Accordionist Anatole Muster – new album ‘hopecore’

UKJazz News: You have been in London for nearly four years now. What have been your career highlights during that time?

Anatole Muster: One of the highlights was definitely playing a guest solo at Louis Cole’s show at the Troxy in London. I also really enjoyed playing two nights to sold-out Ronnie Scott’s crowds with my band and my debut album launch at Vortex Jazz Club last April. But the biggest highlight for me has been meeting and working with so many of my inspirations and people I’ve connected with online – something coming to London has truly made possible. 

UKJN: Jazz accordion is slowly becoming more mainstream, but not yet to the degree of, say, sax or trumpet. What led you to the instrument, to play jazz on it, and are there any fellow jazz accordionists who inspired you to make that choice?

AM: I was eight when I chose the accordion as my instrument and I remember loving being able to sustain long notes and the added expressiveness it offered. I also wanted an instrument that could play harmonies, but since everyone else was already playing the piano, that pushed me even more towards the accordion. And most of all, I chose it because my uncle – who has always been a role model to me – plays the accordion.

I discovered jazz in my late teenage years when I resurrected my dad’s old record player and listened to his records from the eighties. Up until then, I had been making beats on my laptop and was really into house music, trap and vaporwave – artists like Sam Gellaitry and Lemaitre. Since that music was already quite funky and eighties-coded, jazz fusion felt like a natural next step, and I quickly got into Herbie Hancock, George Duke, and Spyro Gyra. I started incorporating the accordion into my own productions, which were becoming increasingly jazzy, leading me down the rabbit hole of improvisation and eventually to jazz college! At the time, I wasn’t really aware of any jazz accordionists since I was more into electronic sounds. But nowadays, I really admire Vincent Peirani – he’s an incredible accordionist and musician.

UKJN: You clearly draw inspiration from many artists in jazz and other genres – who are some of your key influences?

AM: Some artists who have influenced me the most are KNOWER, Tennyson, Oklou, Bill Wurtz, Allan Holdsworth and M Field. Lately, I’ve also been checking out diary-pioneer and rapper Wokeups and classical composer Kevin Puts – they have really inspired my current work, including some tracks on the hopecore album.

UKJN: You have recently been playing in a tribute project to the late guitarist Allan Holdsworth. Have his signature flamboyant lines influenced your rather impressive soloistic language at all?

AM: I have transcribed lots of his solos because of my work with that band. But to be honest, his lines are so specific to his harmonic language that they are hard for me to implement in my own music. Additionally, I only got properly into Allan fairly recently, so his influence might not have fully seeped into my playing just yet. What has influenced me far more are the sounds he used – you can really hear that in my music, especially on hopecore. I draw a lot from those eerie, eighties-style digital textures and his signature breath-controlled lead sound.

UKJN: A few of our readers may have seen you playing on your one-of-a-kind MIDI accordion. Can you give a brief summary of what it is and how it differs from a regular accordion?

AM: The accordion-MIDI-controller is the right hand / melody side of the chromatic button Accordion. Instead of traditional bellows, I use a breath tube for MIDI breath control, which I can assign to any parameter like cutoff or volume. It also features a pitch bend. The controller connects to my DAW via USB. 

UKJN: Who designed this instrument and what’s the story behind its construction?

AM: During the COVID-Lockdowns, in our last year at high school, my best friend and childhood neighbour Elio Fistarol and I went on daily walks together. We shared a lot of music during that time and he once pulled up a video of Michael Brecker playing “In a Sentimental Mood” on his custom saxophone-EWI (electronic wind instrument). We had the idea of trying something of that sort for accordion. Elio, being an exceptionally talented engineer and maker, built the prototype within a year! I’m now playing the final version which he completed in autumn 2023. It’s really an incredible instrument that feels organic to play.

UKJN: As someone with such an eclectic array of influences, do you ever feel pressure to include all these sides of you as an artist in a project such as hopecore, or does it come naturally to you?

AM: I’ve never really felt pressured in that regard. I just love all these different things and I can’t help but bring them together in my songs. Sometimes they’re elements I haven’t heard together in the same song before. As eclectic as my influences might seem, to me they all convey the same essence at their core. That’s what I try to express in my music.

UKJN: Is there a particular message or theme to the album?

AM: This album is an exploration of the melodic and harmonic language I love so much – the kind of lines that keep me making music, regardless of genre. I strive to get to the heart of what truly moves me and what I want to share with the world.

UKJN: You feature a few collaborators on the album – talk a bit about who they are and how they got involved…

AM: I’m very honoured and happy to be able to say that I’ve found great collaborators for this album that, knowingly or unknowingly, truly understand what I’m trying to convey with hopecore. Some of the collaborators I’ve never met face to face, like ether2006, varra or Button Masher with whom I’ve been working closely nonetheless! Other collaborators on the album I initially met online, but subsequent real-life encounters then sparked the idea of a collaboration. For example, Thomas Harres (drums) and Frederico Heliodoro (bass) played on “See That View”, a tune I wrote on the plane back from a show in Brazil where I met them both in person for the first time (Frederico played bass on that show in Rio). The experience of playing together and getting to know them in person inspired me to invite them to be part of the track. Or Scro, who I had been following on social media for some time before we met during my recent trip to Los Angeles. That encounter inspired me to ask him to write a riff for me, which I then played on accordion for “Little Spider”.

And then there are my London-based real-life collaborators, like M Field. M Field is a phenomenal guitarist/composer – the lead singer of the South African band Beatenberg – with whom I share a unique connection through our similar musical vision and tastes. During my recent trip to his home in Cape Town to work on his album, we recorded “M Field music” for my album and filmed the music video at the same time. Or Jay Verma and King Ike-Elechi, dear friends of mine from London who frequently share the stage with me (King is the drummer in my trio). They contributed to “Hope Walk”, which began during a session at Jay’s house. Jay also inspired the name for hopecore. Amelia Rose is another friend from London and we regularly collaborate together. She’s so quick and effective, always sending tracks back within an hour with the exact melody I’m looking for – she was so perfect for hopecore that it all went down remotely. Other collaborators include Hadrien Feraud, who invited me to play with him in Paris via Instagram in 2021 and we’ve been working together ever since; and BATTERY, who I met through friends at a show in Los Angeles.

UKJN: Who will be performing with you on your upcoming promotional tour?

AM: I consider myself lucky to be performing with my dream trio line-up, consisting of two of London’s most exciting young musicians who are also my great friends: King Ike-Elechi on drums (Knats, Geordie Greep, Eddie Chacon) and Hugo Piper on bass (Rex Orange County, Conor Albert, Emma Rawicz, Ego Ella May). They both bring a unique sound that really makes my music come to life on stage. Furthermore, M Field – a big inspiration and featured artist on the hopecore album – will be opening for us at the Jazz Café release show and possibly performing alongside us as a guest on a track.

UKJN: What other projects are you working on at the moment?

AM: I’ve been keeping busy with the hopecore tour and the album release, and with final exams coming up for my degree, I haven’t had time to start anything new yet. Since I’ll be heading back to Switzerland to serve my civil duty after I finish my studies, I think I might take a little break from recording new material for now. I am planning to work more closely with M Field though, and there will be definitely another album coming in the near-ish future! 

Charlie Rees is an English saxophonist, composer/arranger & journalist. He is also the Assistant Editor of UKJN.

Anatole Muster is also at the Vortex playing the music of Allan Holdsworth on 21 March – BOOKINGS