Aron Ottignon

Background

About Aron Ottignon

A sprightly mosaic of feels and flickering colours, the music of New-Zealand born, now Berlin-based pianist and composer Aron Ottignon captures the essence of sound as a means to unite through diversity like none other. From his travels across the globe since a young age, Aron has learnt to blend the widest array of cultures and idiosyncrasies into his work, merging an endless scope of musical tropes - from the winding sensuality of Cuban jazz to the harmonic lushness of traditional African polyrhythms, via sun-dazed Caribbean percussions, spacious electronics and other blissed-out gems sourced the world over - to weave his own distinctively effervescent sound imaginarium, miles away from genre-bound restrictions and transitory trends. Throughout the years, Aron has brought his unparalleled expertise in arrangements, composition and live performance to artists highly regarded for their boundless creativity such as Stromae, Woodkid and countless more, all the while forging a sound signature that led him to join the ever glorious roster of jazz legends’ label, Blue Note. A new chapter has opened for him in 2020 with the launch of Urban Trout, conceived as the ideal haven for his and his friends’ work, and inaugurated in January with the release of the warm and prismatic ‘Goanna Funk’ EP. With plenty more releases to follow such as collaborative EPs with Puerto Rico based artist ÌFÉ, Steel Pan Sam, Senegal’s Baaba Maal and José Marquez, no wonder you’ll get to hear a lot more from Aron both on and off the waves. “Since signing to Blue Note, New Zealand pianist Aron Ottignon - who has toured the world with Woodkid, played with Abd Al Malik and co-written Stromae's "Papaoutai"- has released two highly acclaimed EPs and played at major jazz festivals. On his debut album under his own name,"Team Aquatic," he blends jazz, electronica, Caribbean percussion and music from the Antipodes. The story goes back to his childhood, in a family where music is known: his grandmother played piano in the first silent cinema in London before playing the harp behind the eccentric Liberace; his father blew the saxophone in Manfred Mann's quintet and, accompanying foreign jazzmen in concert in Auckland, he offered them to come to the house to give advice to young Aron. This was the case with New York Pianist Andrew Hill when the prodigy was about ten years old. Against all commercial logic, Aron Ottignon chose to produce instrumental music by combining jazz improvisation, pop melodies, worldly echoes and electronic effects." France Musique