Press

"Bourquenez's pieces head in all sorts of directions, in a sense providing an exploded diagram of the elements that make up his own music."

thebluemoment.com ↗

"Plaistow always sounds like a group that existed before the instruments were chosen."

« Le secret de Plaistow, c'est peut-être de bâtir un son comme on élève une cathédrale. »

"Plaistow's secret may be to build a sound the way one builds a cathedral."

"Bourquenez in particular fills out the cold precision of standard minimalist techniques through striking rich and warm chordal shapes that evolve and shift in line with very human, intuitive rules. He paints chord changes in diffuse watercolour mode, rather than delineating them sharply in the style of a Mondrian or Ellsworth Kelly."

thesoundprojector.com ↗

"Dwars, dissonant tegelijk rijk aan kleur en emotie vinden de composities van Plaistow moeiteloos hun plek in je hart."

"Contrary, dissonant yet rich in colour and emotion, Plaistow's compositions effortlessly find their way into your heart."

writteninmusic.com ↗

"Plaistow are not afraid of repetition, their pieces often accrete in layers of intensity in a manner that suggests the influence of minimalist composers such as Terry Riley and Steve Reich as well as the more frequently documented dance, electronica and alt rock. Another observation to emerge from the Pizza gig was the way in which Bourquenez uses the piano as a 'whole instrument' via the use of prepared sounds and other 'under the lid' techniques. Many contemporary jazz pianists indulge in a token rummage in the instrument's innards in an attempt to gain an element of much needed street cred but few utilise the interior of the instrument as successfully and comprehensively as Bourquenez."

thejazzmann.com ↗

« le pianiste savait installer le silence comme élément constitutif de son jeu. »

"The pianist knew how to install silence as a constitutive element of his playing."

citizenjazz.com ↗

« une musique aux contours sombres, dont le minimalisme aride peut s'emparer d'une poignée de notes ou de sons pour les étirer ou les multiplier à l'infini, sans la moindre précaution préalable. »

"A music of dark contours, whose arid minimalism can seize a handful of notes or sounds and stretch or multiply them endlessly, without the slightest prior warning."

citizenjazz.com ↗

"Only the very best groups have the ability to mould their music and their environment into what seems like a single organism." (…) "This is a great time for piano trios, but there really isn't another one quite like Plaistow."

« Le piano est martelé avec insistance, le couple batterie-contrebasse joue serré, chaloupe sans lâcher prise, les harmonies se détachent et prennent leur envol. » (…) « chaque morceau tourne comme un satellite autour d'une idée forte, qu'elle soit rythmique ou mélodique, développée par le trio sans grands effets de style ni impératif structurel classique. »

"The piano is hammered insistently, the bass-drum pair plays tight, rocking without letting go, the harmonies detach and take flight." (…) "Each piece orbits like a satellite around a strong idea — rhythmic or melodic — developed by the trio without grand stylistic gestures or classical structural imperatives."

lecourrier.ch ↗

« Une main plongée dans les entrailles du piano, Bourquenez tire des modulations inédites de son instrument. » (…) « Une musique exigeante, dont la grande force est de s'adresser à celui qui pense mais aussi à celui qui ressent. »

"With one hand plunged into the piano's innards, Bourquenez draws unprecedented modulations from his instrument." (…) "A demanding music whose great strength is that it speaks to those who think as much as to those who feel."

chromatique.net ↗

« S'il fallait trouver une famille à Plaistow, on les placerait avec Nik Bärtsch et Dawn Of Midi dans le foyer des obsessionnels infatigables. À force de répéter à l'envi la même ligne, ils font apparaître des sensations inouïes tel un arc-en-ciel après la pluie. »

"If one were to place Plaistow in a musical family, it would be alongside Nik Bärtsch and Dawn Of Midi in the household of tireless obsessives. By repeating the same line over and over, they conjure extraordinary sensations — like a rainbow after rain."

"Titan is het album waarop de band zich nu heeft overgegeven aan de totale muzikale vrijheid. Het is een album zonder compromissen en met pure passie en avontuur en volop vertrouwen in elkaars muzikale kunnen opgezet." (…) "De composities, van prachtig ingetogen en sfeervol naar dwingend, duwend en trekkend, overtuigen omdat ze onpeilbaar zijn. Misschien juist daardoor vinden ze, voordat je er erg in hebt, een weg naar je hoofd en hart." (…) "Titan is het meesterstuk van Plaistow."

"Titan is the album on which the band has surrendered to total musical freedom. It is an album without compromises, conceived with pure passion and adventure, and complete trust in each other's musical abilities." (…) "The compositions, from beautifully restrained and atmospheric to compelling, pushing and pulling, convince because they are unfathomable. Perhaps precisely for that reason, before you know it, they find their way into your head and heart." (…) "Titan is Plaistow's masterpiece."

writteninmusic.com ↗

"Titan is a fascinating and very modern 21st century non-purist version of the piano trio that keeps you guessing."

marlbank.net ↗

"Bourquenez proved himself a virtuoso at the skill of using his left hand inside the piano to damp and bend the notes he was playing with his right hand, at times making the instrument sound like an oud or, as my neighbour suggested, like a cimbalom, the hammered dulcimer of Central and Eastern Europe." (…) "They make you think about sound and about time. They can sweep you away with a burst of lyricism or pin you to the spot."

thebluemoment.com ↗

"Das wenige Material breitet sich minutenlang aus. Doch wird es extrem genau belauscht und wie mit der Pinzette bearbeitet." (…) "Plaistow bieten eine Musik der Selbstzurücknahme, in der man als Hörer ein Stück gern auch mal eine halbe Stunde lang wieder und wieder auskundschaftet."

"The sparse material unfolds over minutes. Yet it is listened to with extreme precision and worked as if with tweezers." (…) "Plaistow offers a music of self-effacement, in which the listener is happy to explore a piece again and again, for half an hour at a time."

"Someone asked me the other day what Plaistow's music 'was'. I'm not usually lost for a word but I had to pass on this one." (…) "Plaistow evolves. Its music evolves. Your hearing of it will evolve, from record to record, from track to track, from moment to moment within a track."

« Les membres du trio suisse Plaistow savent, avec une maîtrise et une conscience remarquables, faire monter la tension avec une logique progressive implacable. » (…) « Le travail méticuleux et souvent très minimaliste du pianiste Johann Bourquenez se remarque lors de ses improvisations très pensées et travaillées. »

"The members of the Swiss trio Plaistow know how, with remarkable mastery and awareness, to build tension with relentless progressive logic." (…) "The meticulous and often highly minimalist work of pianist Johann Bourquenez is evident in his very deliberate and carefully worked improvisations."

culturejazz.fr ↗