Igor Gehenot Trio - Motion (2014)

After the international success of his first release “Road Story” in 2012, Igor Gehenot is back with “Motion”, a second album that confirms the artistic growth of the trio whose sound has become instantly recognisable.

Motion revisits the elements that made the first album so remarkable: romanticism, a lyrical tone, slow – sometimes even minimalist – ballads that contrast with more punchy tracks. With influences that reach back to pianists such as Mehldau, Jarrett, Paul Bley and Richie Beirach, the new directory evokes the journeys that the trio undertook these past two years, notably during the “Road Story” Tour .

“Gehenot, is one of just a few pianists in jazz from whom music flows with a melodic perceptiveness that while resting on technique nevertheless possesses enormous clarity. It is essentially a romantic approach where technical accomplishment is merely a means to greater clarity of expression.
Laying yourself bare without resource to technical artifice in this way is a risky business because you can quickly be found out if you have nothing to say, but whether it be one of his own compositions such “Song from Eden” or a ballad you have heard a hundred times before, like “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning,” Gehenot reveals his increasing mastery of thematic variation, as if each note and every chord has been subjected to prolonged consideration…” than others and Gehenot always seems to select the most expressive ones.

As many successful first-time novelists have discovered, the second novel can be a major challenge, but Motion never betrays such concerns, rather it possesses the kind of self assuredness of an artist secure in himself and his accompanists, “With my trio, I think we have our energy and own atmosphere, and we can build on that,” says Gehenot.”

Stuart Nicholson