Piergiorgio Pirro Quintet feat. Lynn Cassiers
Piergiorgio Pirro, piano, LinnStrument, electronics / Lynn Cassiers, vocals, electronics / Rob Banken, alto saxophone / Cyrille Obermüller, double bass / Luis Mora Matus, drums
Piergiorgio Pirro continues his exploration of the dialogue between jazz and spectral music and brings together a new incarnation of his band, this time featuring the boundary-pushing Belgian vocalist and soundscaper Lynn Cassiers. One year after the release of his 2023 album fold/unfold/refold, this quintet is preparing to record a new album in the spring of 2025.
Pioneered by composers like Gérard Grisey, Tristan Murail, Horațiu Rădulescu and Fausto Romitelli, spectral music emerged as an influential movement in art music during the 1970s and 80s. Spectral composers drew inspiration from the physics of sound, challenging our common perception of musical parameters. Pirro seeks to apply spectral techniques within a small jazz ensemble, emphasizing spontaneous creation over extensive arrangements and using spectralism as a lens to reimagine the essence of playing jazz together.
A distinctive feature of this project is Pirro’s dual role as a pianist and a performer on the LinnStrument, a touch-based synthesizer controller that enriches the piano’s resonances with microtonal nuances. The other ensemble members also embrace microtonality, creating music that, while recognizable as jazz, carries a uniquely distinctive twist.
“[…] brilliant and thought-provoking, with the pianist managing to transcend his own artistic inquiry to deliver music that is vivid and full of life” — Citizen Jazz
“Remarkably cohesive, […] meaningful and intellectually engaging avant-garde music.” — Salt Peanuts Magazine
“You can safely consider Lynn Cassiers as the most unique vocalist of Belgian jazz an improvisation.” — Enola Magazine
(Photo credits: Nele Meulemans, Alberto Monteleone, Jean Fleuriot)
Blend/React
Maxime Dereux, alto sax / Fang Hsuan-Hui, vocals / Guillaume Delbarre, trombone / Martin Blouet, vibraphone / Piergiorgio Pirro, piano and electronics / Marin De Nattes, el. bass / Jelte De Cock, drums
BLEND in a single, synthetic, unified sound or REACT as distinct voices and individualities? While this tension exists in every jazz band, this ensemble explores it programmatically, delivering music that is both adventurous and danceable. At times, the musicians blend their sounds and gestures, creating complex timbres that could not arise without a collective, coordinated effort. At others, the six people on stage tell their stories, acting as voices, as individuals.
The result is both daring and familiar, bridging jazz’s core elements with timbral structures, microtonal harmonies, and unconventional rhythms derived from spectral music.
Elisabetta Maulo / Piergiorgio Pirro
Elisabetta Maulo, vocals / Piergiorgio Pirro, piano and electronics
Elisabetta Maulo and Piergiorgio Pirro create music that is emotionally rich, profoundly expressive, and marked by a strong sense of spontaneity. Their sound could be described as a sort of contemporary chamber jazz influenced by Early Jazz music. It is sometimes minimalist, sometimes orchestral, and focuses on aspects such as the earthy and bluesy sound of the first era of Jazz, its unique rhythmic approach, and the use of polyphony in the arrangements.
They began to collaborate in 2011 in the form of a voice and piano duo, working on the repertoire of the jazz of the 20s and 30s, and soon starting to compose their own original pieces. This transition is documented in the quartet album Early, published by the label Improvvisatore Involontario in 2015, featuring Tony Cattano at the trombone and Beppe Scardino at the baritone saxophone and bass clarinet.
In 2021 they released the duo EP Aparttogetherapart, this time exploring a different palette of sounds, that includes electronics and field recordings.
Horselover FAT
Giancarlo Pirro, programming, guitar / Piergiorgio Pirro, programming, keyboards
Horselover FAT operates between jazz, electronica, drone music and improvised music.
Their first EP, Four Carefully Crafted Courses of Action, delves into diverse techniques and directions, with the idea of pushing each time a different process or musical choice to its extreme consequences.