ANDY EMLER MEGAOCTET

No Rush

To be released on 3 February 2023 by La Buissonne!

No Rush! is the ninth studio recording of the MegaOctet, this small big band of nine musicians in the form of a laboratory of human and sonic alchemy.

No Rush!… Let’s take our time, listen, compose. This moment of intense solitude was for Andy Emler the opportunity to listen again to the music of the 20th century (Arnold Schönberg, Witold Lutoslawsky, György Ligeti, Maurice Ohana, Philippe Manoury, Tristan Murail, Bernard Cavanna…), then to an intense writing phase. 

In this suite composed especially for the nine virtuoso musicians of the orchestra (the return of the guitarist Nguyên Lê, who took part in the first version of the MegaOctet in 1989), we find, extended, the paste, the Emlerian sound signature. His orchestral combinatorics (the orchestra, the collective playing in the foreground, no piano solo), his melismas and other crossbreedings, the Ravelian colour associated with Stravinsky’s rhythmic fire, his subtle dialectic of composition/improvisation and his new combinations of timbres. 

Once again, Andy Emler is a pianist, a composer, an arranger, a stage/sound director, but also and above all a natural conductor, i.e. a catalyst of energies and enthusiasms; you can hear it. 

No Rush! The music takes its time. It is structured as much as it is eventful; orchestral mass and solipsism, nomenclature and adventure, authority and sensation, fervour and humour, lyricism and murmur, clearing and crunching, entanglement and enchantment, brilliance and evidence.

– Franck Médioni

Distribution :

Andy Emler – compositions, piano, direction
Laurent Blondiau – trumpet
Philippe Sellam – alto saxophone
Guillaume Orti – alto saxophone
Laurent Dehors – tenor saxophone, bass clarinet 
François Thuillier – tuba, saxhorn
François Verly – percussions, marimba, tablas
Eric Echampard – drums
Claude Tchamitchian – double bass

Guest: Nguyên Lê – guitar

Recorded at La Buissonne studios on 30, 31 August 2021 by Gérard de Haro assisted by Matteo Fontaine
Mixed by Gérard de Haro and Andy Emler at La Buissonne studios from 30 May to 1 June 2022
Co-produced by Gérard de Haro & RJAL for La Buissonne, and La Compagnie aime l’air
Mastering at Studios la Buissonne by Nicolas Baillard
Steinway Grand Piano prepared and tuned by Sylvain Charles
Cover photo by Yann Kersalé: “Strato
Booklet photos: Christophe Charpenel
Graphic design: Roman Gigou 

Nguyên Lê plays on this album courtesy of ACT Music

Distributed by PIAS (France)
Marketed in partnership with ECM records.

Photos :

Sylvain Gripoix

No Rush! project is supported by the DRAC and Région Ile-de-France, ADAMI, Sacem, Spedidam and the CNM. The MegaOctet is a member of Grands Formats – Federation of artists for large ensemble music.