Claude Evence
12
Fleurs
du Mal
a few words about
Claude Evence
Claude Evence Janssens is a Belgian composer, also instrumentalist, musicologist by training. He mainly composes for ensembles and groups that he creates according to his different projects, which do not belong to any particular genre but in turn to jazz, electro-jazz, music. folk-jazz-jazz, contemporary music and, on certain occasions, to pop-rock. Lyrical expressiveness permeates the compositions of Claude Evence. The compositional act is exercised with the densest possible recourse to the confrontational and emotional resources of the music.
The previous albums of Claude Evence were unanimously praised by the press.
Press clippings about PolyMorphosis album (2020) :
"With his PolyMorphosis project, Claude Evence Janssens has embroidered a musical patchwork that interweaves music and voice, jazz, gospel and funk and Bach's partitas in luminous compositions with a melodic and natural groove". (Gilles Bechet - Bazar Magazin)
"Loaded with various musical events, this album will particularly capture the attention of lovers of arrangements both polished and elaborate mixing standards and vocals in an urban pop-jazz interpretation that increases their accessibility. PolyMorphosis is a multicolored experience that deserves to be listened to! ". (Pierre Dulieu - Dragon Jazz)
"PolyMorphosis, a very ambitious project which is akin to a veritable layer cake". (Claude Loxhay - Jazz Halo)
"An encyclopedic superposition of references, harmonies and rhythmic structures grouped together in narrative layers, bursting with surprising fields of tension. The absolute highlight of this puzzle is "Sentimental Sonata In A Cool Mood" in which the references merge perfectly. Respect for Claude Evence Janssens who wrote and arranged everything and who also plays the different wind instruments on the album.
An extremely original embodiment of jazz standards". (Georges Tonlat-Briquet- Jazz Halo)
Press clippings about Instants album (2016) :
"Claude Evence Janssens’s new project brings together five musicians (Close up 5), sometimes from quite distant universes, to create music that gives pride of place to lyricism and imagination. (,,,) most of the songs are very written and full of twists. The album is a series of stories, told in ten sequences, in which each of the musicians exchange points of view at the rate of sometimes surprising changes of direction. (...) With this album, Close Up 5, has fun picking out some characteristics of various music to make a fragrant, coherent and very personal bouquet". (Jacques Prouvost - Jazzques)
"Composer of the entire album, Janssens is, moreover, a surprising instrumentalist since he plays the trombone but also the bass clarinet, paradoxically marrying the mouthpiece and the reeds within a disc that binds bursts of fanfare to the potential of the bop and what followed. In short, a nice success belonging, without possible discussion, to the (large) family of African-American music". (Philippe Elhem - Focus Vif)
"Ten tracks on this album, ten chiseled songs with slightly nostalgic melodies that take the listener on a beautiful journey with velvety and warm sound settings, with assertive lyricism". (Jean-Claude Van Troyen – Le Soir)
"A great success that of Instants, the first album of Close up 5 which brings together four musicians around Claude Evence Janssens to play his compositions. The quintet offers ten melodically rich and colorful titles that unfold like the sequence shots of an imaginary film". (Gilles Bechet - Bazar Magazin)
" 'Instants' is very cinematographic with references ranging from Jacques Tati and Nino Rota to ECM, but also with some unexpected funky interludes. Claude Evence Janssens wrote all the material and himself plays bass clarinet and trombone". (Geroges Tonlat Lighter - Jazz Halo)