Gentiane MG trio – Can You Hear The Birds? – Sunside, 09/04/26

On the occasion of the release of Can You Hear The Birds?, Gentiane MG brings to the stage a deeply personal approach to music—one that finds its fullest expression on this latest recording.

Marked by a remarkable fluidity in improvisation, blending harmonic richness with rhythmic complexity, the trio’s technical command serves a singular artistic vision. The repertoire draws on elements of traditional jazz while weaving in more contemporary influences, all driven by a strong sense of improvisational freedom.

Personal and emotional themes abound, and the group explores an almost infinite range of nuances in both arrangement and interplay, maintaining a highly organic approach to performance and audience interaction.

On drums, Mark Nelson brings striking depth to the music, capable of the utmost subtlety while occasionally punctuating the flow with powerful, disruptive accents. On double bass, Levi Dover anchors the sonic spectrum, ապահովing rhythmic stability while adding layers of tonal color.

The trio’s cohesion is immediately apparent. The connection between its members lends a fluid, almost malleable quality to the shifting musical atmospheres.

At the Sunside, the audience remains fully engaged, drawn in by a palpable sense of control paired with a willingness to take risks. The performance gradually gives way to pure emotion, carried by music that invites listening as much with closed eyes as with open ears.

High-energy passages, such as Can You Hear The Birds?, contrast with more introspective moments like Sœur Orchidée, sustained by a fragile spontaneity that makes the live experience particularly immersive.

Unlike artists who simply pick up where they last left off, Gentiane MG appears to evolve from one album to the next, each release marking a distinct step along a personal artistic path.

There is a clear exploration of emotion here—introspection, dialogue (Speak Up And Smile)—taking shape as a coherent musical discourse, nourished by a broader engagement with multiple forms of artistic expression.

As a trio, the group embraces a highly approach to improvisation, varying intensity, dynamics, and spatial effects (Standing on a Cloud). Each piece pushes the audience further out of its comfort zone, inviting a renewed mode of listening (Tomber comme un Papillon).

There is a sense of musical wonder at play, with shifting tempos, evolving rhythmic structures, and melodic lines that sketch out a territory at once unfamiliar and strangely recognizable—its contours at times almost mystical.

These innovative textures increasingly blur the boundaries between composition and improvisation, a line Gentiane MG dissolves through a refined command of musical intervals, where virtuosity never feels gratuitous.

In this context, the live performance becomes central to the artistic statement. New material seems to emerge from this ongoing interaction, amplifying a dialogue with the audience that moves beyond convention in favor of a living, present-tense exchange.

Like the delicate, translucent notes that form the coda of Les Tornades Meurent Toujours, Gentiane MG’s music weaves together a sensitivity to others and a deep connection to nature, shaping a musical language drawn equally from her artistic journey and her personal life.