Ghost Rhythms

France's Ghost Rhythms are a Parisian jazz-rock band led by two composers/instrumentalists: drummer Xavier Gélard and pianist Camille Petit. The core group consists of ten members who are often joined by numerous guests adding winds, reeds, accordions, percussion, etc. The players create a chamber music-influenced sound that walks the knife edge between jazz fusion and avant-garde modern composition. Their membership is comprised entirely of jazz and classical players few of which are full-time musicians; the group's aesthetic balances immediacy with a more cerebral approach. Critics remarked of their self-titled 2007 debut album, that the music of Ghost Rhythms bore some resemblance to the zeuhl music created by countrymen Christian Vander and Magma. Ghost Rhythms self-released their first three studio albums on the Laboratoire d'Exploration Musicale record label. In 2015, they issued the double-concept album Madeleine dedicated to and inspired by the character of the same name played by Kim Novak in the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo. Drummer Gélard and pianist Petit have known one another since the mid-'90s. Completely self-taught musicians, together and separately they worked in a variety of rock and progressive rock ensembles. Neither had any background in jazz, but both were interested in forming a jazz ensemble. To that end, they recruited academically trained jazz and classical players, making it clear from the outset that they would compose and arrange all the group's music. Their view was that a compelling tension could be achieved by juxtaposing their self-taught experience with the collected expertise of formally trained players from different genres. In 2007, Ghost Rhythms issued their self-titled debut offering on their own Laboratoire d'Exploration Musicale. Though it received few reviews, they were uniformly positive and generated enough interest so that by 2008, they were regularly gigging in various small Paris venues, but had yet to come to the attention of established media and institutions. After winning prizes in several talent contests -- including at the Boule Bleue festival in September (subsequently, they were invited back to headline at the 2009 fest) -- they gained more mainstream venue and media attention. Also in 2008, Ghost Rhythms recorded their follow-up offering, Sept Cercles, but given their intense touring schedule and additional commitments by other members, it remained unreleased until 2012, when it was picked up by radio DJs and jazz critics. Ghost Rhythms won prizes at the Jazz à La Défense Festival in Paris in June 2012, they took home second place in the Best Composer category and third for Best Ensemble. They also won over crowds, critics, and judges at the Jazz en Baie Festivale near the Mont-Saint-Michel in September 2013. The La Défense prizes proved instrumental in getting booked in Paris’ leading jazz clubs, such as the Sunset, where they won yet another talent contest. 2015's double-length Madeleine was inspired by the more or less accepted critical view that Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon served as an alternate score to the film The Wizard of Oz. Madeleine was created as an adaptation of the movie score to Vertigo told from the viewpoint of Kim Novak's character. Widely distributed, it marked the first time that many internationally located critics and media encountered Ghost Rhythms. They were lauded for their large group approach that wed fusion and classical themes to folk, rock, and vanguard influences. In 2019, Cuneiform released Live at Yoshiwara, a set recorded in front of a small audience just before Christmas 2018 at Les Frigos in Paris, the room that serves as the band's weekly rehearsal setting. It was Ghost Rhythms' first recording for an American-based label and the first to democratically feature compositions from every member of the band rather that exclusively by its principals.
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