Interview | TanDEM 2024, presentation of the winners!

Joséphine Besançon

Vivien Verrecchia

Can you tell us about your artistic background?

Vivien: I started playing music at a very young age at the Arbresle music school. It was my first (great) drum teacher, Jérémy Pavaday, who pushed me towards groove and jazz. In high school, I was able to play with more people and had my first band with which we performed publicly. I was playing a lot of guitar at the time.

Music became more and more important when I entered the Lyon Conservatoire in 2021. It did me a world of good to be able to devote myself to music full-time. I’m currently involved in several projects: Jade Pappagallo, a singer with neosoul influences, and Abacus, a jazz funk septet. This year, I formed the group PawPaw with my friends.

Joséphine: I started playing music as a child, first with the piano, then I discovered the clarinet, and that’s the instrument I really chose. My father is a musician and we used to play as a family. I studied classical music at a municipal conservatory and loved playing in ensembles. It was when I took my A-levels that I decided to become a professional. A few years later, I entered the CNSM in Paris, where I had the chance to meet a lot of people, play many repertoires and learn to master the different clarinets (from bass to piccolo).

At present, I work in a number of ensembles, mainly in the fields of contemporary music, symphony orchestra, chamber music and musical theater. When I left school, I still lacked the ability to improvise, to understand harmony and groove, and I was drawn to more popular music. That’s when I discovered choro, a Brazilian music, which inspired me to explore new ways of playing, even if it took me completely out of my comfort zone! Since then, I’ve started training in jazz, first in the Paris region, then at the ENM in Villeurbanne.

“So it’s an evolving project and I feel I’m still discovering the immensity of what’s possible to experience in music.”

Joséphine

We’re wondering what life is like for a young musician in 2024:
What’s the rhythm of your daily life?

Vivien: My daily life is divided between my international relations studies at university and jazz drumming at the Conservatoire. There are more intense periods on either side, and I have to adapt.

I listen to a lot of music, interviews and reading.

I’m also interested in structuring musical projects. I took part in Périscope’s Lobster program, which helped me develop a lot of project management skills.

Joséphine: My day-to-day musical life is a bit split in two.
On the one hand, there are projects with the various ensembles I play in, involving rehearsals, concerts, travel, residencies…

At the same time, I’m learning jazz, through lessons, personal work, sessions and listening. It’s not always easy, but I feel that the two feed off each other.

What motivates you to create and build your career?

Joséphine: I think what motivates me most is the fact that music is shared, with the public, with other musicians, and it’s this aspect that stimulates and pushes us to surpass ourselves, to dare to go beyond what we know.

You’ve been selected for this year’s tanDEM program. How do you see your project evolving during this year’s residency at Le Périscope?

Vivien: The tanDEM program will enable me to develop my band PawPaw. It’s a quintet that’s both acoustic and hybrid. Our music is tinged with contemporary jazz, hip-hop and Afrobeat. This group is particularly close to my heart, bringing together the friends with whom I have the greatest musical affinity. It’s made up of Gaël Bïhr on guitar, Antoine Perret on trumpet, Hénock Kona on double bass and synths, and Malou Strauss on tenor saxophone and flute.

We want to make the most of the two residencies to work on our set in greater depth. We’d like to develop a real light show to accompany our music. Indeed, our compositions often have a narrative, and thinking about lighting will enable us to give a very immersive dimension to the show.

Joséphine: The project I’m presenting is called RELIEFS, a quartet with electric guitar, double bass, drums and clarinets of course. It will feature mainly pieces I’ve written, plus an arrangement of a piece by Bill Frisell, an artist I find particularly inspiring for the purity of his writing and the sound work of his ensembles. I also seek to explore the multiple sonorities of our four instruments, notably through playing modes, sometimes taken from contemporary creations that I’ve played.

Reliefs is also an image that appeals to me in the writing of this project: like climbing a mountain, it’s also about choosing a path, experiencing gravity, sometimes feeling vertigo, getting lost, taking a deep breath, observing our surroundings, feeling the great spaces and life that surround us.

How would you define your relationship with your musical instrument? What led you to choose it, and what specific features of this instrument appeal to you most?

Vivien: The drums are a wonderful instrument, and it does me a world of good to play them. There’s something very spontaneous and immediate about it that I love. Drums make you dance, they get your body moving.

Joséphine: I love the fact that the clarinet has so many facets, that there are so many ways of playing it.
As with several characters, it’s possible to change roles and characters radically, in all registers, from low to high, and it’s also a sound that blends very easily with others.

Which three pieces would you like the world to discover? And why?

Vivien: The first would be Arawak Uhuru by Sélène Saint-Aimé. The Potomitan album she released in 2022 was a real musical and poetic revelation for me. There’s something lyrical about this composition, with its dynamic rhythm. The band is original: there are no harmonic instruments. It’s a very powerful track, and so heady.

Next would be Leaping: Believe by Nate Smith. I admire the way Nate Smith composes, and he’s a real role model: he doesn’t hesitate to take a back seat on the drums to take on the role of conductor. The track in question is very progressive, dense and coherent. The mix of RnB/hip-hop with the string quartet and its broom playing is really beautiful.

Finally, Rose Rythm by Doudou N’Diaye Rose. It’s a Sabar drum piece with a bit of singing, played by over a hundred musicians. Doudou N’Diaye Rose is an immense percussionist, and I find his way of thinking about music super interesting: there’s often a basic rhythmic motif, calls, tutti rhythms… It’s a unique rhythmic culture.

Joséphine: Here’s a selection of three personalities I find very inspiring:
First, as a clarinettist, I’d like to share my admiration for Anat Cohen, who has an immensely sensitive playing style and a truly contagious energy, both in jazz, but also in Brazilian music. I’ve chosen the track Ambitious, which she plays with Marcello Gonçalves on the Outra Coisa album.

I’d also like to introduce a contemporary composer, Rebecca Saunders with Stirrings Still, who has a very rich universe, and who also inspired me to write one of the tracks in my project.

Finally, I’d like to talk about Michael Gallen, an Irish composer with whom I’ve been lucky enough to work on the creation of two operas. His music is of great depth and humanity, and I’d rather let you simply listen to Impi, a suite for voice and ensemble.

Pictures : Paul Bourdrel