This video is a mix of different moments from our last beautiful concert. It was for the 12th edition of the great Reunionese festival Opus Pocus. 

Benjamin Faconnier on trumpet and composition / Karel Miranville on keyboards / Mishko M'ba on bass / Sami Pageaux-Waro on drums & electric kora / Zilyin Rivyèr on percussions / Frédéric Piot on percussions.

This session is a direct result from the last artistic residency that that took place in Salazie, Reunion Island, in October 2023. It represents the premises of the crossborder and intercultural bridge between (nordic) jazz and maloya I have been working on for the whole 2023.

Papillon Project is translated Prozé Papiyon in Reuionese creole.

Benjamin Faconnier on trumpet and composition / Mathis Cordier on guitar / Zilyin Rivyèr on percussions / Jonathan Bäckström on double bass.

For this concert at the Bat Center of Durban, South Africa, we played the songs I have so far, for the new repertoire of my Papillon Project. Here are some short excerpts.

Benjamin Faconnier on trumpet & composition / Siyalo Zulu on trombone / Samkelo Njinji on keyboard / Thuto Motsemme on double bass / Bucco Bonginkosi Xaba on drums.

Here are some excerpts from the concert I gave with my quartet at the moment, as part of a summer jazz program in Oulu, Finland. These are my own compositions and writings.

Benjamin Faconnier on trumpet & composition / Mathias Sandberg on guitar / Jonathan Bäckström on double bass / Alessandro D'Anna on drums / Mamadou "Paco" Ndiaye on sabars & djembe.

(Unofficial phone video and mixed sound)

This band based in Oulu, Finland is an experimental project that intertwines jazz compositions, open improvisations and poetry. On this video you can hear a collective improvisation with almost no constraint except for the tone to get started, and the sentence in reference to James Brown. 

Benjamin Faconnier on trumpet, vocals & composition / Janne Mikkonen on guitar / Roni Helminen on double bass / Olli Estola on drums.

This project is the direct result of the meeting, during jam sessions in Helsinki, of the four musicians. They naturally decided to deepen their collaboration and share their commitment to African-American improvisational music. 

Benjamin Faconnier on trumpet, vocals & composition / Mathias Sandberg on guitar / Jonathan Bäckström on double bass / Alessandro D'Anna on drums.

Papillon is a musical project that I founded in 2020, with four finnish friends: Jimi Ahlroos (sax), Severi Sepännen (guitar), Roni Helminen (bass) and Ilari Kinnunen (drums). It is from my compositions that the album has been produced.

Papillon is a flexible project, born of a turning point in my life, and it is the result of a strong need for personal development. This project is meant to be a heterotopia (Foucault, 1967) for the musicians who express themselves through it.

What would be more relevant than a Papillon (butterfly in french) to embody personal development?

Benjamin Faconnier on trumpet & composition / Jimi Ahlroos on alto sax / Severi Seppänen on guitar / Roni Helminen on Bass / Ilari Kinnunen on drums / Paco Ndiaye on percussions.

This is a short version, played in duo, of a composition I wrote, inspired by the Finnish atmosphere I felt during my first time there. I realized this video remotely with a French dancer and a French researcher for whom it is relevant to find the way to combine art and science.  

Faconnier Benjamin on trumpet, composition & video editing / Samuel Housse on piano / Franck Libomane " The Lonely Wolf " at embodiment / Samira Ibnelkaïd at text & vocals.

Lines Of Oppression is a song by Ari Hoenig that always touched me a lot. One day  I decided to ask to some French & Finnish friends to practice this song, and to do a remote version. They accepted, and this is the result.

A song by Ari Hoenig.

Benjamin Faconnier on trumpet & video editing / Jimi Ahlroos on alto sax / Ilari Kinnunen on drums / Timothé Renard on bass / Killian Rebreyend on keyboard. 

Dalonaz is the name of the modern maloya band I played with, but it also means friendship in Reunionese créole. La Réunion is a volcanic island in the Indian ocean where my background comes from, and Maloya is the traditional music heritage. 

A song by Alain Peters.

Julien Rivière on guitar & vocals / Pablo Auguste on bass / Valentin Jam on drums and Benjamin Faconnier on trumpet & choir.

A swing dance festival among many others with the Carolina Reapers Swing, which took place in my native south of France. At the end of the concert, it happens that we invite our friends from the other bands to play together.

Benjamin Faconnier on trumpet & vocals / Sami Khalfoun on trombone / Mickael Pernet on tenor sax / David Tavani on clarinet / Joseph Vu Van on piano / Audrey Leclaire on guitar / Fernando Morrison on double bass / Arthur Defrain on drums.

Our friends are Corentin Lehembre on trumpet / Hugues Lehembre on tenor sax / Auguste Caron on drums.

The Unknown Project is one of my bigest artistic experience ever. I learned a lot with this project, and I still today have some attitudes and musical approaches that result from this underground artistic journey. This video also comes from my first real experience in music video shoot.

Boris Netzer on keyboards / Bastien Bofias on guitar / Olivier Chevoppe on bass / Christophe Rosello on drums / Alexis Lenoir on tenor sax / Benjamin Faconnier on trumpet / Nicolas Gasnier on flute.