Guillaume Perret is in possession of a simply extraordinary sound. Here, at the famous Jazz à Vienne stage, he occupies a darkly-lit space, loop pedals before him and a beautiful, frightening work of art behind him: all kinds of saxophones, mounted on stands, looking down menacingly … it is a representation of the imposing music Gods that command a musician to be masterful, but also to be free.
Jazz musicians in Perret’s lineage have wrestled with this idea of freedom for the last one hundred years, and in 2016, a year before this concert, he contributed his own vision to their enduring dialogue. Free is more than an album title, it is a declaration of intent: a journey through different landscapes and emotions, a challenge to drop the mask and give free reign to his “desires on stage … to make everything evolve more quickly, more instinctively.”
It is from this album that Perret plays and, as an audience, we get the impression he is jumping into an ocean of sounds and imagination, without a harness to pull him back. Between all kinds of jazz, funk, abstract harmony, screaming metal and intriguing breathwork, Perret delivers a post-psychedelic set that contains references from Greek mythology to cosmic wanderings. A supreme young saxophonist.
