Arthur Satyan Organ Trio with special guest Larry Coryell / Aufgang

Arthur Satyan Organ Trio with special guest Larry Coryell

9:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Arthur Satyan is one of the most important and influential jazz musicians in the region. He was the pianist that Jazz stars like Larry Coryell, John Hicks, Charles Davis and Sonny Fortune came to Beirut eager to meet, hear and play with. Dean of Jazz Department and Professor of Classical Piano at the Lebanese National Conservatory of Music since 1998, he taught, influenced and inspired almost every jazz musician in the country.
Arthur has performed with many jazz masters like Larry Coryell, Charles Davis, Ray Vega, Ed Cherry and Joe Lee Wilson just to name a few. In this project, with special guest star guitarist Larry Coryell and Fouad Afra on drums, Arthur appears for the first time as a jazz organist.

Aufgang
10:45 pm – 11:50 pm
The epic tale of Aufgang starts with the new century in the star city of the New World. Rami Khalifé and Francesco Tristano met in the year 2000 in New York where they were both studying the piano at the very prestigious Juilliard School. Being almost as assiduous in their clubbing as their studies, the two began a passionate affair with electronic music on the side of their classical training, focusing on house music, New York being one of its hotspot. They soon began playing together, creating from the start an explosive mix of genres transcending any possible musical bigotry.
Things started shaping-up in 2001 when Aymeric Westrich, a musician (former drummer) from the same school as Rami, went to New York and guided by his two friends immersed himself in electronic music. Thus the three boys sealed their union under the auspices of a common attraction for limitless experimentation.
Aufgang’s official date of birth is June 2005 when they played at Barcelona’s famous Sonar Festival. Francesco, Rami and Aymeric concentrated on structuring their songs and forging an original language, at the crossroads of acoustic and electronic. Their music is fueled by different influences and nourished by an impetuous flow of improvisation. It absolutely refuses to be labelled: it wants above all to vibrate and move people.
“It is neither acoustic techno nor electronically seasoned classical music, like Wendy Carlos”, stipulates Francesco who, keeping Fluxus in mind, reminds us that “the piano is also a machine: it’s a big box with a mechanism inside”. By using his pianos like machines and confronting them to other machines, starting with drums, Aufgang manages to generate a music that is as surprising as it is powerful.
Listening to Aufgang collectively or individually, on a dance floor or in a living-room is an ever evolving experience: a track can go through many different stages, having many different layers. Once it has been recorded and pressed it continues to live and breathe. This talent for improvisation and reinvention clearly transpires on Aufgang’s debut album. Their new album is due in 2012.