{"product_id":"leon-phal_stress-killer_2023","title":"Stress Killer","description":"The tenor of the new wave of French jazz releases a third album, paying tribute to the pioneers of the genre with an unrelenting groove and sense of composition. - - - - - Despite the accolades, saxophonist Léon Phal refuses to rest on his laurels. - - Brilliantly trained at the Conservatory and the Haute École de Musique, winner of the Nancy Jazz Pulsations and Jazz à Vienne 2019 competitions; the thirty-something, promoted as a representative of the new and vibrant jazz scene, has one desire that has become an obsession: to go further. Push the limits. - - Maintaining this constant progression requires breaking away from certain practices, such as freeing oneself from codes and habits. Forgetting academic notions, distancing from a purely jazz approach to, without losing touch, associate it with modern codes. - - To the precisely notated scores, Léon Phal has preferred the inspiration of the moment, the one that arises when, like an electro or hip-hop producer, he sits alone in his studio, facing his machines. Searching. Synthesizing rhythms, designing arrangements. Feeling the groove that takes shape and settles in as an obviousness. Sequencing, ‘looping’. Searching again. The right sound, the right texture to achieve. To hear. And ultimately reinterpret everything. No longer alone, but with the core of musicians that make up the quintet. Connected on the same frequencies, responding to the same references, it is with them that the two previous albums were made, and with them that ‘Stress Killer’ was constructed and recorded. - - In the drumming of Arthur Alard, the double bass of Rémi Bouyssière, the keyboards of Gauthier Toux, and the trumpet of Zacharie Ksyk, the zeros and ones created in the printed circuits then take on organic life. Both animated and driven by the desire to make people dance. Approaching jazz as club music, turning an almost childlike melody or a few keyboard notes into the first sparks that will ignite the rhythms. The infernal loops that will be hard to shake off, the source of an intensity that will crescendo until the ecstatic release of the dancers. - - Léon Phal's saxophone, the master of ceremonies of this fusion, releasing notes that will speak to bodies in moments of intense, sweaty trance, as well as to the spirit for astral journeys under synthesizers. - - To the acoustic aesthetic, Léon Phal has chosen to incorporate everything and everyone that sharpens and ignites his musical curiosity. From dub to French touch, from Jeff Parker to El Michels Affair. A regular glance in his rearview mirror to ensure that the masters who have explored the keys of the saxophone like no one else, those whose solos he still studies, remain visible; John Coltrane and his classic \"Naïma\" then don a new patina. \"Stress Killer\" is also the album where, for the first time, voices are invited. A fitted dress and dimmed light for the languorous soul of Cameroonian singer Lorine Chia (Guts, The Game); spoken-word and UK touch for K.O.G, the man of multiple identities, the leader of Onipa, Zongo Brigade, and the All Star Revolution. With these vocal nuances, a new path opens in Léon Phal's music. A continuity, not a break. The desire to go even further, once again.","brand":"Léon Phal","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58478291779928,"sku":null,"price":23826720.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0898\/4943\/0360\/files\/3521383479186.jpg?v=1789512096","url":"https:\/\/vinyles.com\/en-us\/products\/leon-phal_stress-killer_2023","provider":"Vinyles.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}