Kris Defoort & Veronika Harcsa: Pieces of Peace

Kris Defoort, piano, compositions; Veronika Harcsa, voice; Lode Vercampt, cello; Jean-Philippe Poncin, clarinets; Benjamin Sauzereau, electric guitar; Vincent De Bast, sound engineer, electronics

After a period of nine years, Cankarjevi torki Series again presents the amazing pianist, composer and improviser Kris Defoort in a new project with one of his long-time musical companions. Veronika Harcsa, a leading Hungarian jazz singer who was on the line-up of Defoort’s Diving Poet Society project, is one of the masterminds behind Pieces of Peace. The project's repertoire brings joyful, melancholic, sparkling and peaceful musical reflections on poems by Theodore Roethke, Peter Verhelst, William Blake, Fernando Pessoa and others. This collection of colourful music embraces the human voice in all its facets, where improvised compositions mingle with composed improvisations. The project, which premiered in early 2023, now continues with the release of the album Pieces of Peace. Judging by the first single, Silence of Joy, we can look forward to a groove that is layered and full of detail, complex, lyrical, rhythmic and gorgeously seductive thanks to the vocal outburst of Veronika Harsca.