KEBYART launches UNRAVELED: a contemporary tribute to Maurice Ravel
2025 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Maurice Ravel, one of the most refined and unique figures in 20th-century music. To mark this occasion, Kebyart presents UNRAVELED, their new album released by Linn Records – Outhere Music, which explores and reinterprets the French composer's legacy from a bold and deeply personal perspective, even though Ravel never wrote for saxophone quartet.
Far from being a simple transcription, UNRAVELED offers a sonic journey thatunravelsthe elegant complexity of Ravel's language. The album brings together Kebyart's own arrangements of fundamental works such as Le Tombeau de Couperin and Pavane pour une infante défunte, along with a wide selection of French Baroque pieces by Jean-Philippe Rameau. This dialogue between eras highlights Ravel's admiration for the ornamentation, formal clarity, and rhythmic refinement inherited from the Baroque tradition.
Rameau's presence is no coincidence: his Pièces de clavecin serve here as a historical mirror reflecting many of Ravel's aesthetic ideas. Through these works, Kebyart connects past and present, revealing how 18th-century French music continues to resonate in modern compositional thinking.
The album is rounded off with two commissions from contemporary composers who engage directly with Ravel's musical philosophy. In Les perfectibilités – traité d’ornement, Mikel Urquiza explores the notion of ornamentation, radical simplicity, and constant refinement, articulating a fragmented and poetic discourse. For his part, Joan Pérez-Villegas paysan energetic and provocative tribute with Debout, Maurice!, a work that reactivates the spirit of Ravel from a contemporary perspective.
Recorded at the Auditori Josep Carreras in Vila-seca, UNRAVELED is the result of intense artistic and sonic work, captured in great detail by sound engineer Sixto Cámara Moya. The album not only celebrates Ravel, but also questions, reimagines, and projects his legacy into the future, consolidating Kebyart's collaboration with Linn Records – Outhere Music in a project of great artistic ambition.
And as a final nod—and perhaps poetic justice—it is worth remembering that, although Ravel never wrote for saxophone quartet, he was genuinely fascinated by the instrument: so much so that in his famous Bolero he gave the saxophone two of its most unforgettable solos. Who knows... perhaps UNRAVELED is, after all, the album that Ravel would have enjoyed listening to.
