Description

“This meeting of two master improvisors captures the magic of a first duo performance completely. It is what fans of spontaneous music crave. Sylvie Courvoisier had evolved from local rising star in her native Switzerland to international recognition through her move to New York City and interaction with accomplished practitioners there of whom Joey Baron is an unsurpassed example. Sylvie used to attend the Willisau Festival as a teenager, it was the locale where she first heard many of her favorite forbears. The creator of the Festival, Niklaus Troxler had championed her duo performances, having presented her with Mark Feldman and her band Ocre and wanted celebrate John Zorn’s birthday by presenting him with Sylvie. Travel vagaries interfered and Zorn had to cancel, Joey Baron was available and the resulting music proved it all to have finally been fortuitous. Sylvie and Joey’s performance captures the essence of kineticism, each sound alive and vibrant with gestures ping ponging back and forth between hands, sticks and strings. Their sense of space and timing is ideally matched. Sometimes recordings fail to encompass the sonic scope of such interaction but this fine one does not disappoint.” -Notes by Ned Rothenberg

“The Tandem offered Sylvie Courvoisier and Joey Baron, different fare. Not easily digestible, since the two consistently deny each other melody, rhythm and harmonies. It’s about sound and dramaturgy, tension and relaxation, the interlocking of ideas and dynamics. How the duo designed improvisations – lucid and understandable, but never pedagogical – was great.” © Aargauer Zeitung / MLZ; 09/05/2006 Beat Blaser
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Festival WILLISAU / Switzerland – September 2, 2006

Sylvie Courvoisier: piano
Joey Baron: drums

All compositions by Sylvie Courvoisier & Joey Baron
Enregistrement live DRS 2

Artwork and design by Federico Peñalva

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