Benoit Delbecq

Trained in both jazz and contemporary classical idioms, pianist Benoît Delbecq played a key role in renewing Paris’s experimental music community throughout the 1990s. Among the ensembles he helped establish are his quartet Painting alongside Steve Argüelles, the Hask Collective founded in 1992, Kartet, and the Recyclers, which also features Argüelles and Noël Akchoté. He appeared as well in two projects directed by Serge Adams—the large-ensemble Quoi de Neuf Docteur and the African-tinged Jazz Mic Mac, which toured central Africa. International modern-jazz figures with whom Delbecq has recorded and performed include Evan Parker, Steve Lacy, Michael Moore, Derek Bailey, Marc Ducret, Gianni Gebbia, Louis Sclavis, and Francois Houle. His work has been documented on the ADDA, Deux Z/Babel, Rectangle, DOC, BVHaast, and Songlines imprints, among others. Beyond ensemble activity, he has written scores for cinema, dance, and stage productions and partnered with poet Olivier Cadiot.