Claudia Solal & Benoît Delbecq - Hopetown

“A matchless voice, an outstanding pianist, singular lyrics and music, a unique duo!”

Like any modern artists aware of their predecessors Solal and Delbecq are provocative echoes of the past. Rather than comparing their work to that of masterly duos it might be more interesting to see them as a link in a chain of imaginary encounters. Think Abbey Lincoln and Myra Melford, or Sidsel Endresen and Mal Waldron, or Laurie Anderson and Anthony Davis. All the aforementioned were driven by no-compromise creativity and sense of purpose. Solal and Delbecq have found their own seats in this virtual pantheon. Yet Hopetown remains as real a space as one may dare to enter. Kevin Le Gendre, excerts from the liner notes