I like this new music from Quentin Stokart

Brussels-based guitarist Quentin Stokart just uploaded three intriguing albums to his Bandcamp page, each featuring collaborations with different artists, and each possessing their own personality.  Let’s run them down.

Quentin Stokart – Bloom

The quintet session Bloom has a lovely, sonorous tone.  Melodies are poured slowly, and their rate of descent is appealingly uneven with little unexpected changes.  And over the course of the first four album tracks, the tempo is at the mercy of this patient development.  It reaches a peak with the tune “Chi,” which acquires an ambient voicing that holds fast even when a saxophone cries out.  The tone changes for the final two tracks.  “Edi” is the first instance where the rhythmic element makes its presence felt, and even this is a straight-forward approach, but it does have the effect of spurring the musicians to shape the melody with more urgency.  That sense of urgency grows on the album finale “Tuft,” which accelerates to a brisk pace and comes the closest to a straight-ahead post-bop sound on an album that leans more to the Nordic Jazz side of things.

Your album personnel:  Quentin Stokart (guitar), Clement Dechambre (alto sax), Bruno Grollet (tenor sax), Manolo Cabras (bass) and Alain Deval (drums).

Listen to the album, and purchase it, at the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Quentin Stokart – MQ and Franq

These duets were recorded in Stokart’s home, and they are as different as can be.  MQ pairs Stokart up with soprano saxophonist Mathieu Robert.  The music is peaceful, as if an ode to the rising sun.  Sometimes the melody is exhaled like a satisfied breath, and other times it’s sketched meticulously and revealed slowly.  Franq, on the other hand, is volatile and dissonant.  The alto sax and clarinets of Frans Van Isacker joins Stokart on this set, and there is a sense of complete randomness that might be hiding an underlying purpose.  Intriguingly, the dissonance they cook up has a mechanical tone, as if a desktop computer spontaneously deconstructed itself in a grand transformation into something new for a reborn purpose.  It’s not pretty to listen to, but it is more than a little interesting to experience.  This is especially true if all three album are listened to consecutively, in any order you choose.

MQ album personnel:  Quentin Stokart (guitar) and Mathieu Robert (soprano sax).

Listen to the album, and purchase it, at the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Franq album personnel:  Quentin Stokart (guitar) and Frans Van Isacker (alto sax, clarinet).

Listen to the album, and purchase it, at the artist’s Bandcamp page.