Laurent Estoppey, saxophone
Daniel Levin, cello

Says Daniel:

“Sanctuary Series - the concert series that facilitated the collaboration between me and Laurent - began in January, 2022. I had a duo tour scheduled with Mat Maneri, and due to a covid spike, most of the venues canceled the concerts. One of the concerts was going to be at Duke University. They were open to my proposal of recording the concert in my living room and sending them the video, which they would stream later. So, that’s what we did. A few musicians from the area came to that concert, like Dougie Bowne, David Menestres, Dan Ruccia, and Jil Christensen. Everybody enjoyed the evening. The atmosphere was very intimate, and the engagement between audience and performers was really high. It seemed like the obvious thing to do was to continue to present concerts in my space, and this turned into Sanctuary Series.

For the third concert, I presented Jil Christensen and Laurent doing solo sets. I have known Jil for many years, because we both went to Walnut Hill School for the Arts back in the 90’s. We had been out of touch until I moved down from NYC to North Carolina in 2017, and discovered that she lived in the area. Jil told me about Laurent and suggested that I ask him to perform on the series. Laurent’s performance was exceptional. I was so excited about his virtuosity, his huge range of sounds and timbres, his rhythmic sense, and his incredible commitment to seeing ideas through, beyond what is comfortable, producing something unexpected and vital. I immediately felt that I wanted to collaborate with him.

We talked about this after the performance, and agreed to record in the same space where the concert happened. A couple of months later, Laurent came over to my place and brought some recording equipment, and we played music for a couple of hours. It felt both fresh and comfortable - a mutual trust seemed evident from the start, which enabled us to jump right into exploring the kind of terrain that we both were looking for - the unknown.

I’m really happy with the music that we made in The Sanctuary that afternoon, and I am thrilled to be continuing to develop our music together in live performance these days.”

Says Laurent:

“The solo concert I played at Dan’s place remains vivid in my mind; a very attentive and caring audience in an intimate and welcoming space.

I was then very excited to discover Dan’s work, through his numerous recordings. In them I particularly enjoyed his openness and conversational play with the other musicians, always in a very personal way of using his instrument.

The SUMAC recording session happened at a very special moment. A few days prior, we got the news that my mother-in-law was living her very last moments; my family would share them with her in Iowa. I decided to maintain the session, taking place just before I would head to the airport, to address this music to her and her husband, a cello player and conductor. This tragic and emotional circumstance is embedded in our music, Dan’s extreme sensibility complementing mine.

This recording is dedicated to Roxy, Lee and Elizabeth.”