Tarkovsky Quartet

For anyone in search of soundtracks to imaginary European art-films, the Tarkovsky Quartet's albums may be just the ticket. As an ardent admirer of the Russian auteur's movies, pianist François Couturier felt inspired to make music that strove to express something of their dreamlike essence. To this end he recruited cellist Anja Lechner, saxophonist Jean-Marc Larché and accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier. A first album Nostalghia – Song For Tarkovsky was released in 2006, this one following in 2011. There has since been a third: Nuit Blanche (2017) which I have yet to hear.

It's not easy music to pigeon-hole. Is it jazz? Coutourier has a jazz background; and some of the pieces are improvised, but it doesn't feel jazzy. Is it classical? Lechner is classically trained, and the tracks on this album apparently incorporate references to Pergolesi, Bach and Shostakovich: it is, I think, chamber music of a sort, but it doesn't feel quite classical either. And nor is it really film music: Tarkovsky's movies already had perfectly good soundtracks, with these pieces perhaps serving more as accompaniments to the memory of the films, rather than to the films themselves.

Whatever one calls it, it does feel very much at home on the ECM label, so they're in safe hands there. It's often sparse; sometimes astringent, and sporadically beautiful. If I had to pick a single favourite track it would be the haunting 'Mychkine' - but it's all the better when heard as part of the album as a whole.

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