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Clair-Obscur

Sandrine Piau

Classical - Released March 5, 2021 | Alpha Classics

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‘The dreamer! That double of our existence, that chiaroscuro of the thinking being’, wrote Gaston Bachelard in 1961. ‘The old is dying, the new cannot be born, and in that chiaroscuro, monsters appear’, adds Antonio Gramsci. Sandrine Piau has chosen to use these two quotations as an epigraph to her new recording: ‘My family and friends know about this obsession that never leaves me completely. The antagonism between light and darkness. The chiaroscuro, the space in between...’ This programme, recorded with the Orchestre Victor Hugo under its conductor Jean-François Verdier, who is also principal clarinettist of the Paris Opéra, travels between the chilly Rhenish forest of Waldgespräch, a ballad by Zemlinsky composed for soprano and small ensemble in 1895, the night of the first of Berg’s Seven Early Songs (1905-08), and the sunlight of Richard Strauss’s Morgen, which are followed by the Four Last Songs, composed in 1948, the first two of which, Frühling and September (evoking spring and autumn respectively) are also, as Sandrine Piau concludes, ‘the seasons of life’. © Alpha Classics
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SYMPHONIC

Sébastien Tellier

Electronic - Released February 4, 2022 | Horizons

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Pocket Rhapsody II

Frank Woeste

Jazz - Released October 30, 2020 | ACT Music

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SYMPHONIC

Sébastien Tellier

Electronic - Released February 25, 2022 | Horizons

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Clair Obscur

Françoise Hardy

French Music - Released May 1, 2000 | Parlophone (France)

Hardy's 1996 album, Le Danger, was not great, but it was a respectable and, more importantly, fairly hard-rocking effort that did much to restore her credibility after a very desultory output in the 1980s. Her follow-up, 2000's Clair Obscur, unfortunately erases a good deal of the ground she regained with her previous record. It is, at least, not nearly as over-produced or bathed in mediocre period-pop production as her 1980s releases were, and her voice remains in astonishingly good shape. It is, however, mostly devoted to genteel, sentimental pop songs that bounce by amiably, but don't penetrate or inspire, either melodically or vocally. At times these sound like soundtrack pieces from the kind of French movies that make it to the arthouse circuit not because they're good, but because they're French and sentimental. Four duets are included, among them tracks on which she sings with fellow French stars Jacques Dutronc and Etienne Daho, the latter of those being an English-language cover of the Everly Brothers' "So Sad." More surprisingly, "I'll Be Seeing You" is a duet with Iggy Pop, though those expecting a rock-fest will be disappointed, as it's a lightweight -- "bouncy" is again the unavoidable adjective -- interpretation of the ancient pop standard, with an uncharacteristically reserved, straight vocal from the Igster. The more haunted and sad the tunes are, the better, as proven by "La Verite Des Choses" and "Contre Vents et Marees," but those songs aren't good enough to redeem the album.© Richie Unterberger /TiVo

Clair Obscur

Bernard Lavilliers

French Music - Released January 1, 1997 | Universal Music Division Barclay

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Hinterland

Wobbler

Progressive Rock - Released September 6, 2005 | Karisma Records

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Clair Obscur: Oeuvres du 16e et du 17e siècle pour flûte et orgue

Various Composers

Classical - Released June 30, 2023 | Claves Records

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Avec le temps

Soso Maness

Hip-Hop/Rap - Released June 4, 2021 | RCA Group

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Retiens mon désir

Cléa Vincent

French Music - Released October 7, 2016 | Midnight special records

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En clair-obscur

The Offline

Electronic - Released July 8, 2022 | Root Records

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Un Jour Si Blanc

François Couturier

Jazz - Released January 25, 2010 | ECM

The title of François Couturier's album, Un Jour Si Blanc, comes from a poem by Soviet filmmaker Andreï Tarkovsky, an artist with whom the pianist is fascinated and whose work was the inspiration for his entire 2006 album, Nostalghia: Song for Tarkovsky. The French pianist has devoted most of his career to jazz, but he obviously knows the classical repertoire well because in previous albums he has made musical references to composers as diverse as Pergolesi, Beethoven, Schoenberg, and Schnittke. That broad frame of reference gives his music an uncommon expressive scope, and the selections on this album offer an impressive stylistic and emotional range. It's possible to hear the influence of Messiaen in L'aube, Ligeti in the crystalline chromatic sections of the title track, and sultry hints of Piazzolla in Voyage d'hiver, but there is no sense of appropriation because the voice is always Couturier's own. His dazzlingly crisp technique gives him the freedom to explore and create pianistic figures that would be out of the reach of all but the most virtuosic players. In the more meditative pieces, he plays with a mesmerizing, unhurried serenity and flexibility; it almost feels like it's possible to hear him listening. Couturier can be heard quietly vocalizing in the more intense passages, but it's no distraction. The album should appeal to fans of both jazz and new classical music with a taste for the adventurous. ECM's sound is characteristically clean, clear, and immediate. © TiVo
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Clair obscur

Gabriel Keller

Pop/Rock - Released March 19, 2022 | iMD-GabrielKeller

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Clair Obscur

Lionel Belmondo

Jazz - Released March 17, 2011 | Jazz & People

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Opus 7: Préludes

Alain Lefèvre

Classical - Released February 19, 2021 | Warner Classics

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Alain Lefèvre is a story-teller. A story-teller who uses the piano to play a multitude of roles. These characters perform the chapters of an imaginary novel set to music in which the author lets us discover for ourselves how the story ends. © Warner Classics
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Electric Side

Biréli Lagrène

Jazz - Released August 25, 2008 | Dreyfus Jazz

Bireli Lagrene has been so indelibly associated with the Gypsy guitar style of Django Reinhardt since the early '80s, and has recorded within that well-defined niche so often, that only his most die-hard fans might even be aware that he has quite often ventured into electric fusion and other genres during the last couple of decades as well. But never has he ventured so far afield from his roots as he does on Electric Side. The title only hints at just how electrified this session is: this is a decidedly contemporary take, stacked not only with guitar and synth riffs that could have come off an old Mahavishnu Orchestra album but samples, scratching, and other trappings of the non-Django world. Just to throw another wrench into the works, Lagrene augments the guitar-bass-drums-keys-turntablist lineup with saxophonist Franck Wolf (who has worked with him before and provides several of the album's more incendiary moments) and Andy Narell, one of the foremost steelpan players in the world. Whether the album will sit well with an individual listener may have more to do with that listener's expectations than anything that's happening within the music, however. To be sure, these guys are virtuosi, and they rip it up here: Lagrene is well suited for these high-energy, high-volume jams, with their breakneck paces and unexpected rhythmic shifts. And while DJ Afro Cut-Nanga comes off at times as more novelty than essential component, it's easy to understand why Lagrene wanted him on a set of tunes (mostly self-penned, save for Herbie Hancock's "Jack Rabbit" and "Incertitude," written by Django's son Babik Reinhardt) intended to push his own legacy into uncharted waters. That said, though, there is a palpable and pervasive lack of soulfulness to Electric Side that is never felt when Lagrene does his Django-inspired thing or stays within the bounds of more straight-ahead jazz. His chops on the electric guitar are never in question, but other recent efforts like 2001's Gypsy Project and 2006's Solo: To Bi or Not to Bi are the kind of Bireli Lagrene albums one is more likely to return to long after this exercise in strutting is shelved with a shrug.© Jeff Tamarkin /TiVo
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Vierne: Clair obscur

Franck Besingrand

Classical - Released April 29, 2016 | HORTUS

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Clair obscur

Lionel Monnet

Classical - Released December 20, 2019 | Label G

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Jane Antonia Cornish: Duende, In Luce & Clair-Obscur

The Lee Trio

Chamber Music - Released April 1, 2014 | Delos

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