Algeria-born bassist Michel Benita, long a mainstay of the French jazz scene, introduces his revised quartet. Swiss flugelhornist Matthieu Michel and French drummer Philippe Garcia are retained from Benita’s Ethics band, and the quartet is completed by Belgian keyboardist Jozef Dumoulin. Dumoulin’s swirling, floating sounds and colours - he sounds like no other Fender Rhodes player - have inspired Benita to write evocative new music for the group. The repertoire also includes a bewitching cover version of Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “Inutil Paisagem”, the freely improvised "Cloud To Cloud", and a touching solo bass interpretation of Jule Styne’s “Never Never Land”. Looking At Sounds was recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in March 2019.

This album explores the experience of foreigners in France. I see myself as belonging to a long genealogy of American artists who moved to Paris to escape the USA, a country that does not support its creators. Unlike my illustrious predecessors, I arrived in France during a pandemic that paralyzed the Parisian artistic scene. Paradoxically, the cancellation of live performances made it easier for me to collaborate with Parisian musicians and focus on composing. Rooted in the values and approaches of jazz, this album offers a musical view of Paris in the Covid-19 era. The ensemble’s direction, concept, and instrumentation is electronic and contemporary, using musical languages outside of the jazz tradition. Notably it mobilizes concepts from South Indian Carnatic music and North Africa. If French jazz musicians tend to mystify the New York and American music scene, having made the reverse journey, my music celebrates the mixing of culture that makes Paris a musical center.