Bill Laurance - Lumen

Jazz

Bill Laurance’s New Album Is a Leap Into the Unknown, and Straight Into the Soul.

On his latest recording, pianist and keyboardist Bill Laurance invites listeners on an unexpected journey deep into his inner world. For this project, the composer withdrew from the world for several days and nights, secluding himself with nothing but a grand piano for company. His chosen refuge: the brick-walled sanctuary of St. Faith’s Church in Dulwich, South London, a place that shielded him from daily distractions and created a quiet, spiritual shell around the music.

“I’m not particularly religious,” Laurance recalls of the April session. “But it was special to play there, with daily life suspended. In that kind of environment, you’re just communicating with yourself. I wanted to capture the musical freedom that surfaces in moments like that.”

Listening to the album, you sense that silence surrounding him, the fertile stillness that sparks reflection and creation. What emerges are, arguably, the most intense and personal works of his career. In Laurance’s mind, the place of creation and the music itself are inseparable; it hardly matters which shaped the other more. Here, the Snarky Puppy co-founder, known for his deft blending of acoustic and electric textures, focuses entirely on the vast, unadorned possibilities of a concert grand, and on the liminal space between structure and spontaneity.

“When you’re playing solo, you have this unique chance to explore that,” he says. “Recording in a church was the perfect setting, it let me surrender completely to the music. The brilliant guitarist Isaiah Sharkey once told me that it’s the music itself that tells him what to play. That stuck with me. We’re so used to controlling everything, practicing until it’s perfect. But I think I’ve reached a point where I just want to let it flow, to do the opposite, to let the music take over.”

It’s an approach steeped in a distinctly European sensibility, where the boundary between classical music and jazz becomes so blurred as to be irrelevant. For Laurance, who studied classical composition at the University of Leeds while also immersing himself in jazz, funk, and drum ’n’ bass, the two worlds have always been intertwined. Over the years, he has honed a melodic immediacy and fierce improvisational command, forging a style that embraces the lyricism of English classical music, the pulse of electronica, the edge of jazz-rock, and the raw energy of modern grooves.

That long evolution comes to full bloom here. Many tracks on Lumen lean heavily on improvisation; others follow clearly defined structures. But Laurance, now 44, isn’t interested in tidy resolutions, he thrives on the tension of contrasts. Whether leading his trio, collaborating with bassist Michael League, performing with Snarky Puppy, or orchestrating projects like Bloom with The Untold Orchestra, he seeks out settings where musical dialogue becomes a shared act of trust.

As a solo pianist, the risk is total, like an actor alone onstage, with nowhere to hide. And like light filtering through stained glass, the music here feels luminous, honest, and deeply poetic. “You set the rules, but you can break them,” Laurance says. “For me, this was like a solitary pilgrimage. I recorded about three hours of music and then had to decide what to leave out. But at its core, it was a spiritual experience, a process of going deeper, of trusting. Like Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade, stepping into the abyss, a leap into the unknown. I couldn’t have revealed more of who I am than through this music. I was surrounded by synths, drum machines, all kinds of gear, even when playing solo. But now, as an artist, I’m ready to leave all that behind. The goal is to be more organic, more pure, more direct.”

The result is an album that feels like both a culmination and a beginning, a bridge between who Bill Laurance is today and who he’s about to become.

Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News

PARIS-MOVE, August 11th 2025

Follow PARIS-MOVE on X