Kris Defoort PLA
(Y)CES (CD)

Two pianos, a hundred years between them, and yet one conversation. W.E.R.F. Records is pleased to announce the release of a remarkable live recording in which improvising pianist/composer Kris Defoort and pianist Jan Michiels meet in an intimate, polyphonic dialogue - with the Préludes of Claude Debussy as their shared point of departure.

The recording is a live capture of the concert given by Kris Defoort and Jan Michiels on 16 October 2022 at Concertgebouw Bruges, documenting what happens when two exceptional pianists with a deep mutual admiration share the stage.

The programme has its roots in a commission. At Jan Michiels' request, Kris Defoort composed DEDICATIO book 1: nine intimate piano pieces, personal letters dedicated to people close to his heart. As the cycle took shape, Michiels discovered a striking affinity with the work of Debussy. Although a century separates the two pianist-composers, they write from a similar inner perspective and the same refined sensitivity to colour and atmosphere.

From there came the idea of giving concerts in which Jan Michiels performs passages from the Préludes livre I et II on the spot, to which Kris Defoort responds in his own improvisational style. This is not illustration, not pastiche, but a genuine two-way conversation: Debussy as springboard, as mirror, as invitation. The result is an album that hovers between composition and improvisation, between tradition and the present, between the familiar and the unexpected.


About Jan Michiels

Since winning the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1991, Jan Michiels has been one of the most distinguished pianists of his generation, known for his layered and personal approach to the repertoire. Over the years he has combined old and new through an ongoing dialogue with the living history of music, resulting among other things in complete cycles of Beethoven, Bartók, Brahms and - not coincidentally - Debussy. He has collaborated closely with composers such as György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, Heinz Holliger and Kris Defoort, and appears as a guest in leading concert halls across Europe and Asia. Michiels is affiliated with the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and is a guest professor at the Universität der Künste Berlin.


About Kris Defoort

Kris Defoort is one of the most distinctive voices in the contemporary Belgian music landscape, with a body of work that seamlessly weaves together jazz, contemporary classical music and improvisation. His ability to compose and improvise from the same musical intuition makes him a unique conversation partner - including for the legacy of Debussy.


"Pla(y)ces is an album about listening and responding, about the time that music bridges and the silence that two pianists can share with one another."[info sheet from distr.]