Andy Emler

MegaOctet | Trio ETE | Organ Duo

Genre: Contemporary & Jazz

Territories: World ex. France (MegaOctet: ex. Germany & Austria)

Available for 2022 & 2023

Promotion

MEGAOCTET

New repertoire : “No Rush”

We no longer present the MegaOctet in its nine musicians version as there would be much to say about the many recordings and different repertoires. (MegaOctet plays Frank Zappa, Strasbourg percussions and the MegaOctet…)

8 Albums punctuated the march of this orchestra which has become a “virtuoso figure” of French music today. Indeed, this music plays on all the labels bringing together audiences who love classical, contemporary, jazz or pop-rock music. “The energy of rock n’ roll, the jazzmen’s groove combined with scholarly writing ”

This new “anniversary” program invites some of the “old-timers” who have not been overlooked in the history of the orchestra, not to mention the 8 other incredible soloists of this extraordinary instrumental ensemble, “they are only new and sound like 25”.

The musical content gives way to different compositions heard over the years of “orchestral travel”. Pieces representative of the evolution of the writing style, the sound of the orchestra (which became more acoustic today than electric yesterday), and the “musical staging” of the soloists will remain the composer’s priority.

The sound design of Vincent Mahey, sound engineer who has been an integral part of the orchestra for more than 20 years, and the lighting and visuals of Jean Grison who was already in charge of the first versions of the orchestra in 1989, will bring the “final touch” to this surprise concert or, as so often, humor and creativity come together in a skillful combination for the greatest pleasure of all.

Trio ETE

[Emler/Tchamitchian/Echampard]

Nouvel album : The Useful Report 2022

Twenty years ago, the core players of the MegaOctet Andy Emler (p), Claude Tchamitchian (cb), and Éric Échampard (dr) created this trio, a parallel project to the full orchestra, as a way to deepen and create their own sound. The Useful Report is the trio’s fourth album and is a little more written than usual. Why the title “useful report”? Because it establishes the sad observation that personal interest is prioritized over life, superficiality over depth, appearance over simply being. The entire project that is “The Useful Report” can perhaps be held within these words: bringing life back to the center.

When one writes about a trio that mixes composition and improvisation, it’s
common to speak of “complicity”, especially when the musicians have been
playing together for twenty years. It’s a little less common to say that within the
Trio ETE, the listener isn’t really hearing a dialogue between three individuals,
but rather a polyphonic monologue. No one plays a solo per se, as Andy Emler would say, the trio is the soloist. The result: the trio becomes an independent musical entity, with its necessary organic cohesion.

Anchored in sensation, the performance is very physical (and not only because it is virtuoso). Andy also often speaks of music as a “voyage”. With this trio, it is
all the more true, as the sound matter is always in motion. The voyage is as
much external, with the music being in constant motion, as it is internal, with the listening experience being synonymous with openness – to oneself and to the world around.

In this new repertoire, we find the useful mix of improvisation-landscape, research on a rhythm which flirts with contemporary music, and hypnotic dynamics anchored in rock music – it isn’t for nothing that Andy Emler is a fan of rock bands such as Led Zeppelin or The police. Moreover, the album is intended to be listened to at a high volume, as one would listen to a rock band or a symphonic orchestra. In brief, it still isn’t jazz (missed the mark again!), but it is not something else either. The Trio ETE achieves the dream of music that
simply is.

– Raphaëlle Tchamitchian ( traduction from french to English: Emmanuelle
Zagoria)

– Raphaëlle Tchamitchian

Orgue et anches

Between these two virtuosos, accomplices in music and friends for almost thirty years, the current passes intensely, from the first minute. In this “electric” album, it is also alternative: the roles and the voices are reversed, the highs pass in the bass, and the pedals of the organ become so many melodies.

Andy Emler’s music and the space left for improvisation bring to light a kind of ideal balance between the earthly power of Earth and the spirituality of Air. Like the generous hedonism and incandescent lyricism of these two decidedly unique soloists.