Free improvisations on the piano, with groundwaters movements to the surface as main theme, recorded at Studio 26 in Antibes, France, in february 2012.
The album is made of a vinyl and a DVD containing various improvisations.
Videos and cover are made by the artist and filmmaker Anne Pesce.
The cover contains an interview in french with Philippe Robert, author of "Experimental Music" (Le Mot et le Reste).

Label : Facing You / IMR
Distribution and online selling Musea

Henri Roger - Exsurgences (IMR, 2012) ****

Henri Roger is a self-taught pianist, guitarist, drummer and composer with a long track record in modern music, and if I’m not mistaken, this must be his fourth solo piano album. This one is vinyl only, with an accompanying DVD. The theme of this album is the way of underground water as it moves up to the surface.

The A side is quite exploratory, with the artist nervously conjuring up dark phrases with increasing intensity, alternated with interesting moments of almost percussive lyricism. It an eclectic improvisation, not really jazzy, not classical either, but a very honest and cautious journey of musical reflection.

The B side is at times more romantic, calm and introspective in a Jarrett mode, but then with a little darker edge to it.

The DVD is actually longer than the LP, with the visual part consisting of videos by Anne Pesce, evocative accompaniements, ranging from a long travel around a globe, visiting just dots of unrelated cities to high speed travel in a car without being able to see too much what’s happening. All videos can be viewed here.
Stef GijsselsFreejazzblog

Self-taught French pianist Henri Roger’s set of solo piano free improvisations is spread across a DVD directed by video artist Anne Pesce, and also on vinyl. These nine improvisations, all numbered as "Exurgences 1" to "9," have a similar dense and restless character.

Roger explores the sonic possibilities of piano keyboard, stressing the lower range as he sustains these sounds and forms a dramatic and intense, string of continuously colliding overtones. The first and longest improvisation, the 28-minute "Exurgences 1," sounds as if Roger is not attempting to structure it in any binding form, but just lets the sounds flow in an intuitive manner, deliberately not attaching himself to any sonic occurrence—slowing the pace and softening its strict atmosphere only in its last minutes. The accompanying video, showing straight lines between specific locations all over a static black and white globe, adds little to the sonic experience, and after a while becomes redundant.

The following improvisations and their accompanying videos offer additional yet different aspects of mostly static, monochromatic sonic and visual experiments. The "Exurgences 2" is lighter, with a changing urban landscape captured at different times of the day, while "Exurgences 3" is more tight and nervous, with a view of vinyl turning around.

The fourth improvisation stands out as the most arresting. Roger uses the piano strings as a percussive surface and the percussive sounds that he produces from rubbing and plucking the strings correspond with the conventional keyboard playing, creating a nuanced, mysterious texture, accompanied with a changing landscape view from a driving car. The fifth, spare improvisation, emphasizes again the accumulative, meditative effect of exploring the overtones.

The other four improvisations, documented on the vinyl, continue in a similarly restless vein, mainly "Exurgences 6," with over 16 minutes of dense sonic investigation of clusters of chords. But these improvisations also suggest changing moods and colors, like the "Exurgences 7," which even has a surprisingly emotional, balladic touch, or the minimalist "Exurgences 8." The final, short and melodic "Exurgences 9" even sounds as though it was influenced by the solo piano excursions of Keith Jarrett.

Comprehensive and challenging, yet often too long, Exsurgences is an investigation into the form of free improvisation.
Eyal Hareuveni.All About Jazz