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L'imparfait des Langues is the twelfth album by the French jazz musician Louis Sclavis, and his fifth for ECM Records.

L'imparfait des Langues
Studio album by Louis Sclavis
Released	2007
Recorded	April 2005
Studio	Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-les-Fontaines
Genre	Avant-garde jazz
Length	56:03
Label	ECM (ECM 1954)
Producer	Manfred Eicher, Louis Sclavis
Louis Sclavis chronology
African Flashback (2005) L'imparfait des Langues (2007) Lost on the Way (2009)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
All About Jazz	[1]
AllMusic	[2]
The Guardian	[3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	[4]

Background

Sclavis had received a commission to premiere a new project at the Monaco Festival Le Printemps des Arts in Monte Carlo, in April 2005. Having put together an ensemble, Sclavis sketched the compositions for L'imparfait des langues in ten days. The concert was cancelled at short notice due to the death of Monaco's Prince Rainier. Without a venue, Sclavis and his group booked into a recording studio in Pernes-les-Fontaines and recorded the music in a single day.[5]

Music

Sclavis was keen to challenge his compositional habits and brought together an ensemble with which he had had little previous experience.[5] The players were not "pure jazz", but worked in many different styles of music. Structurally, many of the pieces are based on short 8 or 16-bar phrases and equal emphasis is placed on texture and sound as well as melody. The album has a wide textural diversity, from the "aggressive improvisation" of "L'idée du dialecte" and the Sonic Youth-style overdriven guitar of Maxime Delpierre's "Convocation" to the heavily processed vocals of "Annonce" and the repetitive "Le verbe".[6]

Track listing

All compositions by Louis Sclavis, except "Premier imparfait «a»" and "Premier imparfait «b»" by Louis Sclavis and Paul Brousseau and "Convocation" by Maxime Delpierre.

1. "Premier imparfait «a»" – 1:46
2. "L'idée du dialecte" – 6:57
3. "Premier imparfait «b»" – 1:01
4. "Le verbe" – 6:42
5. "Dialogue with a dream" – 3:59
6. "Annonce" – 1:40
7. "Archéologie" – 6:12
8. "Deuxieme imparfait" – 2:16
9. "Convocation" – 1:16
10. "Palabre" – 4:00
11. "Le longs du temps" – 5:30
12. "L'écrit sacrifié" – 2:25
13. "Story of a phrase" – 7:32
14. "L'imparfait des langues" – 3:57

Personnel

• Louis Sclavis – clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone
• Marc Baron – alto saxophone
• Paul Brousseau – keyboards, sampling, electronics, guitar
• Maxime Delpierre – guitar
• François Merville – drums

References

External links

• L'imparfait des Langues at ECM Records
• L'imparfait des Langues at All About Jazz

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