Pascal Comelade

Pascal Comelade is a French pianist and composer, born on June 30 1955 in Montpellier of Catalan parents. After living in Barcelona for several years, Pascal Comelade released his debut album 'Fluence', influenced by electronic music and the group Heldon, led by his friend Richard Pinhas (with whom he later joined on the album 'Oblique Sessions II'). Comelade also took part in a short-lived pop group, Fall of Saïgon.

 
Thereafter, his music became much more acoustic, characterized by the use of toy instruments both solo and with his variable-geometry group, The Bel Canto Orchestra, founded in 1983. While the break in sound is obvious, this new direction seems to reconcile the old obsession with repetitive music, experimented with until now via electronics, with a more melodic tendency. The originality of Pascal Comelade's work lies, among other things, in the way he attempts to reconcile all forms of popular music through the omnipresence of the notion of repetition. 

 

Influenced as much by American repetitivists (Philip Glass, Steve Reich) as by traditional music (Catalan sardana, tango, musette), by Krautrock (Faust, Can) as by rock n' roll (Pretty Things, Captain Beefheart, The Kinks), Pascal Comelade attempts to synthesize them all by bringing to light the repetitive framework they share, particularly in the countless covers he records of these artists. This process is evident in his 'Haïkus De Pianos' (1991), which presents itself as a summary of twentieth-century popular music performed on the piano (sometimes grand, sometimes toy). Standards are covered, rarely exceeding two minutes, and reduced to their simplest melodic or rhythmic framework.

 
Pascal Comelade has collaborated with a wide range of artists from all walks of life, including Bob Wilson, Robert Wyatt, Faust, Jaume Sisa, Toti Soler, Jac Berrocal and PJ Harvey, to name a few and to emphasize his eclecticism. Once again, these collaborations testify to a desire to embrace a broad spectrum of popular music. And yet, in the constant evolution of his piano playing, which he develops in concert, Pascal Comelade bears witness to a quest that goes far beyond mere compilation. His playing oscillates between an ever-increasing tendency towards sobriety (increasingly reminiscent of Erik Satie).

 
In 2009, Musea released a compilation entitled 'Assemblage De Pièces Comeladiennes Du Plus Bel Efet', it brings together grognards who have accompanied or crossed the path of the Catalan maestro (Jac Berrocal, Faust, Général Alcazar...) and the young guard taking the byways, guided by his inspiration (Kawaii, Tycho Brahé, Chapi Chapo Et Les Petites Musiques De Pluie, David Fenech, My Favorite Sideburns Orchestra...). A retrospective of Comelade and his artist friends was held at Céret's Musée d'Art Moderne in 2010, putting the artist back into a wider creative context. In 2015, he ended The Bel Canto Orquestra project. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]