Samy Thiébault et Émilie Aridon-Kociolek

Album release: The Weather Acoustic (Gaya Music / L'Autre Distribution - 2026)

Watching two musicians from seemingly distant worlds find common ground is a rare and precious experience. For the birth of this exceptional duo, that is precisely what is at stake.

Émilie Aridon-Kociołek has, until now, moved between the worlds of classical music and tango, at some distance from the notion of improvisation.

Yet when she takes up what Samy Thiébault has imagined for her, each note seems to come alive with a new energy, as if shaped by an unfathomable depth of soul; her playing then reads as a genuine act of improvisation.

The subject of this album, the music of Weather Report is deeply associated with a sound, an era and the cohesion of a group. It evokes an electric jazz, vibrant and collective.

Imagining these compositions blossoming within the bareness of an acoustic duo seemed almost impossible, and yet that is exactly the marvel that takes place here.

In this chamber dialogue, where the resonance of brass and wood subtly intertwine, Émilie Aridon-Kociołek and Samy Thiébault reveal the richness of the compositions of Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul and Jaco Pastorius in a new light.

Through Samy Thiébault's pen, personal variations emerge around essential pieces from the legendary group, conceived as so many scenarios in which liveliness and intelligence are always present.

We move through these compositions with a new compass, between gentleness and incandescence, rediscovering their originality, their grandeur and the rightness of every melodic line.

This duo embodies the dialogue between two distinctive voices: the dazzling saxophone of Samy Thiébault, here fully in the spotlight, and the inhabited piano of Émilie Aridon-Kociołek.

The diversity of their journeys and musical visions harmonises miraculously in every breath, in every phrase. Each of them redraws here their own language, in a genuine surge of creation.