It was on an autumn evening in Paris that our paths crossed for the first time. We didn't know each other yet, but that evening a film was waiting for us: On est fait pour s'entendre (“We're made to hear each other”), a moving story about deafness, full of tenderness, humour and romance.
Who could have guessed that barely two years later our first album, Faits pour s'entendre, would see the light of day, and that our two souls would be bound forever, by love and by music?
From the very beginning of our story, one thing was obvious: our two piano worlds, different as they were, had to meet. Why not play together? Why not blend our styles?
Louise, rooted in the classical tradition, academically trained; Dexter, self-taught and a jazzman. Where classical music rests on rigour and the endless riches of a score, jazz favours freedom and improvisation. Two opposite worlds, yet deeply complementary. Louise can interpret anything, Dexter can invent anything. This duality became our driving force, a fertile ground for exploration and creation that lets us push each other further.
Our repertoire grew like a conversation between eras and sensibilities, from Bach's lively, airy Toccata to Chopin's Prelude, a witness to his convalescence in Majorca. Right after our take on the wonderful Aria from the Goldberg Variations, Debussy and Ravel draw us into a play of light and shadow, between delicate arabesques and shimmering waters. Folk rhythms bring Bartók's music to life, while Satie stops time with his enigmatic Gnossienne. Our journey ends with a medley of pieces by “Monsieur Croche”, where daydreams and mischief intertwine.
Our first record is an invitation: to listen deeply, to reach out to one another and to welcome what seems far away. Because it is in that encounter, in that openness, that we can truly understand each other. In that sense, we are all (or almost all!) made for each other.
Louise&Dexter