Let’s say it today, Sylvain Daniel is one of the best instrumentalists on the French jazz scene, his playing is always innovative, ultra-sharp whether in the most earthy grooves or up to the most ethereal layers and always at the service of all his playing comrades and of music. This is known and as such, Sylvain is highly sought after, as much in what makes us vibrate in jazz (Laurent Bardainne, Anne Pacéo, Julien Lourau, the ONJ galaxy, Yom…) as what makes us vibrate elsewhere (Jeanne Added, Camélia Jordana, Thomas de Pourquery…).
– NEWS –
SLYDEE releases new album on Kyudo Records
2025: New album in progress in Ecouen (95)
SlyDee, the new project from bassist and producer Sylvain Daniel, draws on his deepest influences.
As an instrumentalist, Sylvain is an indispensable figure in the modern jazz scene. He is known as the bassist for Thomas de Pourquery, Laurent Bardainne & Tigre d’Eau Douce, and Julien Lourau; and he participated in Yom’s electric experiments. He is also a valuable ingredient in pop production: his bass lines can be heard on albums by Jeanne Added Air & By Your Side, Jain The Roof, Redcar Les adorables étoiles, and he is the musical director for Camélia Jordana’s Facile x Fragile tour.
As a composer and leader, Sylvain Daniel already distinguished himself with Palimpseste in 2018. This Detroit-based project garnered critical acclaim (Choc Jazz Magazine and ffff Télérama, Album of the Year); in it, he proclaimed his love for the music of the Motor City, from jazz to house, soul, and hip-hop, extolling the beauty and urgency of the arts and creativity in a declining industrial world. In 2020, he released Pauca Meae (Choc Jazz Magazine, ffff Télérama): a composition for an actor, an electric quartet, and a string quartet setting Book IV of Victor Hugo’s Contemplations to music. This precious, hyper-produced discographical UFO combines the electric energy of Miles Davis, the saturated melancholy of Nirvana, and the inspired classical writing of Gabriel Fauré.
It is now as a producer that Sylvain distinguishes himself with his third album. SlyDee is a musical stripping bare in which he unabashedly invokes his founding pillars: the great black music of Prince, Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, Chic, Sly & the Family Stone, an immoderate taste for instrumental hip-hop from Slum Village & J-Dilla, the tangy post-punk synthesizers of Talking Heads & Joy Division, and the electric, libertarian jazz of Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis.
A delightful cocktail that gives pride of place to groove and a collective sound, also offering immense scope for this new group made up of musicians renowned for their improvisational talents.
It is around this very specific musical universe that Sylvain Daniel has assembled his own dream team. Longtime companions like Vincent Taeger on drums (Tiger Tigre, Poni Hoax, Le Sacre du Tympan, Tony Allen, Sébastien Tellier, Oxmo Puccino) and Arnaud Roulin on synthesizers (Tigre d’Eau Douce, Supersonic, Poni Hoax) join SlyDee. New collaborations are born with Bruno Ruder on piano and Fender Rhodes (Yes is a pleasant country, duo w/ Jeanne Added…) and the avant-garde trumpeter Aymeric Avice (Pomme de Terre, Jean-Louis).
A meteoric record that accomplishes everything that true poetry must: to produce a breach in the continuum of imprecisions, lies and other stupefaction of the ordinary [...] A hard and liquid music, forms that are born and vanish, ruins and memories, romanticism without adornment and of an obsessive singularity that lends to this plunge into the abysses of absence and suffering a salutary nobility.”
As evidenced by his contribution to "Air" by Jeanne Added or "Love is everywhere" by Laurent Bardainne, Sylvain Daniel is one of the best eclectic electric bassists of his generation [...] The music is, depending on your point of view, angry or twilight, always hyper-expressive, subtly, intensely current.”
Borrowing in turn from the Miles of the 70s or from post-punk aesthetics, up to orchestral tracks strongly tinged with pop, the album draws an intimate and polymorphic journey with a fascinating balance. The momentum of this music imposes itself with a force and an obviousness that impresses and seduces.”
– LINE-UP –
Sylvain Daniel (bass)
Vincent Taeger (drum)
Aymeric Avice (trumpet)
Arno Roulin (keyboards)
Bruno Ruder (Piano et Fender Rhodes)
