Erik Truffaz's polar pop

New album Arkhangelsk

Paris 

23/04/2007 - 

Jazz trumpeter Erik Truffaz, a musician principally known for his drum’n bass ambiences, has always enjoyed exploring new musical territories. And on his latest album he strikes out in a novel pop direction with guest vocals from rapper Nya, French chanson star Christophe and the British singer Ed Harcourt. Truffaz's new album, Arkhangelsk, revolves around some impressively catchy melodies and it was inspired by a Russian village so called because it "hangs" in splendid isolation above the Arctic circle.

Right from the start of his career, French trumpeter Erik Truffaz made a name for himself as an eclectic artist with a finger in as many different musical pies as he could lay his hands on. Boldly going where few musicians had ever gone before, Truffaz embarked on the most audacious adventures, defying all attempts at categorising him or his elusive sound. The trumpet virtuoso, often described as a "worthy heir to Miles Davis", flew in the face of convention, gaily juggling with a range of different styles - from drum’n bass to electro, hip-hop and rock - and roping them all together with his own particular take on "jazz". Over the years, Truffaz's golden horn staked out its own musical territory as he invented an instantly recognisable sound, built on a thoroughly individual way of approaching harmonies, chords and rhythm. If there's one thing music fans have come to expect from Truffaz it is that this brilliant trumpeter is always there where you least expect him! After dabbling in the Orient with the group Ladyland on his 2005 album Saloua, Truffaz has now teamed up to reform the original quartet featured on The Dawn (1998) and Bending the Corner (1999). In the company of Patrick Muller on keyboards, Marcello Giuliani on bass and Marc Erbetta on drums, the French trumpet star recently went into the studio to record a new album resolutely oriented towards pop.

 Pop euphoria

The quartet were joined by an impressive vocal line-up – namely French chanson star Christophe, British singer Ed Harcourt and the rapper Nya (a long-time collaborator of Truffaz's). Making a break from Truffaz's usual instrumental obsession, over half of the tracks on his new album, Arkhangelsk, revolve around vocals. "Basically," he says, "this album taps into a musical format that everyone in the group loves - and that's pop! Up until now, I've been best known for evolving in a drum’n'bass ambience, but that only accounts for a very small part of our musical influences."

Truffaz's new album, Arkhangelsk, stemmed from the collective aesthetic of the quartet - all, incidentally, big fans of Radiohead – but also, he admits, from a certain fantasy he has harboured for years. "One of my oldest dreams," the trumpeter confesses, "was I used to imagine driving along in my car listening to a pop soundtrack I'd created myself. When I'm at the wheel, I love listening to (Alain) Souchon, The Rolling Stones, Thom Yorke or old Stevie Wonder classics – it's a veritable music motorway when you ride with me! But the thing I really get off on is the chorus. A brilliant chorus can change your life, even it it's just for a few minutes. Why do you think someone like Polnareff makes a thousand times more in copyright than anyone else? Because his songs make people dream a thousand times more than anyone else! I tell you they're like a drug that sends a rush of euphoria right through you. When I listen to Christophe's "Les mots bleus", I instantly feel better. Choruses are the essence of western music, which is really based on the development of a harmony. Having said that, though, composing a piece that works on all those levels but is sufficiently original and off the beaten track, is an extremely difficult undertaking."

Truffaz rises to the challenge on Arkhangelsk with a series of songs written by each member of the quartet. When it came to which singers might guest on the album, he says, the selection just fell into place. Truffaz had already played live with the French chanson star Christophe and "fell in love" with Ed Harcourt's voice at a concert organised as a tribute to Chet Baker at Le New Morning. "Ed's the best English vocalist I've ever played with," he enthuses, "He's really exceptionally talented. I'd say he's in the same class as Bono or Sting!" The musicians worked differently with each of the singers, bringing their instruments to the fore or fading into the background when required. "Nya and Christophe have voices that literally melt into the orchestration," Truffaz explains, "Christophe's attitude on stage and his high-pitched timbre, the velvet feel of his voice comes close to assuming the role of a musical instrument at times. But Ed Harcourt's more like O’Malley from the Aristocats. He takes up a lot of space. His vocals spill out wide and they're coloured with an infinite variety of nuances. That basically means that the compositions have to fit round him rather than the other way round."

Another of Truffaz's major difficulties lay in striking the right balance between his guests' vocals and his trumpet and in keeping a balance of musical harmony between individual members of the quartet – not to mention justifying, on a commercial level, a "pop" album made by a man ultimately renowned for his trumpet instrumentals. "We were working under a lot of constraints," the trumpeter points out, "constrained by things like how do you compose a "pop" track? How long should the chorus be? What role should the trumpet play? Where exactly should it come in and how? There was a certain amount of technical research involved in the making of this album. We knew we didn't want to lose our identity, our hallmark of playing elaborate rhythms that really move. And I have to admit I spent months before I came up with what the drums were actually going to do on a track like Red Cloud."

Linked by an invisible thread

On the remaining tracks on Arkhangelsk, vocals were dispensed with altogether, tapping into the same pure-instrumental vein that Truffaz has explored hitherto in his work. "The thing is," he says, "if we'd brought out an album uniquely made up of songs, then over the next two years we wouldn't have been able to perform live without a singer." As a result, Arkhangelsk takes us on a joyously eclectic romp through the musical landscape, an overall unity imposed by its inspirational theme: the little Russian village of Arkhangelsk, perched atop the Arctic circle, where Truffaz and his musicians have actually played in the past.

In Arkhangelsk, a lonely village set on the White Sea, in a region where the ground freezes solid, local inhabitants live in strange "hanging" houses that appear to defy the laws of gravity (dwellings reminiscent of the Quebecois architect Richard Greaves's cabins suspended on nylon cords). "Our music is a bit like those chimerical constructions," Truffaz muses, "They're like little acoustic nothings, born out of chaos, but linked by this invisible thread, that take us beyond what we can see with the naked eye… They come out of nothing, then shape themselves into a structure that dissolves as soon as you focus on it. It's like snatching at musical shreds that sometimes take years before you can shape them into anything coherent."

Truffaz and his musicians, perched in splendid isolation in their own Arctic circle, play with these fragile filaments, weaving them together then unlacing them apart again as they perfect the art of "destructuration." "And that's where our music comes close to jazz," affirms Truffaz, "Its like jazz in its total liberty and the urge to break things down before building them up again."  In its eternal quest, one might add, to push on to distant horizons.

Eric Truffaz Arkhangelsk (EMI) 2007

Anne-Laure  Lemancel

Translation : Julie  Street