AU COEUR DE L’HIVER 

Au coeur de l’Hiver – Variation in 12 tables

In 2020, when he began work on La Dernière Reine, Jean-Marc Rochette decided to make Les Étages, in the Écrins massif, his year-round home. The hamlet had not been inhabited in winter since the 1960s.

Cut off by several avalanche paths, its access road closes in December and opens in March. It is on this island of ice and snow that the author embarks on a winter sojourn in the form of an inner journey, where the everyday rubs shoulders with the extraordinary.

Attacks by wolves, avalanches, disappearances, a poignant encounter with a fox: on stage, in dialogue with the music and voice, Jean-Marc Rochette sketches out the generous and violent beauty of the high mountains.

A total immersion in the heart of winter.

Jean-Marc Rochette

Author, illustrator of graphic novels for forty years, as well as a painter and sculptor, Jean-Marc Rochette was born in Baden-Baden in 1956, spent his childhood in Grenoble, and grew up in the Vénéon Valley. His dream of becoming a mountain guide was cut short by a tragic accident, which he recounts for the first time in Ailefroide and incorporates into La Dernière Reine. This graphic novel, which combines stories of love and art, was published by Casterman in October 2022 and is currently being adapted for the cinema.

Au cœur de l’hiver is his first novel.

François Raulin

A founding member of La Forge in 2000 and AGEM in Grenoble (1981), he joined ARFI in Lyon in 1980 and met Louis Sclavis, with whom he has been playing, composing and recording since 1985, continuing to this day as a duo. He began working with Stefan Oliva on Lennie Tristano, Stride piano, and the comic strip Little Nemo, created the Micromégas Brass Band (1997), and participated in the French Piano Trio (with Martial Solal and Jean-Marie Machado). He created and composed ‘Le sourire au pied de l’échelle’ at the Opéra Bastille (2002), formed his trio (with Corneloup and Chevillon), has been composing and playing with the Grand Chœur des Voix Bulgares since 2007, and has travelled throughout Africa with numerous projects, including the recent trio with Majid Bekkas and Emile Biayenda. He has contributed to numerous dance and film scores, while also performing with Louis Sclavis, Michel Portal, Anne Alvaro, Marc Ducret, Claude Tchamitchian, Bruno Chevillon, Christophe Monniot, Martial Solal, Dominique Pifarély, Adama Dramé, Laurent Dehors, and others.

Richard Bonnet

Richard Bonnet is a self-taught guitarist. A native of Marne, Richard works with musicians such as Hasse Poulsen, Stéphane Payen, Gerald Cleaver, Dominique Pifarély, Régis Huby, Guillaume Roy, Sylvain Darrifourcq, Claude Barthélémy, and others. He is the instigator of several projects: Quartet with Tony Malaby (sax), Tom Rainey (drums) and Antonin Rayon (Hammond organ) (Warrior – Marge 50); duo with Tony Malaby (Haptein – hôte marge 04); duo with Danish guitarist Hasse Poulsen (Colours in water and steel – Hôte marge 10), film concert with guitarist Pierre Durand, solo project (Morning Bear). He can be seen regularly on stage in a trio with Sylvain Darrifourcq and Tony Malaby or with the trio/quartet ‘Unknown Species’ with pianist James Carney, drummer Samuel Ber and Michael Attias on saxophone.