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So it turned out that my temporary landlord in Paris is a trumpet player. And a very good one. And I was invited to his gig last night on in a basement on rue Palestro. Although I’d been told they were going to play “electro-pop-jazz”, I really had little idea what to expect, but I was not disappointed!

Image: Anne Lacomb

Ici et Lui (Here and Him) is a duo formed in 2006 by brothers Thomas and Pierre David, who both have been on the scene for quite some time (their biographies talk of previous recording contracts with Universal, various prizes from musical schools and regular gigs with orchestras and artists around Paris).

Their suprisingly effective set-up involves Thomas on guitar (a Telecaster) and Pierre on trumpet, with both brothers sharing duties on vocals, samplers and effects pedals. The performance itself, in a basement bar that squeezed in about 20 people, crossed so many stylistic boundaries that it could really only be called “music”, in the broadest sense of the word. And although it’s definitely not comedy music, Thomas and Pierre’s dry stage humour worked really well in the intimate of a Paris cellar.

Highlights included “a homage to chanson française” using melodies based on (I think) a whole-tone scale, a cover version of Desmond Dekker‘s Shanty Town (complete with Jamaican English sung with French accents) and a short lecture on composer Steve Reich‘s theory of voice melody.

Image: Emmanuel Schmitt

It was all slightly surrealist. They sample the continuity announcer from Radio France Inter, slip in some beatboxing, sing in Japanese, and play some mean unison bebop lines (the album includes a lo-fi hip hop version of Charlie Parker’s Ornithology).  Boris Vian would’ve been proud.

Their album pop electro jazz has just been released this month (available from, among others, iTunes and fnac.com). But Ici et Lui’s live show should definitely be seen. They play every first Wednesday of the month at Les Cariatides in the 2nd arrondissement. Free entry!

Ici et Lui on myspace

Ici et Lui + guests
Wednesday 4th November and 2nd December
20h30
Les Cariatides
3, rue de Palestro
Paris 75002
Metro: Etienne Marcel