It all started when…

On November 30th of 2020, a woman living in Chartres, France, named Marie-José Guillet, reached out to Charles-Henri Avelange via the Facebook Artist Page he set up years ago for his great-great uncle and master painter, Leon Oury. She wanted to share three photos from a picture album that had not been seen since its owner—Mlle Marguerite Rocault—passed away in 1954. Mlle Rocault was a student of Avelange’s great-great uncle. She never married. Her sister died in childbirth. She had uncles and aunts, but all without offspring—Ms. Guillet told Avelange. Mlle Rocault has no family link with Ms. Guillet besides the fact that it is her grand-father that took care of Mlle Rocault during the last years of her life. Mlle Rocault was living in his home where Ms. Guillet’s father still lives today. Inside this picture album containing about sixty photos, a few of them said in the back, “afternoon hang-out with Master Painter Leon Oury at the Château de Grogneul.”

Curious about that character, a quick Google search led Ms. Guillet to the Facebook page and she sent Avelange a message along with the three pictures she found, all the way to Los Angeles, California. Little did she know that not only Leon Oury was on the pictures, but Avelange also recognized Oury’s niece and apprentice—Avelange’s great grand-mother Thérèse Oury-Picavet. Avelange also recognized in the background The Château de Grogneul and its ancestral castle’s entrance, which his family and himself went visiting decades ago, when he was only 5-years-old.

CREATING “THE OEUVRE OF LEON OURY…”

Composer Charles-Henri Avelange grew up with Leon Oury’s paintings all over his grand parents’ home and also his parent’s, aunt’s, and uncle’s. Leon Oury was the protégé of master painter Isidor Pils. Under his direction, Oury participated in painting the ceilings of the great staircase of the Opera Garnier of Paris, France. He was a contemporary of Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin and many others. Avelange had long felt a desire to create music inspired by Oury’s paintings, and thus Ms. Guillet’s Facebook inquiry—perhaps a shot in the dark—did not fall on deaf ears! Indeed, during those exceptional, quiet nights of the pandemic, this unexpected connection proved the key to unlock melodies haunting Avelange’s mind for decades, which now sprung to life!

You can now enjoy the five themes he wrote: one inspired by the painter himself, and the other four by specific paintings of his. “I was blessed to have some of the best musicians in Los Angeles and France to perform on this project,” Avelange says. The greatest challenge for this production came from the fact that none of the musicians could perform together during the lock-downs and were all recorded separately, either in Avelange’s studio, or remotely from the musicians’s own studios. “As I put my producer’s and engineer’s hats on, I worked really hard to put all the pieces together to give the illusion that all the musicians were playing together in the same room, and it is my hope that these recordings convey to you, the listeners, that feeling,” Avelange explains. Musicians were all recorded in specific order, so that the others—just like in a full ensemble—could synchronize their performance to the concert master. This method creates a virtual sound space that feels as natural as possible, providing a uniquely intimate listening experience, as though you are surrounded by the musicians all at once. “It is my hope that this album will transport you to the beautiful world and simpler time of Leon Oury’s contemporary rural France of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s,” Avelange says.