Clement Janinet – vl, nyckelharp, comp
Arve Henriksen – tr, fx
Ambre Vuillermoz – acc
Robert Lucaciu – cb
What does “European music” mean today, beyond pathos and folklore?
Clément Janinet ‘s answer to this is not a programmatic one, but a sounding one. With Garden of Silence, the French violinist and composer brings together one of the most exciting transnational quartets on the current scene: Arve Henriksen (NOR) on trumpet, Ambre Vuillermoz (FRA) on accordion and Robert Lucaciu (GER) on double bass. This Franco-European ensemble is exemplary of cross-border artistic imagination – sensitive, open and stylistically independent.
Janinet is one of the most distinctive young voices in France. Deeply rooted in jazz, he is less interested in the idiom than in its freedom. Influenced by repetitive music as well as European and African traditions, he combines different aesthetic worlds in his projects. Garden of Silence builds on older projects such as Ornette Under the Repetitive Skies, La Litanie des Cimes or Sokou! and consistently continues their intercultural approach.
Inspired by Dave Douglas’ legendary album Charms of the Night Sky, among others, the quartet is rethinking chamber music. Monteverdi, Buxtehude and Dowland meet Swedish nyckelharp tradition, baroque lines rub shoulders with microtonal layering, free improvisation meets repetitive structures and dances from oral tradition. This is not about stylistic quotations, but about dialog. The result is organic interweaving and music that does not blur boundaries, but rather sets them in resonance.
Arve Henriksen contributes his unmistakable, breathing trumpet tone, which often sounds more like a fer-
ne voice than a brass instrument. Clément Janinet’s violin forms the ensemble’s moving cen-
trum – sometimes cantabile and baroque in style, sometimes rough and repetitively pulsating, always searching
between structure and free gesture. Ambre Vuillermoz expands the spectrum between sacred heaviness and dance-like lightness with the accordion.
Robert Lucaciu anchors the action with his double bass playing, which remains both structured and improvisationally open.
Live, this musical project unfolds a concentrated intensity: transparent, full of tension and with a strong chamber music pulse.
Garden of Silence is not a nostalgic look at Europe, but rather a contemporary sonic realization – multi-layered, permeable and profoundly alive.
