Sarah Murcia Eyeballing and Benoît Delbecq & Mikko Innanen duo

Sarah Murcia: double bass, voice, bass synthesizer
Benoît Delbecq: piano, rhythm machine, keyboards
Olivier Py: saxophones
Francois Thuillier: tuba
and Mikko Innanen: saxophones

Bassist and composer Sarah Murcia is a distinctive multi-talent of the French jazz scene. Her career, which started in the musical circles of Paris at the end of the 1990s, includes a wide range of experiences in different types of musical contexts (e.g. dance, theatre and film music). In recent years, you could hear her e.g. in the new quartet of clarinetistt Louis Sclavis and in the ensembles of singer-lute player Kamilya Jubran, known as a reformer of Arab music.

Sarah Murcia founded the Eyeballing quartet in 2017. Its expression uniquely stretches from electro jazz to alternative pop through fascinating minimalism. Murcia has created songs based on the texts of the American writer Vic Moan, which she sings or recites. The precisely composed songs live organically as interpreted by four master players and an improviser. Sarah has invited two of her long-time playing partners: saxophonist Olivier Py and pianist Benoît Delbecq, who also plays the rhythm machine. Delbecq’s pianism has been admired in Finland as early as 1998 in the Kartet band and in recent years with his own trio. The band’s fourth player is tuba virtuoso François Thuillier, known from Andy Emler’s Megaoctet. Drummer Steve Arguelles produced and recorded Eyeballing (Bureau de Son / D-Stream 2020).

The new top duo Benoît Delbecq & Mikko Innanen will also perform at the concert for the first time.

Benoît Delbecq is a multi-awarded Parisian pianist and composer, a trendsetter who constantly develops his ideas with a rhythmic and multi-level approach. Delbecq’s musical power weaves wonderful and compelling works, inspired by sources as diverse as mathematics, poetry or architecture.

Collaborators of Delbecq’s wide range of bands have been many prominent jazz musicians such as Evan Parker, Michael Moore, Jean-Jacques Avenel, Tony Coe, Han Bennink, Gerald Cleaver, Marc Ducret, Guillaume Orti, Hubert Dupont, Mark Helias, Ethan Iverson, Kris Davis, Mary Halvorson, Taylor Ho Bynum, Tomas Fujiwara, Gerry Hemingway, Samuel Blaser, etc.

The duo plays the compositions and improvisations of both musicians.

Photos: Sarah Murcia – Luc Greliche, Benoit Delbecq – Lukasz Rajchert, Mikko Innanen – Sakari Puhakka

The concert is organised in co-operation with Hietsu Is Happening! ja Vapaat Äänet kanssa.

The concert is supported by City of Helsinki, Svenska Kulturfonden, The Finnish Music Foundation and The Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike) plus AJC, Ranskan Instituutti Suomessa, Adami, CNV, Spedidam.