Thomas CARBOU (BIO - en français)
Guitariste, compositeur, arrangeur, réalisateur
Musicien prolifique, il expérimente différents styles de musique : le jazz, la musique traditionnelle (ou musique du monde), la musique électronique, le folk et la chanson.
Chercheur de sons, il joue de divers instruments :
- guitare 8 cordes (conçue pour lui par Martine Montassier)
- guitares électrique et acoustique
- des percussions : kalimba, bérimbau, cajon, frame drum…
- sampleurs et échantillonneurs
Il a enregistré douze disques sous son nom, trois comme co-leader avec le saxophoniste Pierre Diaz et un avec le saxophoniste François d'Amours.
Thomas participe à plusieurs projets (en France, Suisse, Belgique, Espagne, Vietnam, États-Unis, Canada, etc.) qui l'ont amené à jouer entre autres avec Glen Velez (frame drums), Dave Liebman (sax), David Binney (sax), Jim Black (Batterie), Ralph Alessi (trompette), Lonnie Plaxico (basse), Lionel Cordew (batterie), Gilad (percussion), Elisabeth Kontomanou (voix), Carlo Rizzo (tambourin), Sylvain Luc (guitare), Pierre Diaz (sax), Ngoc Daï (compositeur vietnamien), Cao Ho Nga (Trung & Thap Luc), Nguyen Anh Tan (day)…
Installé depuis septembre 2003 au Québec, ce Français d’origine s'est rapidement intégré à la scène jazz montréalaise, en jouant avec François D'Amours, Rémi Bolduc, Erik Hove, Jim Doxas, François Bourassa, Thom Gossage, Jean-Christophe Beney, John Roney, Frank Lozano… et celle de la chanson, en collaborant avec Caroline d'Été, Geneviève Binette, Rachelle Jeanty, Aurélia O'Leary, Catherine Major, Sophie Beaudet et Moran.
Il reçoit le Prix de la Ville de Québec, création/résidence, Bourse Rideau 2007, pour son disque In Motion. Il a aussi signé, en 2010, la musique du documentaire Se souvenir des cendres - Regards sur Incendies de Denis Villeneuve, réalisé par Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette (Le Ring et Les Petits géants) qui a gagné le Prix Gémeaux 2011 du meilleur documentaire culture.

Montreal guitarist of jazz experimental Thomas Carbou has appealed to David Binney and Jim Black for an album that is a mixture between jazz and world music. The trio offers here sounds very interesting putting so much the eight-string guitar of Carbou, the sax of Binney and the drums Black. An impressive achievement in many ways. This album is as a result evident to the trilogy Hekàtê, published in recent years.
If the beginning of the Tuareg, rather percussive, puzzled about the direction of melodic (though one hears, in spite of us, a voice line nebula that recalls parts ambient Tool), be reassured quickly with Miss It. The line of saxophone offers a melody that is both simple and mysterious, while the bass line, as simple, ensures the cohesion. Add to that the voices that follow the melody of the saxophone in the last portion of the piece and the portrait is almost complete. It is only a pity that the battery starts to play a little anything at the end.
We quickly realized that the album offers a nice series of plays quite melodic, with, often, portions a little experimental on the inside. Often, these experiments are carried out in the first few seconds, to leave space for the "real" music by the result. The pieces that are most striking : Look for the wind, which, despite an uncertain beginning, almost fell in a rock slow; Colors, with a groove contagious, Treatable, in the build-up long but extremely effective; Nossé Effa, a piece slower, more world, which suggests a gentle melancholy through the rhythms more responsible; Tribal Quest, with a music forecast to be very percussive and rhythmic.
The finale of the album, Prince of the Carpathians, has the same right to an introduction, the Carpathians (intro), featuring the guitar of Thomas Carbou. Here we have a few variations in the energy, alternating between passages that are discrete, or even minimalist, and some almost rock with a "riff" of the saxophone. And the guitar solo is particularly strong, even if it seems to lose it in the mix at times. In any case, it works and it ends very well an album loaded.
Small problem : some of the compositions will still linger for several minutes to make room for a big build-up, which is unfortunately not always convince. In addition, the portions are more bold not pleasing, of course not all ears and could, for listeners who are less tolerant, ruin the experience of music, rather eye-catching. Because, despite a few passages are more full-bodied, the album Other Colors of Hekàtê is almost general public as well as jazz.
Although the album is difficult to suggest to someone who has no interest in jazz, it may be of interest to many enthusiasts and even beginners who show an opening for the mixing up of genres, very present here, but all in all well balanced. Note that some hacking may be necessary to fully tame the product, but that the album can easily be appreciated in itself.

Thomas Carbou : 8-string guitar, vocal, loops & electronics
David Binney : alto saxophone
Jim Black : drums
composed & Produced by Thomas Carbou
Recorded at Studio Victor in Montréal by Gaetan Pilon (may 2014)
Mixed by Gaetan Pilon & Thomas Carbou (july 2014)
Executive producer : Guillaume Lombart for Ad Litteram