Biography
Emerging from Liege, Belgium in 2002, guitarist Michel Delville—also active as a writer and educator—launched the Wrong Object, a modern creative jazz-rock ensemble that initially concentrated on material by Frank Zappa. Although numbers such as “Big Swifty,” “Filthy Habits,” “Chunga’s Revenge,” and “King Kong” remained in the repertoire across subsequent years and the band appeared at the Zappanale Festival in Bad Doberan, Germany on two occasions in 2004 and 2007, additional currents, particularly the jazz-inflected Canterbury tradition from England, helped shape its evolving path.
Following a series of small-run private issues, MoonJune brought out the group’s first widely available recording, The Unbelievable Truth, in 2006. This live collaboration with former Soft Machine saxophonist Elton Dean captured the core lineup—Delville on guitar together with drummer Laurent Delchambre, tenor saxophonist Fred Delplancq, trumpeter Jean-Paul Estiévenart, and bassist Damien Polard—at Paris’s Glaz’Art on 18 October 2005, only four months prior to Dean’s death.
The Wrong Object resurfaced in 2007 on Voiceprint with Platform One, which again showcased the same quintet alongside British avant-jazz figures trumpeter Harry Beckett, who died in 2010, and trombonist Annie Whitehead; the album contained original pieces by Delville, Beckett, and Whitehead plus two further Zappa selections.
MoonJune issued the band’s next effort, Stories from the Shed, in 2008. On this occasion the quintet of Delville, Delchambre, Delplancq, Estiévenart, and Polard worked without guests, presenting an entirely original program written chiefly by Delville with contributions from the others. Captured live in the studio and augmented by loops, electronics, and samples, the set constituted a potent electric creative jazz statement that both honored the Wrong Object’s sources and declared its independent voice. Five years then elapsed before another album appeared, although Delville remained busy with additional projects, among them douBt and Machine Mass Trio, both of which recorded for MoonJune.
After the Exhibition, released in 2013, retained only Delville and Delchambre from the earlier configuration and introduced a new sextet completed by keyboardist/vocalist Antoine Guenet—leader of the MoonJune act SH.TG.N and by then also a member of Univers Zero—saxophonist/clarinetist Marti Melia, saxophonist François Lourtie, and bassist Pierre Mottet. Vibraphonist/marimbist Benoit Moerlen, known for his work with Gong and Gongzilla, guested on several tracks, while singer/songwriter Susan Clynes supplied vocals alongside Guenet on the Canterbury-tinged “Glass Cubes.” Largely composed by Delville yet also incorporating writing from Guenet, Delchambre, Mottet, and Moerlen, the material was again tracked live in the studio with the broadest instrumental range the ensemble had employed to that point, even without a trumpeter, resulting in the Wrong Object’s most varied collection of original music so far.
Following a series of small-run private issues, MoonJune brought out the group’s first widely available recording, The Unbelievable Truth, in 2006. This live collaboration with former Soft Machine saxophonist Elton Dean captured the core lineup—Delville on guitar together with drummer Laurent Delchambre, tenor saxophonist Fred Delplancq, trumpeter Jean-Paul Estiévenart, and bassist Damien Polard—at Paris’s Glaz’Art on 18 October 2005, only four months prior to Dean’s death.
The Wrong Object resurfaced in 2007 on Voiceprint with Platform One, which again showcased the same quintet alongside British avant-jazz figures trumpeter Harry Beckett, who died in 2010, and trombonist Annie Whitehead; the album contained original pieces by Delville, Beckett, and Whitehead plus two further Zappa selections.
MoonJune issued the band’s next effort, Stories from the Shed, in 2008. On this occasion the quintet of Delville, Delchambre, Delplancq, Estiévenart, and Polard worked without guests, presenting an entirely original program written chiefly by Delville with contributions from the others. Captured live in the studio and augmented by loops, electronics, and samples, the set constituted a potent electric creative jazz statement that both honored the Wrong Object’s sources and declared its independent voice. Five years then elapsed before another album appeared, although Delville remained busy with additional projects, among them douBt and Machine Mass Trio, both of which recorded for MoonJune.
After the Exhibition, released in 2013, retained only Delville and Delchambre from the earlier configuration and introduced a new sextet completed by keyboardist/vocalist Antoine Guenet—leader of the MoonJune act SH.TG.N and by then also a member of Univers Zero—saxophonist/clarinetist Marti Melia, saxophonist François Lourtie, and bassist Pierre Mottet. Vibraphonist/marimbist Benoit Moerlen, known for his work with Gong and Gongzilla, guested on several tracks, while singer/songwriter Susan Clynes supplied vocals alongside Guenet on the Canterbury-tinged “Glass Cubes.” Largely composed by Delville yet also incorporating writing from Guenet, Delchambre, Mottet, and Moerlen, the material was again tracked live in the studio with the broadest instrumental range the ensemble had employed to that point, even without a trumpeter, resulting in the Wrong Object’s most varied collection of original music so far.
Albums