Julien Durand is a French-Chinese guitarist who leads an impressive quintet, Dreamscapes, that has in its lineup four other rising stars on the British contemporary jazz scene, vocalist Lucy-Anne Daniels, saxophonist George Garford, pianist + keyboards Cenk Esen and drummer Jonno Gaze.
Durand studied on the jazz course at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where, like so many of the Birmingham graduates, he was exposed to the rigours and disciplines of the bop and post bop traditions as well as the variety of contemporary jazz and improvised music that can be heard in the city. After graduation Durand spent three months in Brazil studying composition with Toninho Horta, Daniel Santiago and Guinga.
All these influences come together in the music of Dreamscapes. The music moves between ambient opening passages led by Durand’s delicate guitar to high octane ensemble passages featuring the vocals of Daniels and the saxophone of Garford, all driven by Gaze’s drums, to free-er improvised passages with Esen on keys.
Of the three tracks, the opener Dawn Of The Birds starts with bird-like sounds on the guitar and alto sax before moving into a strong joyful melody, and then into a freely improvised passage. Lucy in the Sky features Daniels, alternating between leading with the words of the song and integrating wordlessly with the ensemble. Strider opens with Durand’s guitar before moving into an attractive ensemble passage to which Daniels contributes wordlessly; this in turn leads into a passage in which Garford plays a high energy solo over accompaniment from the ensemble.
Release date is 18 January.
