Naissance

Naissance is a jazz duo performance at St Brides Church in Liverpool, where saxophone and piano meet over ambient samples of Renaissance sacred vocal music. The evening is built around improvisation and original minimal compositions.

John Law and Jon Lloyd perform together as Naissance, with Law on piano and keyboards and Lloyd on saxophones. Their playing traces improvised lines over ambient recordings of Renaissance sacred vocal music, leaving pauses between the sounds. The material they draw on combines their Renaissance project with original minimal compositions, so the jazz improvisation carries a classical thread throughout.

The performance is presented as a conversation between the two instruments, in which the saxophones answer the piano and keyboards. The pieces are described as meditative and attentive to beauty and form, and the set is shaped around the interplay between the two musicians rather than around a larger group.

St Brides Church stands on Percy Street in Liverpool. Alongside its religious role, the building hosts concerts, mainly of electronic music, so this jazz duo appears in a setting more often associated with electronic performances.