Cépage(s)

‘And to think that it was a Burgundian who composed Cépage(s). Yes, an entire album devoted to a group of foreign wine plants, ‘disloyal’ vines that the Grand Dukes of the West would have declared, roots that have become almost non-existent, like this Enfant trouvé, which two original Swiss winegrowers still cultivate! Neither Pinot Noir nor Chardonnay – which form the international foundation of Franck Tortiller’s winemaking culture – appear in his sequence of sensual vibrations, appetising waves and round, greedy notes. Did his meeting with Raphaël Pommier, his discovery of the Domaine de Cousignac in Ardèche and his enthusiasm for the Debussy String Quartet force the vibraphonist to deny his origins here?

Let’s listen carefully. A joyous, romantic, delicate world opens up that only a composer whose taste buds were brought up on Meursault and Pommard from the cradle could have written. The interpretation of a sorrowful carignan that engages the violins in lamentations, a happy cinsault that soars in a full waltz or a deep syrah that flies into meditative depths, can only be signed by Franck Tortiller in all his intimacy.

With humour and delicacy, he expresses all that he is and all that he is not. Like a new cosmogony, where aural flavours end in infinite caudalies, Cépage(s) allows the unlikely meeting of the worlds of sound and taste. Here, then, is an album of transformations, where kingdoms alien to each other come together to reveal the very best of our senses.’

Laure Gasparotto

Total running time: 39’23