Pierre Favre

2004 release ** "The percussionist as poet, the drummer as sound painter, the composer as storyteller, and the improviser as artist of survival. What Pierre Favre writes for the Arte Quartet is like a choral fantasy, a suite for individualists with a strong collective spirit. Four singers, each with their own utterly unique timbre, a chamber choir with a highly developed sonic sensuality. The percussionist runs his threads between the voices, becomes one himself, creates space, provides the beat, or drives everything onward. Carefully and decisively. With a sensitivity based on inner strength. And then there is Michel Godard, the deep peer, the free spirit with the metallic tuba and the wooden serpent that magnificently mixes with the saxophone voices or unfolds as counterpoint singing. Favre's compositions emerge from this feeling for the orchestral, for the cooperation and conflict of voices."