Trio « ETE » Emler / Tchamitchian / Échampard (FR)

For twenty years now, the trio formed by Andy Emler, Claude Tchamitchian and Éric Échampard, the beating heart of MégaOctet, has been digging its way alongside the orchestra to create its own sound. The trio’s fourth album, ’The Useful Report’ is a bit more written than usual. Why “useful report” ? Because it establishes a state of the world, and starts from the sad observation that it too often places interest before life, superficiality before depth, appearance before being. The whole project of “The Useful Report” may be held in these words : putting life back at the center.

When writing about a trio that mixes writing and improvisation, it’s commonplace to talk about "complicity", especially when the musicians have been playing together for 20 years. It is a little less to say that, within the Trio ETE, the listener does not really attend a dialogue between three individuals, but rather a polyphonic monologue. No one takes a solo per se, because, as Andy Emler likes to say, the trio is the soloist. Result : the ensemble becomes an independent musical body, with the necessary and organic cohesion. Rooted in sensation, the performance is very physical (and not just because it is virtuosic).

In this new repertoire, we find a useful mix between improvisation-landscape, research on rhythm that flirts with contemporary music, and hypnotic dynamics rooted in rock energy - Andy Emler is not a fan of The Police for nothing. Moreover, the album is listened to loudly, like a rock band or a symphony orchestra. In short, it’s still not jazz (still failed !), but it’s not really anything else either. The Trio ETE realizes the dream of a music that is, quite simply.