Julien Marchal

What emotion does a pianist seek to create? "Ecstasy", answers Julien Marchal. A style that the 38-year-old chisels into his classical compositions with atmospheric variations. As a student, he studied musicology in Bordeaux . There, learning harmony was like an epiphany: "I felt like I was learning to write all over again. As if I had the power to materialize the impalpable." In 2014, he recorded his first original quartet for strings and piano, clearing the neo-classical furrow. The following year, this formed the basis of Insight, the pianist's very first album, followed in 2016 by INSIGHT II. Since his career started, Julien Marchal has shown an unprecedented eclecticism. He works with renowned electronic music producers such as Robot Koch and Steve Aoki. His music animates American series such as How to Get Away With Murder, Ray Donovan and Blacklist. And with British pop singer Ed Tulett, he composed the duo Lissom, celebrated in particular by multi-platinum singer Billie Eilish. For the forthcoming release of his fifth album, Julien Marchal chose to team up with naïve. "Right from the start, I had the feeling that we were working together as a team. I feel we're listening to my new desires", he stresses. With INSIGHT V, the chord lines that were the lifeblood of his four previous opuses are suddenly deconstructed. But under the felt of INSIGHT V's harmony, one feeling returns again and again: ecstasy.