Musique Amoureuse (Music in Love) is the final installment in drummer
Hervé Provini's triptych focused on the computer-controlled piano (or Yamaha Disklavier). In
Biological & Chaotic Music (1999), pieces were shaped from musical material generated by computer from biogenetic data. In Musique Nucléaire (2000), the computer deconstructed the playing of pianist
Jacques Demierre to create a new "virtual" pianist. In
Musique Amoureuse,
Provini wrote a straightforward jazz ballad, to which he applied a series of computer algorithms to derive five new pieces -- a deconstruction of style, in essence. "Comme une Vague d'Amour" starts in true jazz mode, delicately swinging a melody left almost untouched -- step one. As you make your way through the album, the piano becomes increasingly busy and non-idiomatic, crossing the threshold of human possibility more than once ("Pluie d'Amour" would require at least four hands if performed by a flesh-and-blood pianist). Left on its own, the computer would take things into contemporary classical music, but
Provini is there to keep things grooving. No matter the rules and concepts he likes to chain himself to, he is a stunning drummer. He can rock, he can swing, but most of all he can waltz from one territory to another, gracefully tying the piano's wild developments together like the craziest progressive rock epic. This third volume is the easiest to listen to and enjoy. Start here for the drumming (and general rhythmical and melodic qualities of the music) and work your way back for the ideas. ~ François Couture