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Benjamin Duboc

Benjamin Duboc was born May 20, 1969.

double bass player / improviser / electroacoustic composer / sound engineer

Benjamin Duboc is a very strong voice on double bass, born 1969, studied with JF Jenny-Clark & Bernard Cazauran, and has played with many great musicians (as Ernest Dawkins, Bertrand Denzler, Roy Campbell, Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Sabir Mateen, Byard Lancaster, Daniel Erdmann, Abdelahaï Bennani, Michel Doneda, Daunik Lazro, Sunny Murray, John Betsch…). And also with Henry Grimes for a great duet in Paris. He leads the "Nuts" quintet with Itaru Oki & Rasul Siddik on trumpets, & Makoto Sato & Didier Lasserre on drums. He plays in "The fish" with Jean-Luc Guionnet on alto sax & Edward Perraud on drums (double cd on Ayler Records) and Rocks in the Sea with Mario Rechtern, Eric Zinman and Didier Lasserre. Benjamin has a beautiful and big sound, you really feel the ground while hearing him... it's somethin' ! He also is recorded on Amor Fati, Futura Marge, Creative sources, le petit label, sansbruit.

or... Early on, in his family, he would hear music �" jazz. He attends conservatory and is taught piano and clarinet, then double bass under the direction of Jean-François Jenny-Clark and Bernard Cazauran. Out of adolescence: “Music and arts as a way of being”. He’s working with Gaël Mervel and Thierry Waziniak before joining octopus with Benoist Raffin and Jobic Le Masson whom he meets in 1993 in Slovakia. From then on, he will relentlessly go from a project to another, from a meeting to another with numerous musicians: free jazz, european improv... In his works, he intends to shape time. He’s known today as a very active improviser and composer of electroacoustic music in various contexts, medias and means of expression (music, dance, theatre, image...)

Improvised in France and Europe with...(among many) Jean-Luc Guionnet, Edward Perraud, Tom Chant, Bertrand Denzler, Michel Doneda, Oliver Lake, Didier Lasserre, Stéphane Rives, Henry Grimes, Roy Campbell, Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Mario Rechtern, Eric Zinman, Jobic Le Masson, Sunny Murray, Daunik Lazro, Itaru Oki, Hasse Poulsen, Makoto Sato, Rasul Siddik, Christine Wodrascka, Hilary Jeffery, Jack Wright… Musée de Strasbourg, Jazz à Mulhouse, Bordeaux Jazz Festival, Festival de Besançon, Jazz à Luz, Panonnica (Nantes), Festival Luisance (Brest), Carré Bleu (Poitiers), Petit Faucheux (Tours), Instants Chavirés (Montreuil), A l’improviste (Radio France), Suède, Italie, Allemagne, Autriche, Espagne, Portugal, Maroc, Turquie…

Works for films �" electroacoustic compositions

Original soundtrack from the film Les Résistants by Bernard Cerf (La Clef - Paris - 2006) Original soundtrack from the film l’impropriation by Franck Gourdien (Instants Chavirés - L’Ogresse - 2007) Original soundtrack from the film Un été à Zedelbeek by Chiara Malta (Collectif jeune cinéma - Festivals Italie - 2007) Original soundtrack from the film Photographie by franck Gourdien (2008) Original soundtrack from the film Comme si de rien n'était by franck Gourdien (2008) Original soundtrack from the film e #2 by franck Gourdien (2009)

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13
Album Review

Daunik Lazro, Benjamin Duboc, Mathieu Bec: Standards Combustion

Read "Standards Combustion" reviewed by Mark Corroto


The French trio of saxophonist Daunik Lazro, bassist Benjamin Duboc, and drummer Mathieu Bec has released a collection of music with the fitting title Standards Combustion. Their covers of two compositions each by John Coltrane and Albert Ayler, and one each by Steve Lacy and Wayne Shorter do not so much burn down these nuggets as utilize them as a kind of touch-paper. Sometimes listeners in the 21st century forget the chronology of music's development. This is especially ...

3
Album Review

Patricia Bosshard / Onceim - CoÔ: Sillons - Reflets

Read "Sillons - Reflets" reviewed by John Eyles


Aside from the music, the best thing about this album is that its release signals the Potlatch label is alive and well. (Having released four CDs in 2016 and three in 2017, Potlatch released none in 2018, one in 2019, none in 2020.) In addition to this album, 2021 sees the release of a second, a duo album by Pascal Battus and Michel Doneda. Good news. The music itself comprises two 2018 compositions--"Sillons" and “Reflets"--by violinist ...

11
Album Review

Double Basse: This Is Not Art

Read "This Is Not Art" reviewed by John Sharpe


Although the group moniker might suggest two bull fiddles, in fact it describes the French pairing of bassist Benjamin Duboc and contrabass clarinetist Jean-Luc Petit. No strangers to each other (Petit appears on the bassist's leadership debut under his own name on Primare Cantus (Ayler, 2011)), they nonetheless pile up the challenges for themselves: no charts; restricted palette; exposed situation; and difficult instrumentation, especially the unwieldy woodwind. The two lengthy spontaneous inventions were recorded in the pre-Romanesque chapel of Saint ...

4
Album Review

Benjamin Duboc: St. James Infirmary

Read "St. James Infirmary" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni


French double bassist Benjamin Duboc belongs to the elite of the European free improvisation scene. He is a musician with a unique command of the bull fiddle, employing a wide array of inventive and original extended techniques. But he is also an improviser that charges each of his solo performances with captivating emotional power. His latest solo album was recorded in the church building Eglise Saint- Martin in Bignac in the western part of France in ...

120
Album Review

Benjamin Duboc: Primare Cantus

Read "Primare Cantus" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni


French double bassist Benjamin Duboc is one of the busiest musicians in the left-of-center experimental scene of musicians today in Europe. This prolific musician plays regularly with Japanese trumpet player Itaru Oki (who is based in France), in duo and with the NUTS quintet, and with many of the elite of French improvisers, including pianist Jobic Le Masson's trio Free Unfold, or in sax trios with saxophonists Daniel Erdmann, Sylvain Guérineau, Jean-Luc Guionnet or Abdelhaï Bennani. The three-disc Primare Cantus ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Standards Combustion

Self Produced
2023

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Sillons - Reflets

Potlatch Records
2021

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This Is Not Art

Clean Feed Records
2015

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Parole Plongée

Improvising Beings
2014

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St. James Infirmary

Improvised Beings
2014

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Moon Fish

Clean Feed Records
2012

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