Zeitgleich zu Quentin Rollets russisch-französischem Quintett Shampanskaya bringt sein Label ReQuords zusammen mit den britischen Test Recordings das aktuelle Duett des Saxophonisten mit dem Producer Andrew Sharpley heraus, dessen elektronischer Beitrag zum gemeinsamen Debüt “The New Me” schlicht unter dem Begriff Computer angegeben ist – ein klanglich vielgestaltiges und meist feinsinnig gestaltetes Werk, das um plötzlich Schrillheiten nicht verlegen ist und in wenigen Tagen auf CD und als Download vorliegt. Das Artwork basiert auf Arbeiten von Andrew und Lia Sharpley.

“I have known Q since 1998, when I first went to Paris and played with Noël Akchoté, who was the other half of the Rectangle label with Quentin. We went to the same parties and knew the same people, but somehow never played together. We have both known and followed each other’s work for 20 years now, so it was pretty easy on this album, for us both to do our thing at the same time, and somehow it fitted. Perhaps because it has our own separate histories inside it, which have been loosely connected – socially, if not musically – for some 20+ years.

This album was made remotely under COVID lockdown in 2020. All Quentin’s saxophone parts were recorded in a studio in Paris, he sent them to me and I put them together with my electronics at home in the countryside in North UK. But most of it sounds as if it was recorded live, with us playing together in the same room. I have always liked this kind of ambiguity – what’s live/improvised vs what’s edited/written that you spend days or weeks over. This record has both, but you can’t really see the joins. Working under lockdown, when you have no way of seeing the other person, or even being in the same country, it makes the whole idea of ‘live’ vs ‘ studio’, made vs played irrelevant. That’s an interesting place to be.” (Andrew Sharpley)