Sophie Agnel Duo

Sophie Agnel & John Butcher

Fimav, Victoriaville, Canada - by Martin Morisette, 2024

We savour the finest, most crystalline, most personal, most astonishing sounds, which intertwine and induce different states. The acoustic noise, the lush harmonics of the piano when the strings are rubbed, the squeal of the high notes in the soprano, the roughness, the finesse, life in all its corners.
Pan360 - Alain Brunet - FIMAV 2024

Whilst Agnel and Butcher first played together over twenty years ago, it’s only in the last decade that they have collaborated regularly. Mostly in duo - but also in a quartet with Pascal Niggenkemper & Ståle Liavik Solberk.
A memorable project found them playing live soundtracks (with Hungarian cellist Albert Markos) for Caroline Strubbe’s feature film “I am the same, I am another”.
In 2024 they visited Canada to play at FIMAV in Victoriaville and at something else in Hamilton.
VICTO have just released “RARE” - a CD of the concert.

On the eve of her 60th birthday, pianist Sophie Agnel is in great creative form ….. The association with John Butcher on tenor and soprano sax is a dream one. Top shelf improvisation, by two major practitioners of the genre, if it can be called that. Through the diversity of sounds and textures these two get from their instruments, the approach is orchestral.
Agnel could be credited as a percussionist, given the energy she puts into playing on the wooden body and the inside of the grand, preparing it on the spot, moving about frantically, while her partner stands still for the duration of the mind-blowing set, spurting several good ideas a minute and bringing them to fruition.
Free Jazz Blog - David Cristol
(Fimav 2024).

RARE
la pierre tachéeCD
la pierre tâchée
la pierre tachéeLP / DL

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