Julien Tassin on vintage Gibson L-00 and Kalamazoo KG11 guitars on a series of ten pieces joined by percussionist Michel Seba on ‘Le Refuge’ and ‘L’orage’ (‘The Storm’).
The vocalising on ‘Les Chaines’ and ‘Traditionnel’ folds in attractively but it’s not the main focus. And yet its haunting characteristics on the latter of these pieces particularly are part of the distinctive spell. And certainly that track stayed with us longest of all. There’s a raw sense of the blues the album is very good at capturing overall.
What do we know about Tassin?
Julien Tassin, who is 42, hails from Charleroi and studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels taught there by Paolo Radoni.
Original tunings add piquancy
Tassin’s penchant for original tunings keeps things interesting and there are plenty of surprises when he darts into terra incognita.
Albums of Tassin’s include one released during the first Lockdown year of 2020 entitled Pictures from Home on which the Belgian picked up the baritone guitar and dubbed in kalimba in places. That release included a much longer version of Wild Around track ‘Ancestors’. But the shorter treatment on the new release works much better.
2022’s Primitiv is similar to this new one but we think the sound quality of Wild Around has a stronger intact ringing nature to it and there’s a more intense focus. Wild Around is about inner turmoil and societal struggle and explores the artist’s own mental health challenges during Lockdown and beyond.
Tapping an ancient blues feeling
If you enjoy listening to blues music and American folk music you will probably enjoy this more than if you don’t even if its jazz vocabulary is shrunk right away given the diverted aim. An album that has a great honesty to it comes with strong thematic ideas and a burning intensity.
Also just out Midnight Sun shows another spiritual jazz dimension to Tassin’s sound
Tassin is on the also very good – and more core jazz release – Midnight Sun which is a collaboration with saxophonist Manuel Hermia and drummer Chris Joris issued recently by Belgian indie, Igloo.
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