Yaron Herman

Yaron Herman – Alma (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:17:17 minutes | 1,15 GB | Genre: Jazz contemporain
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve

Yaron Herman is never where you expect him to be. He’s recently made a remarkable return to the traditional acoustic trio format (Songs of Degrees in 2019) and rediscovered the joys of interplay through two albums (Everyday, Y) through which the pianist made a conscious effort to open up to other musical aesthetics. However, this new record presents him in the studio, alone at the piano with no safety net, no preparation and no predefined concept. He resolutely plunges into his music sixteen years after his first solo album (Variations, 2006), exploring an array of styles that his listeners won’t be accustomed to hearing him play. In this minimalistic context, Yaron Herman surprises with this deliberately understated music. It’s characterised by a certain gentleness, unfolding its ever-changing and nuanced moods according to his frequently renewing inspiration. Intuitively passing from spontaneous, free improvisations to the more standard (and here, masterfully deconstructed) ‘All the Things You Are’; from pieces borrowed from Israeli popular music (‘Yesh Li Sikuy’ by Eviatar Banar) to a very moving reading of Gabriel Fauré’s ‘Après un rêve’, Yaron Herman offers up a brand of impressionist music that is overtly melancholic but always lyrical, projecting an inexhaustible melodic imagination. – Stéphane Ollivier

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Yaron Herman – Alma (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:00:03 minutes | 909 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve

With his new album, pianist Yaron Herman breaks completely new ground. Having already released ten albums, he drops into the void and offers for the first time a body of completely improvised music – a startling snapshot and a vivid mirror of his past

The piano thus becomes the focus of broader reflection, a companion that helps unravel the mysteries of the world.

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Yaron Herman – Y (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 54:23 minutes | 979 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Blue Note Records

Jazz, ambient, avant-garde, beautiful song structures – actually these music terms should be mutually exclusive. Not so with Yaron Herman, the phenomenal Israeli pianist, who casually ignores genre boundaries and thereby creates a thoroughly sensual, extremely modern music.

As a pianist on a technical and artistic level with the very big of the guild, Yaron Herman Kenner has been a household name for years. “Everyday”, his first Blue Note album released in 2015, further increased his fame and reputation, with his sequel “Y” now taking things one step further, breaking musical jazz boundaries and bringing Herman and various guest musicians together.

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Yaron Herman – Everyday (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 45:21 minutes | 846 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Blue Note Records

With Everyday, Yaron Herman links up with the prestigious Blue Note label. On this album, the pianist forms a duo with percussionist and drummer Ziv Ravitz, with whom he has already frequently collaborated (most notably on the Alter Ego album, released in 2012). The disc is an opus on which Herman’s two major concerns – writing and improvisation – are used as part of a perfect dialogue with his sparring partner. Despite his evident thematic understanding and strength in improvisation, Herman came to the piano late. Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, and Bud Powell feed this album, but Herman has also never stopped revisiting classic songs by Björk, The Police, Jeff Buckley, and Britney Spears. On Everyday, day and night are signalled by the twin totems of Alexander Scriabin and James Blake, who represent opposite, eclectic, furious passions. Passions that have rarely been as well served as on this album.

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Yaron Herman – Everyday (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48kHz | Time – 45:23 minutes | 485 MB | Genre: Jazz
Official Digital Download – Source: Unknown |  @ Blue Note Records/Decca

Everyday marquera assurément une étape dans la carrière du musicien. Septième album de sa discographie, il représente à la fois l’aboutissement d’un imposant parcours et le début d’une nouvelle direction. Yaron Herman frappe d’autant plus fort avec Everyday, qu’il l’a entièrement conçu en cheville avec son nouvel exceptionnel, le batteur Ziv Ravitz.
Everyday marque l’avènement d’un pianiste que l’on savait audacieux et puissant. Il concrétise avec brio et inventivité un monde de musique fait de surprises et d’aventures. La plus inattendue de toutes est peut-être la sublime chanson Volcano réalisée avec Valgeir Sigurdsson (producteur de Björk) autour de la voix troublante de l’Islandais Helgi Jonsson qui révèle un nouvel aspect du talent de Yaron Herman.
Capable de dégager une énergie furieuse comme de laisser s’exprimer une sensibilité d’une infinie délicatesse, ce dernier déploie un éventail stylistique dans lequel on pourrait bien voir un exemple décoiffant de ce qu’est le jazz au XXIe siècle : « S’il y a une chose que je tiens à préserver, conclut-il, c’est l’essence de cette musique, qui repose avant tout sur la spontanéité, la liberté, la possibilité de prendre des risques et d’essayer. Il ne faut jamais oublier la joie que nous avons de faire une telle musique… » Ni celle que nous avons à l’écouter !

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