Benjamin Sauzereau is a French guitar player-composer living in Belgium, focusing on investigation of the meeting point of composition, improvisation and arrangement. He wrote music for films and dance company, plays in the local Llop quartet, collaborated with local experimental pop and soul bands and recently founded his own label, ~suite, with drummer Jens Bouttery, with whom he plays on the installation and research project Jens Maurits Orchestra.

~suite describes itself as a label that «embraces sauna therapy, necessary improvisations, incorrect chamber music, earwarming pop & fucking jazz». These suggestive descriptions capture the essence of Sauzereau debut solo guitar album that offers «11 attempts to feel the present moment while keeping a very clear poetic identity».

Sauzereau knows how to sketch an engaging melody entangled with a detailed story. You can hear echoes of the solo projects of Ralph Towner and the ECM’s lyrical, austere aesthetics on pieces like «Le Subterfuge», «L’habitude» and «La Mauvaise Raison». But Sauzereau likes also to experiment with surprising guitar tunings and sonorities on the miniatures pieces «Clou» and «Imminent». He uses wisely the electric guitar and its effects on the dramatic-poetic, cinematic narrative of «Harry Lime», the minimalist soundscapes-dreamy of «Rivage» or the restrained beauty of the resonant «Singuliers». These distinct chamber pieces offers stress the highly personal voice of Sauzereau.

Eyal Hareuveni

Benjamin Sauzereau (g)