Nôze

Nôze, an unpredictable electronica duo formed by stepbrothers Nicolas Sfintescu and Ezechiel Pailhès, produces music that freely mixes styles and often conjures the spontaneous energy of 1920s Parisian jazz sessions alongside contemporary strains of electro-house and so-called minimal techno. Classically trained pianist Ezechiel Pailhès honed his skills at the Academy of Music in Paris, while Nicolas Sfintescu, who records separately as DJ Freak, co-founded the techno label Circus Company, home to frequent Nôze collaborator Ark as well as Mossa, Dave Aju, and additional like-minded artists. After issuing several 12-inch singles, the pair delivered their first full-length release on Circus, the 2005 album Craft Sounds and Voices, which weaves free jazz together with vocal-driven techno and draws on guest players from Paris’s improv, jazz, and experimental circles. Live shows remain the duo’s preferred format, allowing their blend of electronic and acoustic instrumentation to fuel raucous, sweat-soaked performances that have earned fans around the world, most memorably through a breakthrough appearance at Barcelona’s 2005 Sonar festival. Further 12-inch output continued the following year on Circus and other imprints, highlighted by the quirky, semi-narrative track “Kitchen,” which surfaced on Trapez in 2005. The 2006 collection How to Dance gathered the bulk of those vinyl cuts and emphasized the pair’s playfully off-kilter vocals and instrumentation while shifting toward a more driving, club-focused sound than their debut. In 2007 both Hot Chip and Booka Shade included Nôze material on their respective installments in the DJ-Kicks series.