Erik Truffaz
French trumpeter Erik Truffaz always looks ahead. He is known for crossing musical boundaries and incorporating different styles into his music. In the late nineties Truffaz gained cult status with albums 'The Dawn' and 'Bending New Corners', with an eclectic mix of organic jazz, hip hop and drum' n bass.

Truffaz is seen by many as one of the most famous European trumpeters ever. His style is compared to that of Miles Davis -with a good sense of emotion. He performed around the world with his infamous quartet and was received with critical acclaim in every country. In recent years, Erik worked with, among others, Bugge Wesseltoft , Talvin Singh , Ed Harcourt, Sophie Hunger, Anna Aaron, and released 10 albums on the legendary jazz label Blue Note.

His upcoming album –‘Lune Rouge’ (Red Moon) – is going to be released in the fall 2019. Red is the moon. To see a blood moon, several factors need to combine. There needs to be a total eclipse, when the moon, the earth and the sun are exactly aligned, and the moon must be at its perigee - close to our orbit. It's a stunning combination of mineral light, promised collisions, and happy accidents. The red moon is the result of a perfect alignment.

"We wanted new things for this album", explains Erik Truffaz, in the long pauses where he stops to gather his thoughts. "We have passed the baton to Arthur Hnatek and asked him to compose the basic material on which the quartet can build a sound, putting together the pieces and picking them apart again."

It's a constant work in progress, interior, almost silent, making an album of the Erik Truffaz Quartet. There's almost a sci-fi feel. Eradicating time. We're listening to the tracks when they're still in controlled gestation, suspended in zero gravity. We don't know if they come from an ancient past, with analogue sounds, basslines so heavy and sticky that they are lifted from Creole dub music, or from a very distant future. Infinite repetitions and small harmonic structures that open infinite spaces within you. The music never lacks air.

Over the past 20 years, Truffaz has played with everyone, from Pierre Henry to Christophe and Enki Bilal; he has travelled the world ten times over, filling venue after venue after venue. And yet he still thinks of himself as just starting out, not totally legitimate, on a passionate quest to make the stars align. That's what gives strength to this intranquil group. There's no relaxing. No listening to themselves play too much. They challenge their instincts. It's silent, it's slow. Little by little they discover an album they never planned.

“Hypnosis at work (...) a testament to how resourceful an acoustic improviser Truffaz remains.” (The Guardian)