‘James Francies Trio & Ben Heim’

Even before he was 30 years old, the keyboard player and composer James Francies was playing alongside Pat Metheny, Chris Potter and Terrace Martin. Besides these impressive jazz features, he has also made a name for himself in hip-hop and R&B with Mark Ronson, Drake and Lauryn Hill. So much for name-dropping; the fact remains that Francies is in high demand. For his most recent project, Francies has teamed up with the audiovisual artist Ben Heim. Seeing Synesthesia investigates the phenomenon of seeing colours when you hear music. Heim uses an intelligent simulation to create an ‘auditory painting’ as a visual representation of what is going on in Francies’ head. It gives the audience a peek inside his musical brain: a musical MRI, you might say.