Eve Risser
{{Short description|French pianist and jazz musician}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Eve Risser
| image = Eve Risser Kongsberg Jazzfestival 2018 (221248).jpg
| caption = Risser in 2018
| image_size =
| birth_name =
| alias =
| birth_place = Colmar, France
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1982}}
| death_place =
| death_date =
| instrument = Piano, harpsichord
| genre = Jazz, improvised music
| occupation = Musician, composer, arranger
| years_active = 2000s–present
| label =
| associated_acts =
| website = [http://www.everisser.com/ everisser.com]
| current_members =
| past_members =
}}
Eve Risser (born 1982) is a French jazz and improvised music performer, composer and arranger. She mostly plays piano and prepared piano, but also plays harpsichord and other instruments.
Life and career
Risser was born in 1982[http://www.vimusiker.se/evenemang/918/Moment_festival "Moment Festival – Festival"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150413171353/http://www.vimusiker.se/evenemang/918/Moment_festival |date=2015-04-13 }}. Vi Musiker. Retrieved 9 April 2015. in Colmar, France. She had piano lessons as a child and first saw graphic notation at the age of 11. This "set her imagination free. But those desires were quashed by her instructor, who situated that sort of interpretational freedom within a larger, rigorous practice of study."Margasak, Peter (March 2015) "Risser's Prepared Piano Work Defies Categorization". Down Beat. p. 16.
Risser lived in Colmar until she was 18. She then studied in Strasbourg for four years, playing improvised music and jazz on the piano and contemporary music on the flute. She decided to concentrate on the piano after completing her studies. She reported that "When I stopped the flute, I felt so limited in my improvisations with timbres that I started to explore the inside of the piano to be able to imitate trumpets, percussions and saxophones [...] I realized that building stuff with my hands for the piano was super fun."
Risser was pianist in the Orchestre national de jazz from 2009 to 2013.Scotney, Sebastian (8 March 2015) [http://www.londonjazznews.com/2015/03/interview-eve-risser-banlieues-bleues.html "Interview: Eve Risser (Banlieues Bleues, Jazzahead, Jazzdor Strasbourg-Berlin) / #IWD2015"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150407064109/http://www.londonjazznews.com/2015/03/interview-eve-risser-banlieues-bleues.html |date=2015-04-07 }}. London Jazz News. The premiere of her White Desert, for a tentet with amateur choirs, was in March 2015.Scotney, Sebastian (25 March 2015) [http://www.londonjazznews.com/2015/03/review-eve-risser-white-desert-premiere.html "Review: Eve Risser White Desert Premiere at La Courneuve"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150407050425/http://www.londonjazznews.com/2015/03/review-eve-risser-white-desert-premiere.html |date=2015-04-07 }}. London Jazz News.
Playing style
A reviewer described her playing on the 2012 trio album En Corps as being "anything but conventional, highly percussive, full of muted strings, extended techniques, and repetitive phrases".Stef (24 September 2012) [http://www.freejazzblog.org/2012/09/eve-risser-en-corps-dark-tree-2012.html "Eve Risser – En Corps (Dark Tree, 2012)"]. freejazzblog. A Down Beat reviewer of her solo piano record Des Pas Sur La Neige commented on Risser's "arsenal of techniques and tools that transform her instrument into a kaleidoscopic sound machine, producing unexpected tones and timbres."
Discography
An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.
=As leader/co-leader=
| class="wikitable sortable"
!Year recorded !Title !Label !Personnel/Notes |
| 2007*
|Ouature |Umlaut |As Donkey Monkey; duo, with Yuko Oshima (drums, vocals, samples) |
| 2010
|Split |Umlaut |Duo, with Joris Rühl (clarinet); released with recordings by OBLIQ (2) and Christof Kurzmann |
| 2011*
|Fenêtre Ovale |Umlaut |Duo, with Joris Rühl (clarinets) |
| 2011*
|Hanakana |Umlaut |As Donkey Monkey; duo, with Yuko Oshima (drums, vocals, samples) |
| 2012*
|En Corps |Dark Tree |Trio, with Benjamin Duboc (bass), Edward Perraud (drums) |
| 2012*
|A Nest at the Junction of Paths |Umlaut |As The New Songs; quartet, with Sofia Jernberg (vocals), David Stackenäs (guitar), Kim Myhr (guitars, zither) |
| 2013
|Des Pas Sur La Neige |Solo piano |
=As sidewoman=
| class="wikitable sortable"
!Year recorded !Leader !Title !Label | |
| 2009*
|{{sortname | Orchestre national de jazz}}
|Around Robert Wyatt |Bee Jazz |
| 2010*
|{{sortname | Orchestre national de jazz|nolink="1"}}
|Shut up and Dance |Bee Jazz |
| 2011*
|{{sortname | PAK|PAK (band)}} |
| 2012*
|{{sortname | Orchestre national de jazz|nolink="1"}}
|Piazzolla! |Jazz Village |
| 2013*
|{{sortname | Orchestre national de jazz|nolink="1"}}
|The Party! |Jazz Village |
| 2013*
|{{sortname|Pascal|Niggenkemper}} |Lucky Prime | |
| 2014*
|{{sortname|Jean-Jacques|Birgé}} |Game Bling | |
References
{{Reflist}}
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Category:French women jazz pianists