ARKHANGELSK

Erik Truffaz is one of the brightest name in French nu jazz. Influenced by Molvaer's light and airy trumpet's playing,Truffaz has his own sound though. Differently from Molvaer's cool Nordic sound, Truffaz music is very warm, more melodic and much more influenced by lounge and acid jazz (and even soft pop-jazz) culture.

This album is very pleasant and extremely accessible listening, but don't be fooled by the first impression - even when it sounds like your usual pop collection, in reality it isn't. Erik plays on the risky border between pop jazz and more innovative new jazz, and often songs (especially when with vocals) sounds somewhere in the field of quality pop-music. But when dig a bit deeper, listener will easy find out how tasteful and professional his jazzy arrangements are.

To be honest this album is a risky listening still - because of its melodies, well crafted and safe enough sound and plenty of formal attributes of pop-jazz, some listeners could react on it quite negatively. It depends on your taste though - many vocals compositions are quite similar to Sting's songs (just a little bit jazzy in sound), so you know what to expect from this release now.