Wise Animals by Shed Music

Tony Paeleman approaches this new album through a uniquely personal lens. While he reunites
the trio whose debut was enthusiastically received with The Fuse in 2021, this project reaches far
beyond music alone.
Since childhood, Paeleman has been passionate about the animal world, which he sees as capable
of teaching us a kind of wisdom that humanity seems to have lost. Enriched by readings and
documentaries that have shaped his imagination, he observes and reflects… Wise Animals should
be seen as a kind of bestiary, with each track conceived as an ode to a particular animal species,
celebrating its unique traits and what observing its behavior can teach humans who question the
state of the world. It’s an opportunity to remember that, from Couperin to Poulenc, Prokofiev to
Ravel, or Messiaen, the history of music is a true Noah's Ark...
Though we find Julien Herné (bass) and Stéphane Huchard (drums) here once again, Paeleman
explores a new approach. Reconnecting with his love for the piano—enhanced by the poetic use
of synthesizers—Paeleman acts here as a composer who showcases his bandmates’ talents,
guiding them through unfamiliar sonic territory. He has pre-imagined the journey, creating a crisp,
almost raw drum sound, with minimalist, mesmerizing grooves underpinned by razor-sharp
basslines. This new album conveys contrasting and sometimes opposing emotions, singing of the
beauty of nature and the animal world, which moves and profoundly touches the heart. At the
same time, it expresses a fear of the destruction of this beauty, the looming extinction of these
species—a kind of pre-emptive nostalgia for a world collapsing under humanity’s unbridled,
unconscious activity.
Wise Animals, whose title itself provokes deep thought, is a distinctive sound work conceived as
a cohesive whole—a true “concept album”
, designed as a counterpoint to the transient nature of
modern times. Each composition echoes the one before it, inviting us to experience these eleven
tracks as inseparable. On stage, Wise Animals becomes a full-fledged performance, offering not
only an outstanding display of instrumental mastery and breathtaking trio interplay but also a
profound, dynamic reflection on a world in motion.

Shed Music is a Paris-based "indie-jazz" collective initiated by the four musicians who form the group The Watershed : Christophe Panzani, Tony Paeleman, Pierre Perchaud and Karl Jannuska.

www.shedmusic.fr