CD version. Unfolding is the first duo album by the French clarinettist Louis Sclavis and pianist Benjamin Moussay, two musicians who have played together for more than twenty years. All nine pieces were written new for the session, two-thirds by Moussay and the rest by Sclavis. In about forty minutes the pair move between lyrical contemplation and whimsical invention, wrapping delicate themes in unhurried improvisation.
Moussay had been part of several Sclavis projects for ECM, including the clarinettist's 2019 album Characters on a Wall. In recent years the two increasingly worked as a duo, playing long, well-received concerts across Europe. Sclavis plays clarinet and bass clarinet. Moussay says he wrote with his partner's voices on both instruments in mind, aiming for music that would feel natural to him. "For this recording we composed exclusively new material," Sclavis explains, adding that the themes are kept simple to leave space for improvising. The album was recorded in March 2024 at Studios La Buissonne in Pernes-les-Fontaines, engineered by Gérard de Haro and produced by Manfred Eicher.
The title track, by Moussay, sets an invocational tone, with Sclavis's playing turning from elegiac urgency to a calm, solemn close after a piano solo. In Loma del tanto a soft piano opening prepares the clarinet's entry, and a single motif returns in shifting variations. Sclavis's A Garden in Ispahan sets the clarinet inside rippling piano arpeggios, and Tyran Grillo of ECM Reviews heard it as the album's peak. Elsewhere None loosens the form with dissonant passages that always come back to the theme, and Snow closes the set warmly.
The French and German press greeted the album with enthusiasm, and Franck Bergerot gave it a "Choc" in Jazz Magazine. Deutschlandfunk praised a duo that builds on strong contrasts and lives on empathy and intense exchange. Writing in Couleurs Jazz (2024), Thierry Quénum found that "it's easy to fall under the spell of this rich duo", with a dreamy atmosphere across most of the compositions. In Jazz Journal Michael Tucker heard a mood-rich, mostly legato record, broken by a few welcome passages of ostinato drive.
This is the CD edition, ECM 2831, released on 13 September 2024.
