Herve Perez

"This is a huge and expansive work of exquisite drama." - Mr Olivetti, FREQ Music magazine

"Garden of Secrets is a very successful and varied disc with electronic-folk-jazz-progressive soundscapes, and thus another remarkable album from Discus." – Achim Breiling, BABYBLAUE SEITEN

"Perez is paired on this consistently fascinating and always surprising recording alongside the acutely simpatico Alex Hegyesi, a skilled strings player and percussionist armed with a virtual arsenal of such objects... All these rich mindstates vividly demonstrate that Garden of Secrets ticks all the right boxes; experimental and accessible, beautifully tasteful to the ear, and eminently listenable. - Darren Bergstein, Downtown Music Gallery

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"This is a huge and expansive work of exquisite drama." - Mr Olivetti, FREQ Music magazine

"Garden of Secrets is a very successful and varied disc with electronic-folk-jazz-progressive soundscapes, and thus another remarkable album from Discus." – Achim Breiling, BABYBLAUE SEITEN

"Perez is paired on this consistently fascinating and always surprising recording alongside the acutely simpatico Alex Hegyesi, a skilled strings player and percussionist armed with a virtual arsenal of such objects... All these rich mindstates vividly demonstrate that Garden of Secrets ticks all the right boxes; experimental and accessible, beautifully tasteful to the ear, and eminently listenable. - Darren Bergstein, Downtown Music Gallery

"an incredibly varied, music for receptive listeners." - Martin Slávik, Kali Music

"Steeped in jazz, prog and South East Asian music, Garden Of Secrets is an electro-acoustic suite built around the saxophone and shakuhachi of Hervé Perez, and the strings of Alexandru Hegyesi." - Stewart Smith, The Wire

"Ça frémit, ça bruisse, ça goutte, ça racle, ça tinte, ça coule, ça grésille, ça craque et ça vente, au point qu’on a plutôt l’impression de randonner dans une forêt aux balisages incertains, ou sur un plateau volcanique cahoteux. Mais quel que soit le décor, on y fait halte pour se réconcilier avec les éléments naturels et méditer sur l’impermanence des choses." - Stéphane Fougère, Rythmes Croisés

"I really enjoyed the contrast between the tranquil beats, bird call and other ‘found sounds’ and atmospheric shimmering synths with eruptions of motile sax and also the suspenseful quality of the music. ‘The 4, The 8, The 10’ is an accomplished, meditative listening experience." – Phil Jackson, ACID DRAGON

"The opening three minutes is a mesmeriser. Two horns perfectly attuned to each other in every sense. So much so it took me a little while to get beyond those first three minutes; constantly switching back to the beginning before being willing to give them up. They’re a slow, sensuous prelude and delivered like a balancing act." – Steve Day

"That a variety of moods are conjured so effectively speaks volumes about how both artists are in sync with their objectives, so clearly vested in the realization of their ideas, so highly attuned to their birthing of new musics that to accompany them on their magical mystery tour is an experience not soon forgotten." – Darren Bergstein, DMG

"Each musician finds ways to sculpt sounds that become incorporated into your own thoughts and imaginings, pulling you into their soundscapes in ways that will you to become an active participant; although the pieces have elements which have an ‘ambient’ quality that could wash over you, they take pains to introduce unexpected, startling, disturbing changes that jolt you back to attentiveness. You’d expect really good art to be provocative and to stimulate a response – and this set certainly does that. Having played together for the best part of a decade, Archer and Perez have a well-developed knack for finding mutually intriguing sounds to introduce their creations. Often the introductions, while spontaneous, have the sense of a conversation which, while it might combine different points of view, is being conducted between two friends." – Chris Baber, Jazzviews

"The bass and sax duo are highly practised improvisers who bring an atmospheric clarity to their music that reflects their close heeding of each other.  There are also less-tangible selections that replicate and resonate the inherent mood of what this music is about.

 This music is contemplative and peace-making and I think it appropriately reflects Islamic spiritual concerns."

 - Ken Cheetham, Jazzviews

"The Unexpected Visitor / is a conceptual work of excellent workmanship, despite not having flashes that make the masterpiece scream. A few excess songs limit what is still a good avant-garde album, in which the evident skills of the two musicians are effortlessly highlighted. In fact, Gus Garside and Hervé Perez must be given credit for having recreated a coherent and full-bodied sound flow, where almost all the pieces of the mosaic are in their place." - Giuseppe Vitale, Radioaktiv

"The music is certainly mysterious, cryptic even, but that is not to say impenetrable.  Here are two saxophonists having a conversation and it helps that each has a dedicated channel (L+R) so one can follow either musician or both combined.  There are few, purely lyrical passages, atonality taking the discourse to the highest possible level.  The music is a crossbreed, an amalgamation of different forms of improvisation including, of course, jazz." - Ken Cheetham, Jazzviews

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