12 improvisations en piano solo inspirées de la toile « Summer’s Hopes » de Patricia Jeanne Delmotte

« Summer's Hopes », une peinture de Patricia Jeanne Delmotte, a été la source d’inspiration de ces 12 improvisations. Peinte au cours de l’été 2018 au cœur de son jardin, cette artiste a été inspirée par la nature, avec ses couleurs, ses lumières et les émotions qu’elle procure.

Il ne s’agissait pas pour elle de reproduire un paysage ou de représenter des fleurs, des plantes et des arbres, mais plutôt d’essayer de traduire, par l’abstraction, l’impression laissée par la nature. En mars 2019, l’ingénieur du son Benoit Ganoote m’a proposé d’enregistrer des improvisations en piano solo. Face à la peinture accrochée sur le mur, j’ai improvisé en essayant de traduire en musique ce que cette magnifique toile produisait sur moi…

Patricia Jeanne Delmotte et Stefan Orins forment un duo artistique atypique depuis 2008, tandis que l’un peint et l’autre joue du piano. Leur complicité et leur obstination à avancer dans leur art respectif et dans leur projet commun les poussent constamment à aiguiser leur écoute et leur vision. Ils cultivent un terrain fertile pour l’improvisation dans leur duo appelé « Bonheur Temporaire » (d’après le titre du second album du Stefan Orins Trio). Ils n’hésitent pas à se lancer dans des expérimentations diverses comme des résidences, vernissages ou concerts visuels pour établir un contact vivant avec le public.

Enregistré à la maison, les 12, 13 et 14 mars 2019 par Benoit Ganoote

Summer’s Hopes is a painting from Patricia Jeanne Delmotte, that inspired me these 12 improvisations. Painted during summer 2018 in the heart of her garden, she was inspired by nature, with its colors, lights and the emotions it provides.

The point was not for this artist to reproduce a landscape or to represent flowers, plants and trees, but rather an attempt to translate, through abstraction, the impression left by nature. On March 2019, sound engineer Benoit Ganoote offered me to record piano solo improvisations. Looking at the painting on the wall in front of me, I improvised, trying to give an account through music of what the painting produced on me...

Patricia Jeanne Delmotte and Stefan Orins have formed an unusual artistic duo since 2008, while one is painting and the other plays the piano. Their complicity and their obstinacy to advance in their respective art and in their common project constantly push them to sharpen their listening and their vision. They cultivate a fertile ground for improvisation in their duo called «Bonheur Temporaire» (named after an album by Stefan Orins Trio). They do not hesitate to embark on various experiments such as residencies, show openings or visual concerts to establish a living contact with the audience.

Recorded at home on March 12, 13, 14 2019 by Benoît Ganoote

Stefan Orins — Summer's Hopes

(Circum-Disc microcidi016, 2020, CD)

by Peter Thelen,

Published 2020-09-08

Stefan Orins is a pianist and composer with his hands in a lot of different projects: the jazz trio that bears his name, the Circum Grand Orchestra, Ten Worlds, Max Klezmer Band, and many others, or in the case of Summer’s Hopes, a purely solo piano endeavor without any other accompaniment. The twelve tracks herein seem to eschew any convenient classifications or genres, although technique-wise one might hear some of Orins’ jazz roots, though they seem to straddle many colorful ideas, bringing along with them some avant-gardisms, bursts of brilliant colors, wandering dreamy sequences, curious noodling, and intensely aggressive vignettes, all delivered with heartfelt emotion. As a listener it’s hard to critique something that comes from a space so close to the heart, it’s best to just relax with what is presented and go with the flow, wherever that may take you. Many of the pieces are compositionally well defined, whether they are charted out or not, while other pieces (or even parts of the same ones) often seem like freely delivered improvisations. One might find certain elements more interesting than others on initial listen, but with time Orins’ compositional style finds a oneness and beauty that carries forward from one number to the next, and with many listens congeal into a self-identifying whole, that is so far away from any standard genres that it finds itself in its very own universe, except the listener becomes an integral part of the experience, as the parade of beautiful tones and angular twists float effortlessly into deep space...

Stefan Orins (piano)

Attiches (Nord), 12-14 mars 2019

Circum-Disc microcidi 016 / https://www.circum-disc.com/stefan-orins-summers-hopes/ & Les Allumés du Jazz

Grand plaisir de retrouver le pianiste Stefan Orins, cet homme doublement du Nord (la Suède, dont sa famille est originaire ; le département du Nord, où il est né, et où il vit, dans les plaines du Pévèle). Il est cette fois en solo, dans une œuvre d'intériorité sinueuse qui nous entraîne loin de notre quotidien et de nos références esthétiques dominantes. Douze improvisations, inspirées par une peinture de Patricia Jeanne Delmotte, un artiste avec laquelle il entretient un dialogue musique/peinture depuis plus de dix ans. La toile est reproduite sur la jaquette du CD. Le disque est une libre déambulation du pianiste, conduite par les impressions ressenties à la contemplation du tableau. Tous les langages musicaux et pianistiques sont convoqués (de Paul Bley à Cecil Taylor en passant par Debussy ou Scriabine, et bien des musiques d'ailleurs, si l'on veut hasarder des références forcément inadéquates....), dans une absolue liberté, débridée et cependant attentive à chaque allusion, à chaque rebond. Une très belle expérience de musique libre, ou plutôt de musique élaborée en toute liberté. C'est un véritable expérience musicale et sensorielle dans laquelle il faut s'immerger : le voyage vaut le détour, les émotions et plaisirs esthétiques sont au fil du chemin.

Xavier Prévost 

http://www.vitalweekly.net/1235.htmlSTEFAN ORINS – SUMMER’S HOPES (CD by Circum-Disc)

Stefan Orins is one of the central figures of the jazz-scene in Lille. You may know him from his trio, Circum Grand Orchestra and many other projects. Most of them have been released for the Circum Disc Label. “Summer’s Hopes” is his latest statement and if I’m not mistaken his first solo album. Okay, a solo album but also an episode within a long-lasting collaboration with painter Patricia Jeanne Delmotte. They work together since 2008 combining their respective arts to sharpen and inspire one other. Orins was inspired for this recording by an abstract painting of the same name painted in the summer of 2018. It is printed on the cover of this release. A musician stating his work his inspired by – as in this case - a visual artwork, often triggers the question of how this process of inspiration is to be understood. Not on the biochemical level, but in the way the improvisation by Orins can be understood as a response to his perception of the painting. Is it a dialogical process to some extent, in some way? It is one of those questions that don’t necessarily need an answer; maybe even better if it’s not. It is more something I wonder about, and that is enough. Orins performs his impressions on a Bechstein Grand Piano, condensed in twelve improvisations. His style keeps the middle between jazz and classical-styled playing. Hidden fragments of melody pop up now and then. Sometimes the improvisations tend towards a lyrical and romantic approach, but never exaggerating; never choosing for a cliché or cheap effect, nor losing himself in needless complexity. This is an inspiring meditation by a poetic and sensible mind. Just one inevitable question to conclude with: what kind of painting would be the result if Delmotte took her inspiration from this recording? (DM)