Wishes Sophia Domancich 2025 CD PW1018

1. I wish that I could wish and it will come true   6:58
2. La Bagatelle   5:25
3. For J-J   1:40
4. It could be so simple   4:50
5. Le royaume des ombres   2:08
6. Universal Harmony   6:36
7. Free together   5:52
8. Eliott et Noah   8:12
9. Come again   6:54
10. Twofold sense   5:58

Sophia Domancich’s projects always reserve us surprising beauties. His immense musical personality reveals itself a little more over time. His unique poetry, constantly renewed, was forged in the greatest schools. His audacity and her greed allowed her to work with musical worlds that one might think irreconcilable at first glance: winner of a first prize at the Paris national conservatory at a tender age and promised a future as a concert performer, she embarks on the heart of the adventure of the English of the Canterbury School for her first professional commitments, rubbing shoulders with the supporters of the progressive rock revolution, then becomes passionate about forms of jazz liberated from all formalism alongside a new Euro- pean wave marked by the heritage of African-American free jazz.

She multiplies the steps on the side with personal projects with sounds tinged with pop and electro where we discover her other talent for melodies and simple forms. His inventions and the sincerity of her artistic commitments make her a highly valued partner that we have heard both in the context of the French National Jazz Orchestra, as well as in the transcultural adventures of African Jazz Roots, or alongside slammers like Napoleon Maddox.
At the center of this creative abundance, the trio has always been for Sophia Domancich the main thread of her journey, the fundamental form conducive to the greatest fulfillment.
Her long companions with Paul Rogers and Tony Levin, then Simon Goubert and Jean-Jacques Avenel, her meetings with Hamid Drake and William Parker or with Mark Helias and Andrew Cyrille are all episodes that have placed her in a good place in the rich history of the jazz trio.

For each of these formations, it has always been a question of bringing into play the formal expectations of this ideally equilateral triangle. By turning this time to Mark Helias and Eric McPherson, Sophia Domancich opens new fields of exploration.
Heard alongside the greats (Jackie McLean, Pharaoh Sanders, Greg Osby, Avishai Cohen, Fred Hersh, Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, Ed Blackwell, Anthony Braxton...), Helias and McPherson have this solidity of the rock to embrace in the moment all the fulgurances of their partner. Their sound is in keeping with the extraordinary means of Sophia Domancich to develop powerful textures on the piano.

Together they invite us to a sound odyssey made of chiaroscuro, contrasts where very elaborate structures and total evasions are skillfully mixed. One hears their taste and masterful know- how for a jazz firmly attached to its origins, dancing, orchestral, as much as their ability to explode the forms in long improvised phases.
Between Sophia and Mark there is a long-standing special, spiritual, harmonic complicity which sometimes gives rise to the illusion of a single voice in their exchanges, an astonishing combination of timbres and sensibilities.
Eric offers them the depth of his singing at every moment. Fundamentally « jazz » in terms of the relationship with others, mixed with modesty and efficiency, his unique way of gently inserting himself into conversation gives Sophia new perspectives for dialogue.

Wishes is a series of specially written compositions and thoughts for this capital trio.
A repertoire that promotes the deployment of great emotional power, very dense sound spaces as well as moments of great sweetness. The form is rich, clear, fluid and with a permanent musical density. Each musical moment carries a deep meaning in a story of great continuity.
This trio is intensely alive and the collective miracle offers the listener a delightful dive into a hypnotic universe.

Artistic direction: Simon Goubert
Recorded, mixed, and co-produced by Vincent Mahey
Executive production: Virginie Crouail

Recorded on November 13-14, 2024 at Studio Sextan A
Assistant: Matthias Giovannone
Mixed on January 14-15, 2025 at Studio Sextan C
Mastering: Raphaël Jonin J RAPH i.n.g

Graphic design: Atelier Bagarit
Photos: Jean-Baptiste Millot
Videos: Igor Juget