Silence Talks Nicolas Meier

• 1 October In Ankara (Ankara'da Ekim) 09:53
• 2 Silence Talks (Sessizlik Konusuyor) 07:41
• 3 Turquoise 11:14
• 4 Déjà Vu 06:45
• 5 Dance Of The Rain (Yagmurun Dansi) 10:25
• 6 Deniz's Love (Deniz'in Sevgisi) 07:45
• 7 A Rose In The Pyrénées 05:21
• Total Runtime 59:04

Info for Silence Talks

Silence Talks is the most eloquent musical statement from guitarist Nicolas Meier and his band. It is the sound of a band that have been playing together for more than three years and where every member brings their own distinct musical voice to the music in an ongoing musical conversation. This dialogue and empathy shines through every note of this, their third, album together as Meier's increasingly confident compositions provide a natural launch point for some dazzling investigations of his own unique eastern-flecked jazz.

Three years ago, UK-resident Swiss guitarist Meier made his powerful world-jazz debut Orient, a set strongly featuring Turkish music plus the input of Israelis Gilad Atzmon (sax/clarinet) and Asaf Sirkis (drums). Meier has been steadily shifting his composing toward more explicitly Turkish references (and less of his early world-music, Pat Metheny feel), and this mostly excellent set furthers that process - but with the jazz edge still very sharp.

Even John McLaughlin admirers might raise an eyebrow at Meier's flying acoustic playing on the frenetic whirl of October in Ankara, but it's the subtle segue of the Turkish dance groove into a steadily ticking jazz-funk pulse for Atzmon's soprano-sax arrival that really signals the sensitivity of Meier's tastes. Atzmon's solo, building to whooping ecstasy, is a tour de force, but he's at his most emotionally irresistible on clarinet - warm and hauntingly tender before Meier's startlingly vocal-toned solo on the title track, and with close to a sob in the tone on the lyrical Metheny-like ballad A Rose in the Pyrenees. There could perhaps have been fewer build-ups to an ecstatic improvised thrash, but for the most part Silence Talks is a musically fresh and beautifully recorded unplugged triumph. (John Fordham, The Guardian)

Nicolas Meier, Guitars
Gilad Atzmon, Saxophone
Asaf Sirkis, Drums
Tom Mason, Double bass

Nicolas Meier - Guitars
Nicolas Meier was born in Switzerland in 1973. He began studying guitar at the age of twelve under Francis Coletta at the Conservatoire Fribourg. He eventually studied arranging with Max Jendly and Francis Boland, obtaining his Certificat de Guitare Jazz there in 1993. He subsequently received a scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he stayed for three years concluding in 1997 with a Diploma in Music.

Since forming the suitably named Nicolas Meier Group, Nick has toured extensively in Europe, sharing the bill with the likes of Elvin Jones, Brad Meldau, Trilok Gurtu and Bill Evans. In 2006 Nicolas Meier won the prestigious Grand Prize Of The Jury and 1st Prize Jazz Guitar at Jazz a Juan Revelations 2006, a competition open to the finest new jazz musicians and bands in Europe.

Nicolas Meier has also built a formidable reputation in the United Kingdom, with his quartet becoming ever more solid. Israeli world-bebop saxophonist, and member of The Blockheads, Gilad Atzmon, bassist Tom Mason and drummer Asaf Sirkis, also of Larry Coryell Power Trio.

Meier draws on a multitude of influences: Jazz, Flamenco, Latin and middle-eastern music are all passionately explored in a series of heartfelt acoustic modern jazz originals and all represent part of Meier's musical and personal world. Nick's wife and muse, Songul, is Turkish-born and time spent in her native country has always inspired the textures, melodies, rhythms and instrumentation that shine through in Meier's work like the Ankara sunrise.

Booklet for Silence Talks