Duo Iwase/Vincent

Contemporary music/improvisation

 

  The sax/cello duet of Kumi Iwase and Hugues Vincent started in 2011, a work based on the combination of improvisation and composition.

 

  After a series of improvised music concerts, held mainly in Paris, the duet focused on film-based events, using Man Ray's experimental films as the basis for compositions. Later on Iwase and Vincent developed works for solo cello; electronics and cello; as well as acoustic duets of cello and clarinet/saxophone. Recently, on the occasion of a 2014 tour of Japan, they started to combine written pieces, improvised pieces and original creations using scenarii merging both.

 

  The duet's music is open, paying attention to sound colors, using a large variety of musical devices, from pure sound to silence, encompassing melody, rhythm, percussive noise, field recording, and more... The multiplicity of sound material makes for a vivid, versatile performing experience, yet striving to reach a formal construction.

 

  As much as the duet likes to feature its original pieces while on tour, it is also eager to collaborate with other artists to keep its music open and moving forward:

 

- Commissions for other musicians: Kumi Iwase composed pieces for yanquin (Taiwanese cymbalum), flutes, er-hu (Chinese violin), which have been performed in Paris, Taipei and Kyoto. 

 

- Interpretations of other composers' work: Ai Watanabe and Vincent Laubeuf write pieces for electronic cello and electronic saxophone that the duet created in Japan in 2014. Other works are currently in progress.

 

- Appearances with other musicians and improvisers: the duet has toured with guitarist Shinichi Isohata and pianist Naoyo Yakushi. The repertoire is made of compositions by all four members, exploring the balance between improvisation and compositions. The tours have been fuelled by many impromptu meetings, bringing new angles of exploration and research.

 

- Meetings with other performing arts: its compositional work being rooted in image and movement, the duet has favored collaborations with dancers Tanaka Haru, Nakazawa Ray, Izu Maki, and video artists Akito Sengoku and Sayori Izawa. The different and unique timeframe of these visual artists have led the duet to newer directions. 

 

 

KUMI IWASE

 

  After studying saxophone in Japan, Kumi Iwas moved to France to debut on clarinet, jazz, composition and electroacoustics at Evry's CRD and under Guillaume Roy, Isabelle Duthoit, Jacques Di Donato and Nicolas Cylinder. She received a training in free improvisation with masterclasses led by Dominique Piffarely, Joelle Léandre and Benat Achiary.

 

  Her compositional works covers many areas:

2009 - Guitar Quartet « Swell »

- Trombone Quartet

- Duo violin « Sprinters »

- Acousmatic piece « Night »

2010 - On the poem « Inventory»: for female voice, clarinet, drums

- Saxophone sextet

- Acousmatic piece « Train »

2011 - For violin, viola, violin and piano on Marguerite Duras' poem « End North Park »

- Mixed piece for recorder « Space shade in a temple » - On three different Japanese literary texts, Abe Kobo « Hiraire the moon » / Banana Yoshimoto "Kitchin" / Haruki Murakami; for recorder, flute, guitar, actress, conductor and electronics.

2012 - Duo cello and electronic / saxophone « Tabun Daijyoubu »

- Music on Sayori Izawa's experimental film « Thirst »

2013 - Music for Man Ray films

- Elementary Particles for 9 instruments « The Constituting Elements »

- Mix cello piece « Bustle In The Sanctuary »

2014 - Three solo cello suites on the theme of Sea

- Mixed piece for Yanqin « Rain »

2015 - Saxophone quartet « Dawn »

2016- Mix piece «Mémoire d'Arbre»

 

   She has performed in several other projects: Trio Jazz Yasai, saxophone duet and quartet, trio Iki No Ato (saxophone / electroacoustic / painting), duet with vocalist Judith Kahn, duet with cellist Hugues Vincent, electronic project, voice works with Japanese literature, improvised or written pieces for saxophone solo or saxophone and electronics, movies-concert...

Her music is performed mainly in France and Japan.

 

 

Hugues Vincent

 

  Alongside classical studies in cello with Denise Cherret, Hugues Vincent is trained on Jazz at EDIM and the Montreuil Conservatory, earning a Bachelor in Musicology and a teaching diploma (CAPES) of the Paris 8-Vincennes University. He attends improvisation masterclasses under Sophia Domancich, Didier Levallet, Régis Huby, Vincent Courtois, Ernst Resijeger, Barre Philips, Joëlle Léandre...

  Over the years he has collaborated with: Tilbol, Celluloïd (with Franck Smith), Joelle Léandre's "String Project", Otomo Yoshihide's "New Jazz Ensemble", David S. Ware's "Ensemble à cordes", Bobun (with viola player Frantz Loriot), the Ska band "Le Pélican Frisé", the acousmatic trio Bolitz (with Polo and Vincent Laubeuf)... He writes music for Four Roses For Lucienne (based on texts by Roland Topor), the free rock trio Ganjin...

  He has appeared with numerous improvisers: Vincent Courtois, Claude Tchamitchian, Jean-François Pauvros, Luc Ex, Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Itaru Oki... and also worked in choreographic fields (with Chia Yin Ling, Imre Thormann, Ima Tenko...).

  He tours regularly in many countries (Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Italia, Spain, United-States, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Russia, Japan, Taïwan)...

  He is featured on over 20 records, his most recent albums being "Free Trees" on Leo Records (with Vladimir Kudryavtsev and M

aria Logofet) and the critically-acclaimed "Fragment" on Improvising Beings (with Morishige Yasumune).