'It is as if Africa, Europe, America and all the land and water in between are coalescing.'

— Chris Searle, Morning Star

​

'One of the most distinctive pianists on the international scene'.
— Bill Shoemaker, Jazz Times

'At once otherworldly and organic.'
— Alex Varty, The Georgia Straight

 

'No other pianist in the world sounds like Benoît Delbecq.'

—Lynn René Bayely, Art Music Lounge

'Benoît Delbecq, a pathfinder.'

— Francis Marmande, Le Monde

​

'In the vast history of jazz piano, there have been very few pianists who sound like no one else. One is Benoît Delbecq.'

— Thomas Conrad, JazzTimes

​

'Utterly fascinating.'

—The Daily Telegraph

'A seeker who finds.'

—Télérama

'A voyage into a land of magic.'

—Le Monde

'A profound originality.'

—Jazz In Time

'A pianist who deserves full attention.'

—The Village Voice

'A wonderful improviser.'

—The Guardian

'The newest in new.'

—Popmatters.com

​

'A reminder of how much expressive potential can be found within the mechanics of the instrument. The Loop of Chicago is a textbook illustration of the percussive depth in his prepared piano approach, as well as the inspiration he draws from sculptural mobiles like those associated with Alexander Calder.'

— Nate Chinen, WGBO

​

'Whether as a bandleader or member, Delbecq’s playing is truly one-of-a-kind. Stripped of any additional accompaniment, the way in which he approaches his material is clearly heard. It’s a spectacular study in rhythm and space.'

—Stuart Derdeyn, The Vancouver Sun

​

'For Delbecq, the prepared piano alienation is not a dogma; rather, if a piece suggests it, he also allows the pure piano sound to apply, which all in all results in poetic piano music that never gets tangled in clichés, but instead shimmers, sparkles and shines in a variety of ways.'
— Christoph Wagner, Jazzthetik

'It’s a mysterious and moving artistic statement from a richly important voice in contemporary improvised music.'
— Sam Leak, London Jazz News

'The Weight of Light is another innovative addition to Delbecq’s discography. It is provocative without being abstruse and personal without being self-indulgent. It makes for a mesmerizing listening experience one that leads to fresh discoveries with each spin.'
— Hrayr Attarian – The Chicago Jazz Journal 

​

'A singular art which, once again, amazes us.'

— Pascal Rozat, Jazz Magazine FR

'Exhilaratingly buoyant and satisfyingly substantial, this long overdue solo set is music to treasure.'
—Julian Cowley, THE WIRE (UK)   

'Delbecq has found a way of making time slow down so that we have to hear his world in a new way or with new ears. There is something very hopeful about creating a New World from fragments of the previous one.'
—Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery New York

'On the video of "Anamorphoses," asparagus-sized twigs of pine poke up from between the strings as if a tree were sprouting from inside the piano - visual poetry to reinforce the music's mysterioso quality.'
—Kevin Whitehead, NPR Fresh Air (USA)

'In what feels like a magic trick of telepathic synchronicity, Delbecq’s recital mirrors my agitated sense of impatience and hope. Delbecq’s meditative approach to prepared piano also elucidates the mysteries of the sacred texts I study each day. The Weight of Light could be characterized as jazz, but it sounds more like music John Cage might have composed for use in Egyptian ceremonial rites three thousand years ago.'
—Bill Brownlee, There Stands the Glass (USA)

'The Weight of Light' stimulates your senses with penetrating, contrasting and eclectic piano playing of light and dark, as intense as the abstract expressionism of Mark Rothko.'
—Bernard Lefèvre, Jazz Halo (B)

'In the vast history of jazz piano, there have been very few pianists who sound like no one else. One is Benoît Delbecq.'
—Thomas Conrad, JAZZTIMES (USA)

'A tightrope walker like work.'
—Jean-Jacques Birgé, MEDIAPART (FR)

'Plenty of forward-thinking jazz pianists have been painted with a modern-classical brush, but few have approached improvisation armed with the manual vocabularies demanded by Cage, Ligeti and the like with the same diligence and flair as Parisian keyboardist Delbecq.'

— Time Out New York

 

'Since he established himself at the turn of the 90s as one of the most promising young musicians in the jazzosphere, Benoît Delbecq, as a slightly cracked theoretician, has been developing in the laboratory of his various orchestras (Kartet, the Recyclers, Delbecq 5... ) strange formalist experiments mixing the harmolodic principles of Ornette Coleman, the learned primitivism of pygmy polyphonies, the ultra-sophisticated metric discontinuity of Ligeti's Piano Studies and the implacable pulsating rigour of Steve Coleman's Five Elements... His adventurous music, unclassifiable by dint of tracing its singular path on the borders of the freest jazz and the most elaborate contemporary music, particularly demanding in its quest for moving forms, both spontaneous and finely oriented by a network of constraints as allusive as they are precise, is today one of the richest and most poetic there is. A fascinating sensory adventure.'

— Stéphane Ollivier, Les Inrockuptibles

​

​