Nu-Turn

On his uniquely prepared grand piano, Delbecq spins lyrical, modernist jazz improvisations over the polyrhythms of African percussion.
– Mark Werlin

Benoît Delbecq is a uniquely gifted French pianist and keyboardist who has created a unique body of work using ideas and techniques from contemporary classical (Cage, Ligeti, Nancarrow), jazz, Pygmy polyphony, European improv and other sources.

He prepares the piano with various materials such as eraser bits and carved wooden twigs, and improvises on short, overlapping vamps and patterns; the result is a complex, spacious sound that hardly seems to be emanating from a single instrument.

On Nu-turn Delbecq stretches out solo on a Steinway D in 8 astonishing structured improvisations; the final, 12-minute composition is a computer-created ambient “remix” that completely transforms the solo material.

Recorded in a small concert hall directly to 6 Channel Surround Sound DSD (the sixth channel is an optional height channel), the piano sound is remarkably realistic, and the music beguiling in its rhythmic-melodic-timbral meldings. Dexterous, brainy, evanescent and strangely moving, Nu-turn will intrigue audiophiles ready for new experiences and appeal to fans of new music beyond category.

Technical Notes: the piano was recorded and mixed in six full-bandwidth DSD channels. A single microphone pointing at the ceiling of the hall and located in the middle of the surround microphone array captured ceiling reflections. Realism is enhanced when this height information is played back correctly, using the .1 channel normally assigned the LFE or subwoofer task. Tracks 1-8 were mixed for 4, 5 or 6 channel playback (the centre channel is optional). Track 9 was mixed for 6-channel playback: the original sounds underwent extensive computer processing and electronic manipulation at 24/44.1 and were panned within a 5-plus-height matrix in the mix, finally converted back to DSD. The multi-channel mix of tracks 1-8 represents what a listener sitting in the hall close to the piano would hear; the stereo mix reverses the left-right stereo image, relocating the listener to the performer’s bench.

…there’s something oddly vibrant about Benoît Delbecq’s solo piano performances, an interwoven tapestry of focused improvisation, African rhythms, trance music, impressionism, and modern classical music of the most abstract sort … All the elements that make up this interwoven whole come together in the eleven-minute closer, ‘Into White’ … It has moments of pointed polyrhythmic pointillism, outright dark brooding, and finally a gradual evolution toward peaceful (yet still somewhat edgy) resolution … quite a trip.”
— Nils Jacobson, AllAboutJazz.com

Benoît Delbecq, Piano