Dominique Pifarely & Francois Couturier - Poros (1998)

Tracklist

01. Trois images
02. Poros
03. Labyrintus
04. La nuit ravie
05. Retours
06. Warm Canto
07. Vertigo
08. Images 4, 2, 3
09. Gala

Dominique Pifarely - violin
Francois Couturier - piano

Dominique Pifarely—violinist and former co-leader of clarinetist Louis Sclavis’s acclaimed Acoustic Quartet—and pianist Francois Couturier—who since Anouar Brahem’s Khomsa has recorded a string of varied albums for ECM—team up for this unique collaboration. The resulting admixture of folk and modern classical influences finds the duo charting waters that might have otherwise remained glassy and still without the cut of their oars. The image is no mere metaphor, for the album’s title comes from French philosopher Sarah Kofman, who characterizes the concept in precisely these oceanic terms: a path through aquatic expanse that is just as vulnerable to erasure as it is to discovery. Its trailblazing implications rest on a blade of uncertainty, and therein lies their beauty.--Tyran Grillo