Rivages

This is a very beautiful album of accordion and guitar. French accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier has appeared on several ECM albums, with oud player Anouar Brahem among others. Both he and French guitarist Kevin Seddiki have also played with the French-Iranian percussion group Trio Chemirani.

This album is the duo’s first recording and they sound very comfortable in each other’s musical spaces. The contrasting sounds of the two instruments give a lovely textural range. The opening ‘Schumannsko’ draws on a Bulgarian melody, with a catchy irregular rhythm, combined with a theme from Schumann. ‘Les Berceaux’ is a song by Gabriel Fauré, which starts with the accordion playing the accompaniment and the guitar taking the vocal line, and then they mix it up. But most of the repertoire is original compositions and improvisations. And it’s striking how often it’s the guitar rather than the accordion that takes the melody, as in ‘Reverie’. As that title suggests, it’s all rather polite and gentle, although ‘Feux Follets’ with its percussive drive and ‘In C’ (nothing to do with Terry Riley) get more interesting.