In the fall of 2022, French jazz vibraphonist Alexis Valet followed the sun, from east to west, and embarked on a trip to New York. After three months there playing, jamming and absorbing as much music as possible, he decided to record an album, “Following the Sun”, that encapsulates his experience in the Big Apple.

Tenor saxophonist Mark Turner makes his ECM debut as leader on this session featuring Avishai Cohen on trumpet, double bassist Joe Martin and drummer Marcus Gilmore. The quartet of kindred spirits, often entwining in serpentine fashion, plays long, introspective lines of hypnotic grace; the lithe rhythm section providing subtle volatility. With no chordal instrument in the band, the music opens up and takes on an attractive spaciousness. The songs display the long-breathed essence characteristic of Turner’s work, where melody takes priority. There is also mystery to the album, a quality of patient storytelling to the compositions.

“The best new thing that has happened in European jazz for a long time” (Le Monde), Emile Parisien has formed a top-flight American-European sextet for this album, his seventh as leader or co-leader on ACT. The band will be touring in 2022, the year which also marks the tenth anniversary of Parisien’s first appearance on an ACT album.