A secret garden of jazz pianist Léo Tardin, drawing, has regained a central place in his artistic work in recent years. His project Le piano illustré is the culmination of this process, which combines music and graphic productions.

Thus, Léo Tardin creates vignettes with intricate floral and plant motifs using Caran d’Ache colored pencils. Driven by a sensitivity to detail and an inclination for poetry found in everyday life, his universe oscillates between landscapes inspired by his surrounding in the countryside of Geneva, at times influenced by Japanese print, and psychedelic sketches.

These drawings are photographed at various stages of their creation (stop motion effect), and then scrolled live via an ingenious set of pedals while he improvises at the piano, making the sound and image dialogue and respond to each other in real time. Each vignette unfolds with a different approach, often involving DYI post-production techniques à la Michel Gondry applied to the pictures. These unique narratives, both light and contemplative, are projected on a big screen, creating a poetic experience in which the public can escape every-day life, for the duration of a multi-sensorial performance.

Léo Tardin performed with Piano Illustré at venues and events including the Atrium of the Lincoln Center for the Chelsea Music Festival in New York, Montreux Jazz Festival, La Nuit des Images in Lausanne, Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi in Venice, Festival les Athénéennes (at Alhambra) in Geneva and 1000Jazz Festival (at Cinéma ABC) in la Chaux-de-Fonds to name a few.