With her high-quality trio with Drew Gress and Kenny Wollesen, Sylvie Courvoisier presents her eleventh album on Intakt Records: Intakt CD 300. In both her playing and her composition she shows neoclassical influences mixed with European improvised music and the experimental nonconformismof the New York downtown scene.

The nine pieces on D'AGALA are dedicated to people who admired and influenced Courvoisier. The title tune is for pianist Geri Allen, "one of three dedicatees who passed away as this June 2017 recording was in preparation – the others being guitarist John Abercrombie and French politician, women’s rights advocate and Holocaust survivor Simone Veil. Two pieces are for sculptors, Martin Puryear who merges organic and geometric forms, and Louise Bourgeois. On “Bourgeois’s Spiders,” Courvoisier is all over the piano – plucking or strumming strings inside, or playing with one hand inside and one on the keys, or rattling around on the metal frame. Sometimes the band sounds like a trio of percussionists; they’re that rhythmically acute", writes Kevin Whitehead in the liner notes and adds: "Some pianists approach the instrument like it’s a cathedral. Sylvie Courvoisier sometimes treats it like a playground".

Cover art: Mario del Curto
Graphic design: Jonas Schoder
Liner notes: Kevin Whitehead
Photos: Frank Schindelbeck

All compositions by Sylvie Courvoiser (SUISA, ASCAP). Recorded June 22, 2017, by Ryan Streber at Oktaven Audio, Mont Vernon, NY. Mixed September 25, 2017, by James Farber at Sear Sound Studio, New York City. Asst. engineer and editing: Owen Mulholland. Mastered by Scott Hull. Executive production by Florian Keller