Matthieu Mazué Trio + Michael Attias - Monoliths and Screens for Quartet

Label: Self produced, 2025

Personnel - Michael Attias: alto saxophone; Matthieu Mazué: piano; Xaver Rüegg: double bass; Michael Cina: drums.

Explorative Swiss-based French pianist Matthieu Mazué anchors his trio—with Xaver Rüegg on double bass and Michael Cina on drums—in a collaborative project with razor-edged alto saxophonist Michael Attias, who has already captured avant-garde hearts with albums like Nerve Dance and LuMiSong. Monoliths and Screens For Quartet features eighth pieces that, blending composed sections and improvisation, carve out a personal dimension of musical expression.

“Monolith: Twelve Stones” unfolds with dark, mystifying piano chords and the angular lines of Attias, whose sardonic tone and rhythmic phrasing—combined with the piano—evoke the productive synergy between Eric Dolphy and Misha Mengelberg. Tenacious piano and expressive drums interact with convulsive intensity, and there’s a marked irreverence in both Mazué and Attias’ solos. In a similar vein, “Screen: Screams” flows with fluid piano ideas over a cyclic, colorful backdrop that, without warning, begins to swing with intent. And Attias generates all manner of tension through his inventive phrasing.

Rüegg and Attias found agreeable consonance in “Mrmnnmnts”, supported by understated piano smears. The saxophonist, sublime in both language and tone, improvises with heart, followed in turn by Mazué and Rüegg over a steady rhythmic base. “Monolith: á Propos de la Matiére” is delivered as a somber and abstract rubato, while “Le Regard Dans Le Vide” becomes a melancholy ballad skillfully introduced by piano.

The band engages in staccato interplay on “Screen: My Ghosts Are Underground”, whose theme is marked by a dominant and expressive type of language. Chaos emerges as the ensemble stirs agitation, but the mood shifts along the way—from meditative to darkly suspenseful to forcefully turbulent. By contrast, “Monolith: Stoned” feels like a spinning vertigo, with Attias channeling Monk in his exuberant riffing. The quartet then descends into a mournful state, with elongated alto sax notes and bowed bass contributing to a tearful solemnity, closing with saxophone multiphonics.

Overall, this is a fruitful alliance rich in textured soundscapes and intriguing tonal qualities, marked by structural complexity, unmistakable rhythmic drive, and captivating improvisation. It’s a strong choice for those in search of the pleasures found in well-measured modern jazz with a progressive, creative spirit.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Monolith: Twelve Stones ► 04 - Screen: My Ghosts Are Underground ► 06 - Screen: Screams

Matthieu Mazué Trio - We Stay Still

Label: Jazzdoor, 2022

Personnel - Matthieu Mazué: piano; Xaver Rüegg: double bass; Michael Cina: drums.

We Stay Still is Mathieu Mazué Trio’s intriguing follow up to Cortex (Unit Records, 2021). The album, made up entirely of original compositions and presented with as much discipline as freedom, passes the idea of ‘through-composed’ momentum.

“White Fields” is launched with demonstrative, poignant piano playing; shivering in the way Mazué employs intervals and surfaces. The bassist Xaver Rüegg, whose notes notably lock in with the drummer Michael Cina’s drive, delivers a sophisticated if enigmatic solo, benefitting from apt piano support in the upper registers. Roughly felt as a haunting dirge, this piece bears some similar qualities as “Au Plus Profond Des Steppes”, where we find some volatility in the footprint and accuracy in the rhythmic accents; the enigmatic tones turning it picturesque and slightly labyrinthine in the side paths.

The trio gives it all on “Supply Chains”, whose rhythmic ferociousness will probably make your head and feet move back and forth. It’s like if punk rock had met electronic music with a marvelously inventive touch. The confident alliance between the bassist and the drummer paves the way, with the two-hand dexterity of Mazué’s incursions fanning out across the surface. “Knocks” can also be frenetic, vigorous and complex, but alternates moods via more meditative atmospheres.

Tension-filled blocks are constituent of “Dislocation”, revealing a modern kind of swing with breaks and abrupt runs, whereas “Shells” denotes a more conventional swinging flow that empowers Rüegg and Cina to trade fours with a conversant disposition.

Cerebral but with a loose fluidity, “Standing Black Shape” is the longest track of the record, lasting more than 12 minutes. Despite the systemic approach, the journey is eventful, ending up in a motivic concentration of sound.

Mazué’s modernist trio has a lot to give to contemporary jazz, unwrapping inspirations and talking idioms of their own creation.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Au Plus Profond Des Steppes ► 03 - Supply Chains ► 05 - Dislocation

Matthieu Mazué - Cortex

Label: Unit Records, 2021

Personnel - Matthieu Mazué: piano; Xaver Rüegg: double bass; Michael Cina: drums.

After playing a few gigs in France, Switzerland and Germany in 2020, the French pianist and composer Matthieu Mazué opted to release a 9-track album - titled Cortex - in the company of his two competent Swiss backers, Xaver Rüegg and Michael Cina on bass and drums, respectively.

The trio opens with the title track, implementing the theme statement with intervallic awe and triggering an arresting motion imbued with accentuation that travels your body with energy. An idea in the form of pedal point interrupts the flux and welcomes clearer bass expressions. And then the piece regains its throbbing heart with rich piano playing, whose attributes include shades of Andrew Hill and Horace Tapscott.

On “Cyborg”, the trio shows its fondness for rhythmic complexity, alluding to the crescent role of machines in our society. The piece starts with a tangling web weaved between bass and drums, and upon which free single-note piano lines are laid down. As the time advances, Mazué instills harmonic solidification, denoting an industrious vibe that often brings Kris Davis’ ostentation pianism to mind.

“Black Cloud” is a haunting ballad sustained by whispering brushes and sparse piano. The wide space created here has a noir-ish Paul Bley/Paul Motian elocution, something we hear once again on “Extended Sharpness”, which, giving a strong impression of intangibility at first, gains palpable traction with time. There’s an alternate take of this piece that brings a pop/rock pulse into play.

Both energetically dispensed, “Forming C” and “Data Are About to Collapse” are in connection with boisterous sounds. The former, propelled by a fine bass groove and nuanced pedals, is reinforced in the lower register by the pianist, who, at some point, causes a polyrhythmic, avant-edged, train-like motion to occur. The latter piece, probably partly inspired by spasmodic electronica and machine language, comes shrouded in an opaque sonic veil before settling in a lurching swing that is held down with vigor until the final theme.

Mazué manages to create a narrative direction while alternating between brisk dynamics and pure reflections. Several interesting moments are drawn from this trio effort.

B+

Favorite Tracks: 
01 - Cortex ► 02 - Cyborg ► 04- Forming C