To all those saying that recording is easy, I say, perhaps they should pay a visit to a studio. Of course, you can cut, past, redo, but it is not always an advantage.

The first shock when recording is a bit like the one you feel when hearing your own voice for the first time. Years later, I still find it hard to bear. Indeed, even if you have spent whole years working on planned works, you have never heard them from the microphones perspective. In short, you do not really know how it sounds like for the audience. You have an idea of it, you work so that it sounds as you want in the concert hall, but the microphone is the moment of truth! No one can be more objective than it is.

The editing process is a fantastic thing, but it destroys the music cohesion. Technically, you can edit almost anything, but musically, it does not always fit: different tempi, different dynamics, different intentions, outside noise, atmosphere… The editing can help correct some little mistakes, but overall, I avoid it. I would rather corroborate Samson François’ words: “let the bad notes, it’s nice.” Not always easy to find a balance between technical and musical perfection with an imperfect intermediary.

Recording is a lot of work: if certain imperfections are tolerated in a concert, the disc or recording can be heard several times: you can therefore be sure that there was at one time or another a mistake. It is thus necessary to make a perfect work, thus not human. A little example: Pollini’s recordings. I have long sought the origin of their coldness: it’s a consequence of their absolute perfection. You can not criticize Pollini’s recordings, there is nothing to say, it’s perfect, thus not very human. The audience has become accustomed to this superhuman perfection, and this superhuman perfection has become a standard, in studios or on stage. Too bad, I liked these pianists, who were more humans than playing machines, with their weaknesses, their points of view and their own style…

I digress. On monday, I sat at the piano with 4 microphones and my producer as only audience. Correcting, listening, repeating, improving, discussing, trying to relax a bit, we lived for one ultimate goal: producing a quality recording without stress since there is no planned release. I also had other aims: little or no editing and no sound correction. We will see what happens after post-production! I will share with you some of the tracks when available.

Till then, time to work!