Brigitte Beraha on Teasing Reflections

Known for her adventurous musical spirit and fluid, expressive sound, vocalist and composer Brigitte Beraha is one of the pioneers of pushing the boundaries of the voice in jazz. Improvising across unique and genre-defying compositions, her approach to free jazz has seen her incorporate classical and even electronic influences into one cohesive sound – and nowhere is that more evident than in her latest album with ensemble Lucid Dreamers, Teasing Reflections. 

Prior to the release of the album, I was thrilled to talk to Brigitte about her musical influences, how the ensemble Lucid Dreamers came to be, and how Teasing Reflections reflects the current chapter of the ensemble's sound…

When was the moment that you realised that making music was for you? 

I was always totally passionate about music, even from when I was a child. Although I didn't have any formal training, there was a piano at home and I would just be there all the time playing and singing. But I never realised that it was something that you could do professionally until much later on. I moved to London from France when I was nineteen, and I was a bit lost by that point. I had done one year of a law degree, but I was really into theatre and music, and I found this music A-level course at Kingsway College. I realised that if I wanted to seriously pursue music, I'd have to get a little bit more training - something that I hadn't had previously. When I went on to that course, I think that's when I realised, ‘yes, this is the right thing for me’. 

I was surrounded by like-minded musicians who were people I looked up to. I went there as a piano player, and though I suppose my level on the piano was only around Grade 6, I think they saw something in me. A lot of people who were there on the course were just absolutely incredible classical musicians, and there were a few jazzers there as well, so I was sort of torn between the two. But that's when I thought I was definitely going to pursue something to do with music.

Tell us a little bit about Lucid Dreamers – who’s involved and when did the ensemble first come together?

Lucid Dreamers is an ensemble that I started in 2019. It wasn't the complete lineup at that point, but the London Jazz Festival had asked me to put something together involving a trio at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. At that point I was experimenting with electronics and pedals, so I was very much wanting to start something that involved that. I had George Crowley already in mind who plays the tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, clarinet, and really understood my interest electronics. Tim Giles on drums is also really into electronics too, so I had this sort of sound in my head. It felt quite scary because I had never done anything like that before, and the first gig was going to be at the Queen Elizabeth Hall… but ultimately it was a great catalyst. 

So after a really successful gig, I began thinking that it would be really good to record, and I started writing music specifically. But I write on the piano, and not having a chord instrument in the ensemble made it feel like maybe something was missing, so that's when I got Alcyona Mick on board (who I was already playing with and knew was going to just fit perfectly in the ensemble), and that's when Lucid Dreamers started. We recorded a live video, which then became the first album, Lucid Dreamers. It came out during the pandemic, in 2020, so we weren't gigging, but once we came out of lockdown I'd already written a lot of music for the ensemble, so we recorded the second album, Blink. We’d started to do more gigs too – a proper tour where we were playing music from the first and second album, and it just felt great.

How would you describe your sound? Do you draw on any influences?

I think it's very much taking from lots of different styles of music that I'm attracted to; having that realisation that I don't have to confine myself to just one thing. I really love electronic music, I love classical music, I love jazz, and so I guess it's sort of fusing these elements together and not feeling constrained by any sort of stylistic thing. It can go in any direction - it can even go into dance and techno elements, though it tends to be more ambient, drone-y kind of stuff. My writing seems to be influenced by so many things that I love: from Bach to Parmegiani, although I don't know if any of that comes out in the music. But I think it's just got to be informed by some of the things that I listen to: the Ches Smith Trio album The Bell has a chamber sound, and features Mat Maneri on viola, Craig Taborn on piano, and Smith on vibes, and drums. That album was very much a catalyst in a way for the band as well, in the sense that it's acoustic but there's a lot of incredible space and strange improvisatory elements to create a kind of contemporary classical sound.

I write a lot for that kind of sound, but then fuse it with lots of electronic elements which I love. During the first two albums, I was using my pedals a lot, George and Tim were using electronics as well, and Alcyona also used a synth that she used mainly for bass as well as other things. For the third album I didn't use any pedals, but George had a line out from me so he could also play around with my voice, so the difference here is that he was triggering the electronics on the vocals and I didn’t know what he was going to do! In this case, I'm also improvising with what he’s generating, which is another element of excitement. Overall I like to keep our options open: so Lucid Dreamers could be doing acoustic gigs, which we have done in the past, or bring in electronics and pedals if we choose. I just really love to keep it open and fluid.

Teasing Reflections relies heavily on improvisation. Is it difficult to find a balance between that and the structure of a composition?

I don't think it is, not with these people that I play with. There's so much trust there. I think when I'm writing for them, I'm not too precious about my compositions – the writing is almost like a vehicle for them to feel free, to just explode in all sorts of directions. But there is an element of risk, where you ask yourself things like ‘how are we going to get back into this next section?’ But I love that, and I think that makes it exciting, both for us and hopefully for the audience. The more we know the music, the more we can open it up. I suppose with the latest album we haven't gigged very much yet, and I think there's maybe a little bit more structure in this one than there has been previously. So then the challenge is to be able to break that whenever we want to – should we want to.

The album opens with "Words". How did that track come to be, and why did you choose to open with it?

I think it did start with those words. I just wrote these words as sort of like a stream of consciousness, but also in my mind I was reflecting on when I’m watching politicians on television. I'm watching them, and I'm going, ‘what are you actually saying? You're not saying anything – or I don't understand it, anyway’. So with that in mind, I just started blurting out all these words with the feeling of being nonsensical and playful. I knew afterwards that I wanted there to be a free improv section where we go from the nonsensical and dishonest into this free section, which was like the release of everything, and a feeling of ‘this is what we actually want to say’. So that's always different when we play it – the part that comes after the words. I've written this mainly wordless tune which then goes into more written words on the bridge. 

Why is it such a great opener? Having everyone all speak together. I suppose that came about when I first wrote it. I was thinking that I would use my pedals to layer up all of my words, which could happen on live gigs or things like that. But then I had the thought of ‘wouldn't it be so fun to get all the members of the band to improvise speaking words?’. I even got Alex, who mixed and mastered the album, involved as well to have even more voices. I mean, for me, it's quite fun. Even now, if I listen again, I still hear new and different things! I hope it's fun for others as well. The way that Alex has mixed it is brilliant: everyone was in the same room and doing it at the same time, but somehow he's managed to pan things in a way where you can just hear each individual really clearly if you pay attention.

'Moonstruck' is a reimagining of a piece from a previous solo album. What drew you to revisit that piece with Lucid Dreamers, and how has it transformed in this new context?

I wrote ‘Moonstruck’ for my solo album By The Cobbled Path, which honestly, I was quite proud of. It’s like a mini-suite, if you like. The solo version starts with me looping this riff on the pedal and then improvising over that before moving into a poem I’d written. But you can hear that it's just a lone voice when I’m singing on the solo album, and then I go into a big ambient wash at the end, so it's sort of in three parts. And so I thought for the band that I would further compose for it. It almost felt like a skeleton; for the first part I didn't want to just replicate exactly the same tune. I think it sounds like a different tune altogether, but the first part, instead of just me looping it, it's just me and Tim just completely improvising. I harmonised the poem for Alcyona to play, and then I added another section. So instead of the big ambient wash, we just go into this sort of minimalist and repetitive section which brings back the sort of idea of that first loop on the solo album. I guess that the title of the album comes from that particular track, because there's a lyric in there which says ‘teasing my reflection’. It's very much about insomniac nights, or the moon and sun being together – the light shifting, and I just felt that with everything else that I'd written for the album that this complemented it quite nicely, and went well with the story of the album.

What do you hope listeners take away from this album?

It's a tricky one, because for me, I make music just because I have to – it just comes out – and then you just hope that what you're offering is going to feel good. The way that I hope that people will respond to the album is the same way I respond to something and really enjoy it - I hope they can get lost in it.

Do you see Teasing Reflections as a continuation of your previous work, or does it mark a new direction for you artistically?

I don't know, I feel like it's both. I feel like it's a natural continuation of where it's been heading, but it’s also to do with our playing and also my own writing and where that’s taken us. It feels like it's a little bit more song-like somehow than the previous ones. So, a new direction, in a way yes, but that’s not to say that it’s going to keep going in that direction. Also, we're going to take this music on tour, meaning that we’ll keep playing, keep growing, experimenting and developing, and from that I think that more music is going to come to be. I think it will be a direct continuation from what's happened before, but whether it's going to be similar, or it’ll go freer, who knows?

It's also about when we record, which is really interesting. Take Blink – when we recorded the album, and because the compositions also were a little bit more open, we also did some improvisation. We had time to do some improvised vignettes, which also made it onto the album. Whereas with this one, the writing was a little bit more convoluted, and we haven’t really played the music all that much. Teasing Reflections was recorded in one day. We just did takes of each, and then that was that. 

What’s next? You’ve mentioned that you're touring a lot more…

Yes, we’re really excited about that. The album comes out on the 12th September, and the launch gig is in London on 24th September. There will be more dates in November, and hopefully another proper tour next year, in the Spring, so that's kind of where it's going. It's a case of wanting to play the music live but trying not to get too excited and do another album too soon! I'm sure I'll start writing again, but I can't wait to play with these three amazing, incredible musicians that are so inspiring to play with, improvise with, and write for. They bring my music to life, and it's just amazing.

Teasing Reflections is available now on CD and Streaming & Download.