JEAN-PHILIPPE COLLARD-NEVEN - Out of Focus
Igloo Records CD IGL 263
Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven: Solo piano
Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven is a Belgian composer and pianist whose most recent album, Out of Focus, may quite rightly be categorized as Modern Classic, if one must brand at all, and I have seen it said that it is Ambient. I can concur in this, in the sense that Brian Eno meant when he contrasted his "Music for Airports / Ambient 1" in his sleeve notes for the album (September 1978) with the background music initiated by Muzak Inc. I am also happy to think of Out of Focus as Free Improv.
This music is beautiful and above all perhaps, serene, but in saying this I do not infer ‘pretty’. It is not that: it is much more than skin-deep. It is a complement of fragmented expressions, half-finished improvisations and ephemeral thoughts, briefly visited, dismissed and then fleetingly re-examined. ‘Moon River’ is a particular example of this.
The collective of expressed emotions is somehow childlike: brooding and preoccupied or perhaps merely pensive, yet an exquisite subtlety hints at a vibrant maturity to come.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
Igloo Records CD IGL 263
Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven: Solo piano
Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven is a Belgian composer and pianist whose most recent album, Out of Focus, may quite rightly be categorized as Modern Classic, if one must brand at all, and I have seen it said that it is Ambient. I can concur in this, in the sense that Brian Eno meant when he contrasted his "Music for Airports / Ambient 1" in his sleeve notes for the album (September 1978) with the background music initiated by Muzak Inc. I am also happy to think of Out of Focus as Free Improv.
This music is beautiful and above all perhaps, serene, but in saying this I do not infer ‘pretty’. It is not that: it is much more than skin-deep. It is a complement of fragmented expressions, half-finished improvisations and ephemeral thoughts, briefly visited, dismissed and then fleetingly re-examined. ‘Moon River’ is a particular example of this.
The collective of expressed emotions is somehow childlike: brooding and preoccupied or perhaps merely pensive, yet an exquisite subtlety hints at a vibrant maturity to come.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
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