Ravel”, which I read avidly. I fell under the spell of his writing.
Then one day, Anne-Marie Lazarini, director and manager of the Artistic Athévains theatre in Paris, approached me to write and perform the music for her next production… “Ravel” by Jean Echenoz !
I like her theatrical vision, she knows what my musical life is like… This was an immersion in Ravel’s music followed. Several months later, I emerged with the nine written pieces and five improvisations presented on this album.
May lovers of Ravel’s music glimpse part of his spirit in this music, and share my joy of inhabiting the notes of Maurice R.