Cabaret Rocher Trio, an ensemble from Brittany, France, redefines musical boundaries with a fusion of Breton folk and avant-garde jazz, led by multi-clarinettists Etienne Cabaret and Christophe Rocher.
Renowned across France for their dynamic duo performances and global collaborations with luminaries, they now unveil a trio with drummer Nicolas Pointard, crafting a repertoire that marries traditional Breton melodies with free jazz’s daring spontaneity.
Here’s what the trio told us before their JazzFest gig.
How are you approaching your JazzFest performance differently? Are you expanding the theatrical component or exploring new sonic territory?
It’s our first time at JazzFest; we always adapt our performance to the feeling of the place, of the event. The public often says that we are like dancing when we play; I don’t know if it’s a kind of theatre, we are inhabited by characters connected to our music. We have a lot of different musical pieces, and we choose the set list at the last moment, when we know the place and the spirit of the festival. Each piece represents a kind of story, connected to the forest, to some people who lived a long time ago, or to the trees, to living traditions in constant evolution ... so we will probably tell a story with this concert.
How would you describe the trio’s personality to someone discovering you for the first time?
Every concert is a kind of travel in our souls. We come from jazz, world music and other experiences, but the most important part is: Don’t think, let your soul travel with the music. That’s what we do when we play, just feel, don’t try to understand, just feel rhythms, sounds and melodies.
When you start working on a new piece, do you imagine it visually or theatrically first, or does the music come before the storyline?
Most of the time, if we compose together, we have just a clue, a little element, like a little wire, and after we develop it, mostly using improvisation. Otherwise, one of us comes up with a new piece, and then he has a precise idea, dedicated to the way we play. There is no theatre, rarely a really determined form. Mostly, we invent the forms during the concerts with the elements of the composition. That’s why every concert is a unique experience.
Everyone’s talking about artificial intelligence. What does AI mean to you, and does it have a place in your music?
This is a very large question. In this group, we use human feeling, bodies and brains, sometimes computers and electronics but no AI. To me (Christophe), AI can be an interesting tool. I have a project with a scientist who works on AI and neurosciences; we are looking for a kind of machine that ‘improvises’ with human musicians. That’s very experimental (George Lewis, an American free jazz musician, is working on it for a few decades; it is very inspiring). But if you mention how the musical industry uses AI to produce music for platforms, it is not really our subject; we are not interested.