Thomas de Pourquery / Supersonic
After incursions into cinema with the Dogs of Navarre for the film Apnée directed by Jean-Christophe Meurisseou and Antonin Peretjatko with whom he shot La loi de la jungle. After a first album Play Sun Ra with his band Supersonic released in 2014 and crowned «Best Album of the Year» by the Victoires du Jazz 2014.
Here is Sons of Love, the first album by Thomas de Pourquery, the first where he has composed all of the music, like a declaration of love for his heroes. The anatomy of a dream: Supersonic was born in 2011 with the album Play Sun Ra. The adventure had been so beautiful and the musical genius proven through so many concerts around the world. There was no need to make a second album like Sun Ra and even less to imagine writing a repertoire after playing such masterpieces. Wonderful memories should be preserved, another group should be formed and the page should be turned. But then came the dream…
«While I rarely dream of music, one night I dreamt of this new album. I was like a miniature bird in an immense disused hangar that was open to the sky. I could fly next to the musicians who were playing. I could touch the keys of the saxophone, stand on a cymbal, and then jump onto the keys of the piano, or trampoline on the bottom string of the bass, it was crazy! But what was even crazier was the sound and energy that I heard. But what is this group? I realised on waking up that it was my band, Supersonic!!! I was stunned, literally transported and for the first time I could hear my beloved Edward, Laurent, Fabrice, Frederick and Arnaud in a different way. Fascinated by this interstellar sound that caressed me, I did not hear melodies but an energy from coiled up waves. I already knew that my group had its own chemistry; but in this dream the DNA of Supersonic was in my body it became a physical sensation. I really heard what Supersonic was. Every composer, has the infernal challenge of «writing a masterpiece», but when I awoke I had my ‘Eureka’ moment, I understood. I only had to write ‘pretexts’ so that the composition would flow.» The dream was the foundation for everything that would follow and it would open the door to freedom. Above all to write ‘pretexts’ for my five musical brothers, and to write for what they are, making the 6 dimensions of Supersonic dance in weightlessness. «I simply had to design the framework in which we would invent the text, the narrative, the discussions and the material together. To try to touch the stars while remaining as down-to-earth as possible, to only filter, to let the music to go through me and then to transcribe it, to combat the third eye which would watch over us like a drone above the battlefield.»
The blank page had miraculously disappeared, so Thomas called the musicians and announced that there will be a second album and described his dream. In one month (February 2016) Thomas writes furiously thinking only of the sound of his 5 heroes: Edward Perraud, Frederick Galiay, Arnaud Roulin, Fabrice Martinez and Laurent Bardainne. Musicians who all have a love of melody, trance and improvisation; three fundamental principles of playing together.
In collaboration with DuNose Productions – FRANCE
Projects
Back to the Moon
Ten years after the formation of his supergroup Supersonic, orbiting in Sun Ra’s orbit, saxophonist-singer Thomas de Pourquery takes over the command of the flagship, whose “Back To The Moon” marks the third take-off where we meet Mingus, a love story, ET, Caetano Veloso in Kikongo, a robot and epic songs. The formation therefore celebrates its 10th anniversary, longevity not so frequent with a faithful squad: Thomas de Pourquery is still flanked by Laurent Bardainne, Fabrice Martinez, Arnaud Roulin, Frederick Galiay and Edward Perraud, dream team whose names have appeared for a long time, as leaders or sidemen, on projects that explode the boundaries between jazz, progressive rock, elaborate pop, psychedelic funk, contemporary, electronic, African music…
Thomas de Pourquery & Supersonic
(…) And then there was Parisian altoist Thomas de Pourquery (above) and his Sun Ra project, Supersonic (below), who headlined on Saturday and pretty much blew everything else out of the water. Their gig, at the RNCM, was total madness: an absurd and absurdly brilliant mashup of jazz, blues, grunge, kitsch electronica and slapstick comedy – like watching a collaboration session between Laurel and Hardy, Weezer and an early naughties Casio keyboard demo, or catching a pared-down Arkestra playing an after hours jam at Philippe Gaulier’s clown school. They stormed through arrangements of ‘Rocket Number Nine’, ‘Love In Outer Space’, ‘Space Is The Place’ and ‘Watusi Egyptian March’ and it was glorious – right up there with the best gigs I’ve seen this.