New Zealand-born, Paris-based pianist Aron Ottignon has been steadily expanding his instrumental craft as a jazz pianist – both on his own and in collaboration with artists such as Stromae and Woodkid. For his latest release, Ottignon sought out the production talents of fellow-antipodean Rodi Kirk, and enlisted UK steel pan and percussion virtuoso Samuel Dubois. The resulting “Starfish EP” is a kaleidoscopic ride through electronically-augmented, percussion-heavy 21st century jazz that also takes musical cues from a variety of non-Western music styles.

Preparing to perform the EP in a live context, the challenge for the three musicians lay in recreating the intricacy and sonic detail of the studio recordings while leaving enough room for the energy and improvisation of a great performance. For his part, Rodi Kirk arrived at a solution involving Ableton Push, a Tempest drum machine, a mixing desk, and a custom Max for Live device. Thus, with the electronic elements on equal footing with the piano and percussion, the trio now had ample room to maneuver within Ottignon’s dynamic compositions.

Ready to test themselves in front of an audience, for their debut performance Ottignon, Kirk and Dubois set up their instruments at the historic Funkhaus Berlin for an intimate live recording session, and Ableton's camera crew was on hand to document the whole performance.