Louis Sclavis (clarinet), Sarah Murcia (double bass), Benjamin Moussay (piano), Olivier Laisney (trumpet), Christophe Lavergne (drums)

Louis Sclavis, one of the great sound storytellers of European Jazz and an iconic figure in French improvised music, has released the album, India (2025), a quintet project that is perfectly in line with his relentless nomadic spirit. Almost 40 years after his masterpiece, Chine (1987), the clarinettist once again takes us on a journey in which Jazz engages in dialogue with traditional Asian sounds, evoking this time a dreamlike India from the memory of past journeys.

With Sarah Murcia on double bass, Benjamin Moussay on piano, Christophe Lavergne on drums and Olivier Laisney brought on board as trumpeter, Sclavis finds a solid, recognisable group sound, robust enough to sustain melodies, dances and improvisations supported by insistent rhythms. An ensemble with which he has built a common universe furnished with imagination, sharpness of ear and freedom.

India is born out of travel impressions transformed into musical material: a theatre on the docks of Calcutta, a long train crossing the countryside, a night at Kali Temple, the Ganesh festivals... The album offers memories of a distant place that are almost a mirage, an India that fans out before us, its atmospheres and textures, with a lyricism always driven by the collective force of the quintet.