Le Monde Merveilleux de Pépito

On 23 January 2026, Le Monde Merveilleux de Pepito released its second album, ‘Thousand Shades of a Clown’, marking a significant new chapter in the musical path of French-Brussels trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer Pierre-Antoine Savoyat, a member of Stéphane Galland & The Rhythm Hunters, whose collaborations also include AKA Moon.

For this recording, Savoyat expands his long-standing quartet — with pianist Simon Groppe, bassist Fil Caporali and drummer Oscar Georges — into a broader ensemble by inviting distinctive voices from the European creative scene: saxophonist Alexandra Grimal, flautist Lúcia Pires and vocalist Lynn Cassiers. The music remains grounded in melody and attentive interplay, while gaining depth and contrast through these singular presences.

The septet version of ‘Thousand Shades of a Clown’ was presented live in December 2025 at Flagey in Brussels, revealing the ensemble at its largest and most dynamic form. The performance balanced close interplay with expansive ensemble textures, reflecting the group’s attentive listening and collective awareness.

The roots of this evolution lie in the quartet itself. After five years of development, the ensemble released its debut album, ‘Memories from a Winter Journey’, in 2023. The recording featured Savoyat’s quartet alongside guest alto saxophonist Ambroos de Schepper and a string quartet (Amèle Metlini, Julien Gillain, Coline Meulemans and Sinouhé Gilot), revealing Savoyat’s sensitivity as a composer and arranger. Dedicated to his mother, the album established the project’s aesthetic core: narrative writing shaped by nuance, space and emotional directness.

An expanded version of ‘Memories from a Winter Journey’, featuring the string quartet and guest alto saxophonist Ambroos de Schepper, was presented at the Brussels Jazz Weekend in 2025. Performing on this prominent stage, the ensemble brought the album’s rich textures and improvisational freedom to a wider audience, highlighting both the quartet’s core interplay and the expanded sonic palette offered by the additional musicians.

Across its different incarnations, Le Monde Merveilleux de Pepito remains rooted in the quartet’s shared language while embracing transformation through collaboration. The project can be presented in several configurations: the quartet in its focused and intimate form; a quintet or, on special occasions, the septet featured on ‘Thousand Shades of a Clown’; or the string-augmented formation developed around ‘Memories from a Winter Journey’. Each version highlights a different facet of Savoyat’s writing — from restrained lyricism to expansive ensemble textures — while preserving the group’s commitment to attentive listening, dialogue, and musical cohesion.