@-quartet

@-quartet (pronounce "at quartet": @ as in @coustic) is the first album from an eponym band created by Didier Verna in 2006. This record constitutes a point of arrival as well as a point of departure in the guitarist's career.

A point of arrival because the repertoire, entirely constituted by original compositions of its leader, is like a summary of all the influences that affected his musical evolution until now (except for jazz-rock: it would be another band that would probably be called e-something. This is actually a project under consideration...). One can find medium jazz, ballads, some very bop tunes, Brazilian colors, a touch of binary and some pieces heavily tinted with free-jazz. In other words, a sum of multiple influences. Some compositions are 15 years old while some others were written 3 weeks before the project was actually born.

A point of departure because we are more than the sum of our influences. The repertoire, although of various styles, remains coherent thanks to the guitarist's personality, very apparent both in composition and improvisation. By enrolling the best rhythm section one could possibly dream of, Didier Verna also wanted to let the music express itself, in some way: imposing only very few things and letting each musician's personality blossom allows a music to emerge, that is not necessarily the one that was expected in the first place. Finally, the very "free" approach of some tunes produces some kind of spontaneous, instantaneous and collective musical composition which constantly offers new perspectives of evolution.