Jean-Louis Matinier & Marco Ambrosini - Inventio (2014) [Hi-Res]

Inventio” takes its title from Bach’s Invention No 4, heard here - in a programme of great variety – in an arrangement by Jean-Louis Matinier and Marco Ambrosini. Bach’s Inventions originally had a didactic function, intended to develop a player’s ideas and give “a foretaste of composition”. Inspirations from Bach and from Biber (specifically the Rosary or Mystery sonata) and from the lyrical cadences of Pergolesi radiate into a musical journey of remarkable invention.

This is an inventive project at all levels, from the unique instrumentation onwards. Marco Ambrosini is one of very few musicians playing nyckelharpa outside the Swedish folk tradition, and Jean-Louis Matinier has similarly taken the accordion beyond any ‘folkloric’ frame of reference. On the present disc, the French-Italian duo follow a path from ancient to modern music, finding new sound-colour combinations in the special blending of their instruments and dissolving demarcations between improvisation, arrangement and composition.

“Inventio” is a recording that will intrigue listeners who have appreciated Matinier’s ECM recordings with Anouar Brahem, François Couturier’s Tarkovsky Quartet, and Louis Sclavis, as well as Ambrosini’s discs with Rolf Lislevand, Giovanna Pessi/Susanna Wallumrød and Helena Tulve. Or indeed Matinier’s association with singer Juliette Gréco (he has been the singer’s accompanist since 1999)or Ambrosini’s still longer involvement with early music consort Oni Wytars.

Matinier and Ambrosini are, clearly, musicians who cover a lot of ground, their imaginations and musical curiosity inspiring pan-idiomatic experiment as well as investigation of the regions where the genres meet. One of Matinier’s early recordings was entitled “Confluences”. Sometimes it’s a matter of allowing oneself to follow the implications of the music. “My music develops by chance and at the mercy of events,” the accordionist has said. “I make music with musicians. It is first and foremost a human relationship.” Matinier partticilar enjoys the challenge of the duo setting.

Jean-Louis Matinier was born in 1963 in Nevers, France. After studying both classical music and jazz, he first attracted national and international attention as an outstanding soloist in the Orchestre National de Jazz at the end of the 1980s.

“Inventio” was recorded at the Auditorio of the Radiotelevisione Svizzera in Lugano, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Jean_Louis Matinier, accordion
Marco Ambrosini, nyckelharpa

Recorded April 2013, Auditorio Radiotelevisione svizzera, Lugano
Engineered by Lara Persia
Produced by Manfred Eicher