Estonian pianist Kristjan Randalu makes his ECM debut with a striking album of his own rigorous-yet-lyrical music, sensitively played by a group formed especially for this recording, with US guitarist Ben Monder and Finnish drummer Markku Ounaskari. The trio line-up was suggested by producer Manfred Eicher after hearing Randalu’s 2012 duo recording with Monder, Equilibrium.The featured compositions on Absence are robust, and in the past Randalu has played them also as solo piano pieces. In this session recorded in Pernes-les-Fontaines in the south of France, their structures are prised open. Guitar and drums subtly illuminate the pieces from inside, casting light on their originality. Among other attributes, Monder and Ounaskari are outstanding colourists and textural players, and they bring out much of the fine detail implied in Randalu’s writing with inspired improvising.
Like much good music, Randalu’s resists capsule summary. Markku Ounaskari has observed that “Kristjan’s music is really a world of its own.” As an improviser of prodigious technique, once described by Herbie Hancock as “a dazzling piano player”, Randalu’s affinities are with the jazz musicians, but the forms and dynamics of his pieces also reflect a discerning structural sense, and he has cited composers Erkki-Sven Tüür and Tõnu Kõrvits among his mentors. Kristjan Randalu’s capacity to move between genres and disciplines is rare: his itinerary in recent months, for instance, has found him premiering new music of his own with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, performing Arvo Pärt’s Credo with Kristjan Järvi and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and also playing duets with Dave Liebman. There are not many contemporary players with this kind of range.
Born into a musical family in Estonia in 1978, Randalu grew up in Germany. Both his parents are professional classical pianists, and all of his early music training was purely classical. Hearing Chick Corea’s Inside Out at the age of 13 changed some of his priorities: “It seemed to me so perfect that I thought at first that it must be all notated. And it had all this rhythmic energy, and sound-wise, harmonically and colour-wise was very interesting to me. At that point I had almost no historical jazz references at all - no early Miles, even, no Coltrane – I would learn about all of that later. But I felt motivated to create my own music with piano and synthesizer and sequencer and soon had my first band. By this point I had already been performing classical music for years and was playing at a serious level, but there was a gap between practicing my Liszt and Chopin and beginning to deal actively with jazz…” The gap was bridged in the following years by studies with a number of notable pianists, including John Taylor and Django Bates. A scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music allowed plenty of opportunities to hear New York’s improvisers at first hand, Ben Monder amongst them.
“Later it happened on a couple of occasions that our groups – Ben’s group and my group -- played one after the other at festivals in Germany and we talked several times about doing something together. But it didn’t happen until a festival organizer in Estonia proposed a duo concert….” Markku Ounaskari and Kristjan Randalu first played opposite each other in a concert series organized by German radio station NDR. Ounaskari was then playing with the second edition of his Kuára group with Trygve Seim on saxes. When Seim formed his Helsinki Songs project a couple of years later, he invited both Ounaskari and Randalu to be part of it (an ECM album with Seim, Randalu, Ounaskari and Mats Eilertsen is in preparation).
Ounaskari has played with all the major Finnish jazz players and with many international jazz musicians including Lee Konitz, Kenny Wheeler, Tomasz Stanko and Marc Ducret. In addition to his Kuára recording with Samuli Mikkonen and Per Jørgensen, exploring Russian psalms and Fenno-Ugrian folk songs in an improvisational context, Markku Ounaskari appears on several ECM recordings with folk singer and kantele player Sinikka Langeland, including Starflowers, The Land That Is Not, The Half-Finished Heaven and The Magical Forest. A musician in the New York City area for over 30 years, Ben Monder has performed with a wide variety of artists, including Jack McDuff, Marc Johnson, Lee Konitz, Billy Childs, Andrew Cyrille, George Garzone, Paul Motian, Maria Schneider, and Marshall Crenshaw. He also contributed guitar parts to the final David Bowie album, Blackstar. In addition to his own ECM album Amorphae, with Paul Motian, Andrew Cyrille and Pete Rende, Monder appears on Theo Bleckmann’s Elegy and Paul Motian’s Garden of Eden. "The bandleader is a pillar of stability. He clearly is capable of breathtaking displays of technique and showmanship, but employs challenging runs with a noble conservatism."

"Absence, Randalu's ECM debut, ricochets its motifs and dark, rhythmic overtones with a singular sense of structure and improvisation."

"Randalu’s always melodic, ever exploring style is a delight"

After obtaining a 1st Price DANTE AGOSTINI Drum School (Teachers Nadia TOUCHE, Gille TOUCHE, Jacques- François JUSKOWIAK) in PARIS in 1987, OLIVIER Le GOAS began to play in trio with guitarist ERIC LOHRER, and bassist LAURENT CAMUZAT, with whom he won the 2nd price of orchestra at the 1988 DEFENSE Jazz Competition, toured intensely, and recorded two albums (Eric LOHRER trio, DANS LE BLEU). Paralelly he play, and tour with among others, the piano player Bojan ZULFIKARPASIC, the Big Band «Lumière» of the piano player, composer, and arranger LAURENT CUGNY, the doublebass player JEAN-FRANCOIS JENNY-CLARK,the vibes player David PATROIS, the piano player BENOIT DELBECQ, then joined the group MAHORI featuring the guitar player DAVID CHEVALLIER, and quintet of piano player Jean-Michel PILC. In 1995, he participated in the Jazz Workshop at the Banff Center (CANADA), where he met the Canadien English Resident bugle, trumpet player, and composer KENNY WHEELER with whom he recorded in LONDON UK14 years later the album SUR LES CORPS DES KLAXONS published on his own label REWIND RECORD ( RR1001). In 2003 he was awarded a LAVOISIER scholarship for French Students Abroad (French Ministry of Foreign Affairs / EGIDE), and went to study in NEW YORK CITY U.S.A in the departement of jazz and contemporary music program at New School University (2003 ), where he follows the teachings among others of the trumpet player Charles TOLLIVER, the piano player Peter ZAK, the guitar player Rory STUART, the composer Kurt NUROK, the drummers Jeff BALLARD and Eric McPHERSON. During his stay he plays among others with Ben MONDER, Jason LINDER, Avishai COHEN (trp), Jacques SCHWARTZ-BART, Tim LEFEVRE

Over the past fifteen years, OLIVIER Le GOAS has released six albums as a leader. First album recorded with the guitar player JOHN ABERCROMBIE, the trumpet player RALPH ALESSI and the bass player DREW GRESS at the famous CLINTON RECORDING STUDIO in NEW YORK CITY U.S.A, GRAVITATIONS was released in 2007 on the Swiss record label ALTRISUONI (AS204); released on the same label (AS260) in 2009, TRILOG Seven Ways, is a trio project recorded in Paris with ther guitar player MANU CODJIA and the saxophone player VINCENT MASCART; In 2009 Olivier Le GOAS created his own record label REWIND RECORD on which will appear successively in 2010 and 2013, SUR LES CORPS DES KLAXONS (RR1001) recorded in quartet with KENNY WHEELER, and ABSTRACT (RR1002) a project recorded in septet in PARIS FR with among others David CHEVALLIER and the saxophone player Alban DARCHE.

Composing a new repertoire, Olivier brought the guitar player NIR FELDER, the piano player KEVIN HAYS and the doublebass player PHIL DONKIN to the legendary BAUER STUDIOS - LUDWIGSBURG GERMANY in October 2015. Includes 8 new original strongs compositions, presenting polyrhythmic structures of basic metric forms developed, full of contrasts, proposing offers melodic and a lyric repertory, RECIPROCITY, was released on September 2, 2016 on German Record Label NEUKLANG (NCD4139). NEUKLANG will also be releasing THE GRAVITATIONS SESSION PART.II including 6 unfulfilled tracks from the GRAVITATIONS session in December 2017.
After having made a promotional tour with RECIPROCITY feat. Nir FELDER, John ESCREET and the polish doublebass player Max MUCHA presenting his own music in Europe in May 2017, OLIVIER Le GOAS presents ON RAMP of HEAVEN DREAMS his new album recorded in 2019 in NYC U.S.A with Nir FELDER, John ESCREET and the doublebass player Larry GRENADIER, and released on CHALLENGE RECORD INT. in January 2020.