(Parenthèses) is the French, Strasbourg-based duo of sax player Michaël Alizon and pianist and Fender Rhodes player Jean-René Mourot that has been working since 2015. Untitled 428 is the duo’s sophomore album, following Les Couloirs Du Temps (Momentanea, 2016), and it was recorded at Studio La Turbine in Uhrwiller, France, in July 2024.
The duo plays raw and understated kinds of chamber jazz duets, which (Parenthèses) describes as looking for «substance rather than form», and «played halfway between a certain eulogy of slowness and ebullience». Still, the music most of the time leans more toward the intimate and contemplative, lyrical, and melancholic (check the beautiful ballads «Sky in the sky» and the title piece). The music flows organically, allowing each of the eight playful pieces to breathe and blossom according to their mysterious, inner logic and in their own pace, while quoting nursery rhymes and juggling with counterpoint and dry humor (check «Le blues de l’écolo»).
The spirit of the music is intuitive, immediate, and urgent, in contrast to the composed one of Les Couloirs Du Temps, and highlights the deep affinity of Alizon and Mourot. There are clever homages to spiritual jazz on the title piece and to Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk on «Charlonious Monkus Discount Swing» and «L’ère du boiteux».
Eyal Hareuveni
Michaël Alizon (saxophones), Jean-René Mourot (Fender Rhodes)
