Studio HC Orchestra - Pakachume (2026)

Emerging from Studio HC Orchestra, Pakachume is the fruit of the collaboration between producer Adrien de Maublanc and multi-instrumentalist Yonatan Levi, both members of electro-classical-jazz outfit Midiminuit.
Levi and de Maublanc had set about recording an album at Paris' Studio HC, originally intending to use its staggering array of modular synths, an instrument central to the Midiminuit sound. As they began setting up patches in the studio, Levi, first and foremost a jazz musician, realized he wanted to create an entirely different kind of record: intimate and acoustic, with only a few analog synths thrown in on occasion.
The next day, he and de Maublanc went on a hunt for an acoustic double bass and the widest variety of percussions they could find: bongos, congas, woodblocks, mallets, frame drums and kora. Levi played all the instruments on the album, including flute, piano, sansula, and electric guitar.
Legendary Detroit jazz pianist and multi-instrumentalist Kirk Lightsey, who had collaborated with Levi in the past, contributed vocals on "Sansula" and bass clarinet on "Sorry I'm Late", as well as flutes on two pieces to be released in the future.
Drawing on their vast knowledge of jazz recording history, de Maublanc and Levi used a vintage Neumann microphone, carefully placed to capture each human gesture and the space between the notes. They spent days crafting the right sound, recording for hours, meticulously choosing the fragments that make up the pieces on the record. Further work was put on hold as both artists relocated their studios, with the tracks eventually being mixed by Levi.
The result combines minimalism and jazz with chamber music, Afro-Caribbean sounds, and echoes of ambient and club electronica. A hybrid world that blurs the boundaries between the tactile and the synthetic, finding harmony between pulse and resonance, electricity and wood. In line with the Studio HC Orchestra spirit.