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Roots and Leaves

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With Laurent Epstein (piano), Yoni Zelnik (double bass) and David Georgelet (drums). Recorded by Pierre Dachery at Studio Prado (Paris). Mixed by Pierre Dachery and Didier Verna. Masterized by David Hachour and Didier Verna at Color Sound Studio (Paris).
Copyright © 2014 Didier Verna. DVL0914JZ.
Copyright © 2015 Plaza Mayor Company Ltd. 5060274801432.
Sergent Major Distribution SERG249.
EAN-13 (CD): 0889211108022.

Excerpt from the booklet: “Roots and Leaves... Roots are our foundation, our basis, our legacy and our culture. They are our link to the Earth, the anchor point, solid, static and invisible, on top of which we build ourselves. Leaves are the multiple, blooming facets of our personality, our character and our uniqueness They are our link to the Sky, the point of release, fragile, ephemeral and agitated through which we express ourselves.”.

With this new opus from the @-quartet, Didier Verna continues to explore the founding idea of this formation and its music: how, depending on our cultural legacy, does the personality of a musician flourish? How, from a collective heritage, does his or her artistic individuality build itself and evolve?

As with the first album, these eleven new compositions continue to offer a variety of styles; a coherent set of multiple influences. At the same time, the compositions here can be perceived as more asserted, more aggressive, more “self-proclaimed”. Finally, this time, the variety of styles goes hand in hand with an obvious widening of the sound palette, something that was less developed in the first opus. On top of a traditional rhythm section, four different guitars, among which a fretless one, were used, also including guitar-synthesizer techniques. Didier Verna is hereby paying tribute to the “pioneers of sound” that affected his musical path, starting with the musicians of Uzeb, Michael Brecker and his EWI, Pat Metheny and his GR-300, John McLaughlin, and all those who saw beyond the natural abilities of their respective instruments...