Please can you tell us about your new album and UK album launch?

My new album “A Luminous World – Time is Color Vol.2” will be released on January 31 and I’m happy to share this new music with the world. It’s a very unique album – something I have not done before in my career.

The main theme of the album is spirituality and quantum physics – 2 sides of the same coin. I wanted with this album to deliver some important messages like the universal connection between all of us, also the fact that a situation can be seen in many different ways etc.

Also, I wanted to make a record whose focus would be the voice: spoken words, rap and vocals melodies. As a pianist/instrumentalist I have made albums with other instrumentalists and with sometimes some vocals but the voice was never the focus of the music.
I wanted to have different vocalists/rappers/poets/singers and also I wanted the songs to be shorts, more like pop song format.
So I first wrote the music with those parameters in mind and then I gave the message I wanted to express for each tune to the vocalist so he/she could write something accordingly.

I am also very excited to be back at Pizza Express for the UK album release concert on March 8 with Soweto Kinch as a guest (rap and saxophone). I have great memories of Pizza Express, especially the concert we gave with my band “City of Poets” co-led with US trumpeter Jason Palmer and including Donny McCaslin, Clarence Penn and Michael Janisch, almost a decade ago.

We will play the music of the new album with some new arrangements and I am looking forward to sharing it with the UK audience!

What other projects are you currently involved in?

I have another project of my own on top of Time is Color – co-led with US singer Jimmie Herrod. We arranged Gabriel Fauré’s songs for the duo setting, and it’s so much fun to play with this fantastic singer!

I also launched a cycle of collaborations with French singers/rappers – and would like to release some singles this year or next year when the tunes are finished.
As a sideman I’m part of Grammy Nominee singer Maria Mendes, whose new album will be recorded this year, and also pianist for different other projects in France.

What are you currently listening to and what was the last CD or download you bought?

Chromakopia from Tyler the Creator

Été sans fin from Arma Jackson

Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jesus from Olivier Messiaen… amongst others.

What is your all-time favourite album and why?

It all depends on my mood; I don’t have ONE all-time favourite album.
Keith Jarrett – Still Alive, Jamiroquai – Emergency on planet Earth – are amongst some of my favorite albums, for many reasons, musically but also the memories that are associated with them.

Who has caught you attention recently that we should be listening out for?

Federico Mompou, Musica Callada – I introduced it to Herbie Hancock and he loved it!

For more information visit Cédric’s website at cédrichanriot.com