La Buissonne Studios (RJAL 397003)

Released in 2005 as a promotion-only compilation, La Buissonne Studios occupies the elusive third chamber in the catalogue attached to the celebrated recording complex at Pernes-les-Fontaines. Its history was built through improbable labor. Gérard de Haro and two childhood friends first recorded musicians in a modest space at L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue; an encounter with bassist Barre Phillips sharpened their desire for a professional studio. They found a hangar and house in Pernes, worked with acoustician Marc Beaufils, and opened La Buissonne on September 1, 1987. Since then, its rooms have helped define modern European jazz as a silent collaborator, familiar to ECM devotees yet present across numerous labels. Only one ECM recording appears here. That scarcity clarifies the compilation’s purpose: less a house sampler than a map of circulation, showing how one acoustic language can pass through radically different bodies without imposing a uniform complexion. Many selections arrive as…