“Originality in music has not yet died”, gleefully admitted critics when these furiously talented lads appeared on stage.

Jean Louis worked underground for two years to develop and refine its style. In 2008, the trio dumbfounded the music community with its first album Jean Louis. Critics voted the album one of the best debuts of the decade. In 2010, the trio upheld its unique voice with an impressive new album Morse.

With its unorthodox stylistic fusion, timbral effects, and amalgam of acoustic and electronic sound Jean Louis throws down the gauntlet to a standard thinking. The origins of the trio can be traced to progressive music groups such as Doctor Nerve and The Muffins, however Jean Louis discovered the recipe of even more expressive, powerful and refreshing sound.

Counterbalancing on jazz, rock and electronics, the group creates unbelievably thick and changeable music fabric on traditional instruments. You can hardly recognize the sound of the trumpet, which flies off the tune of inflexible drums.

The trio’s influences include such musicians as Marc Ducret, Meshuggah, Zakir Hussein, Fela Kuti, Miles Davis, Fred Frith, the 20th-century composers Varèse and Stravinsky. However, you won’t be able to stick a label on their music. Jean Louis blows up sound and musical barriers to take the audience into a steep way surrounded with diverse atmospheres, at times heavy, light, mechanical, dark or free.

In a period of a few years Jean Louis earned a reputation of one of the most interesting and innovative experimental groups.

The trio is a prize winner of “Concours National de Jazz à la Défense” (2007) and AFIJMA’s “Jazz Migration” (2009) in France. It appeared on France’s major jazz scenes, as well as Switzerland, Italy, UK. Last year Jean Louis represented France in Artscape, international project in Vilnius.

Aymeric Avice studied at the jazz department of the Le Conservatoire national supérieur de musique in Paris, and won the best soloist award at the “Esprit Jazz” (2004). The trumpeter performed with Magma, Le Sacre du Tympan, Les Chevals, Dave Liebman, Riccardo del Fra. He currently performs with Radiation 10, Fantazio, and plays as a trio with Bruno Ruder and Philippe Gleizes. In Vilnius Jazz, Avice will appear on traditional as well as slide trumpet and see shells.

Joachim Florent was born in Belgium. He studied music in homeland, later continued in Lyon and the Le Conservatoire national supérieur de musique in Paris. He won the first prize in the best musician category at the “Concours National de Jazz à la Défense” (2007).

The double bassist collaborates with Radiation 10, Brice Martin’s Quartet, the Belfin Quartet, White Light, and Benjamin Flament.

Francesco Pastacaldi was born in Italy. His taste for adventure led him to Paris in 2000. He took part in the summer sessions of Sienna Jazz and Manhattan School of Music, and studied at the Le Conservatoire national supérieur de musique in Paris.

Pastacaldi collaborated with Nico Gori, Ares Tavolazzi, Fabio Morgera, for 3 years performed with Japanese pianist Emiko Minakuchi’s trio with whom he recorded the album Kokolo (2005). He also played with Les Chevals, Benoît Alziary’s WIP Nonet, and Sylvaine Hélary Trio.

The drummer performs with Fantazio on a regular basis. As he wanted experimentation to prevail, he turned to less conventional music styles and created Torture Nounours, a hardcore bass guitar-drums duo.