“This first album is the purest creation yet from Omezis, a Strasbourg collective and the fertile artistic ground from which Emile Londonien emerged. The result of improvisations and reflections around the theme of contemporary jazz, Legacy plays with time, in its own time, while laying the foundations of a reflection that sees music as a conversation with history.

“We are all heirs of our influences, children of our references, and a synthesis of what surrounds us. We cherish this passing of the baton, sometimes immersed in the archives, sometimes witnessing contemporary revolutions. We owe as much to the pioneers of traditional and British jazz as to those of house music and broken beat. To claim our heritage and offer a conscious, contemporary vision; that is the challenge that animates us.” – Emile Londonien

Emerging from the Strasbourg scene and the Omezis collective, which includes about twenty artists, musicians, DJs and videographers, Emile Londonien soaks up the English jazz scene of the last fifteen years and offers up a personal version.

Trained at the Strasbourg Conservatory, the three musicians met during thematic evenings organized by the Omezis collective, co-founded by drummer Matthieu Drago. A studio session paying tribute to the English scene followed in 2020. The moniker Emile Londonien, a double nod to their UK influences and to a famous French saxophonist, sprang up spontaneously.

The pandemic put the project on hold until their recordings fell into the hands of Dope Tone, the historical Strasbourg broken beat label, and then things started to accelerate. Influential DJs like Lefto immediately shared the tracks from this first session. Thus, emblematic of a generation that grew up in club culture, the band was launched, blending that very culture with the jazz trio tradition.

Regularly playlisted on the BBC, their first productions found an enthusiastic echo, and the praise poured in, starting with that of the influential DJ and producer Gilles Peterson himself, who sees them as heirs: “I saw these guys recently live. They are a sort of celebration of the last 10-15 years of the UK jazz scene… It’s a crossroads place.” Unknown until a few months prior, the band played Sète’s Worldwide Festival, the Montreux Jazz Festival in the summer of 2021, and Nancy Jazz Pulsations, confirming on stage all the good that was already clear from listening to their recordings.

Influenced by Yussef Kamaal, The Comet Is Coming, Atjazz, SunRa, and also Ornette Coleman or Thelonious Monk and by the Broken Beat, Jazz, House, and Hip Hop scenes, Emile Londonien perfectly incarnates this ‘next gen’ French jazz alongside Léon Phal, whose sound is close to theirs. Beyond labels, they mix tradition and contemporary music with ease, as measured on the dancefloor.