Eve Risser Red Desert Orchestra, “Eurythmia” France

Welcome to a musical journey that leads from the Strasbourg Conservatory to West African music traditions, curated by French pianist-composer Eve Risser with 11 fellow musicians, the Red Desert Orchestra. Wind instruments, analogue synthesizers and electric guitars pave the way for balafones, djembes and drums. The Desert Orchestra’s album Eurythmia (2022) is a hypnotic and improvisational masterpiece that combines European and African traditions, doing so with respect and great joy in making music together! The 12-member ensemble breathes like a single organism, sounding authentic and free from clichés. At Jazzkaar the group will also introduce material from their upcoming album.

Eve Risser is an innovative composer and versatile artist who deeply understands the soul of pianos, having explored the limits of piano sounds and discovered highly original tonal nuances. In addition to her solo projects she has led several smaller and larger ensembles and performed with jazz luminaries such as Charlie Haden, Tim Murphy, Michael Formanek, Gary Thomas and Theo Bleckman. Risser’s newest ensemble, Red Desert Orchestra, is a groove-oriented jazz machine that received the Paul Acket Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 2023. Eve Risser has previously performed at Jazzkaar in 2015 in the duo Donkey Monkey with Japanese drummer Yoko Oshima. During her student days she also participated in the Viljandi Folk Music Festival as a flautist in a French early music ensemble.

We thank: The French Institute of Estonia 

The concert is carried out in cooperation with the Europe Jazz Network (EJN), with the Green Pilot Tour tour model. The aim of the Green Pilot Tours is, among other things, to plan and implement more ecologically sustainable tours, to encourage more versatile and gender-balanced programming and to promote the international mobility of artists.