Watchdog's stop at a legendary 1956 recording studio in Solo might be the most interesting date on the itinerary  and it's not even a concert.
At 2,300 meters up Mount Bromo, the air turns cold enough to fog up a clarinet reed before you even play a note. That's where French duo Watchdog will spend two days in a jazz camp with young Indonesian musicians before playing their first festival set of the tour. It's an unusual way to open an 18-day run across the country  but this tour has never been about one big show.

What is the French Jazz Tour, who's playing, and how much does it cost? The French Jazz Tour is an annual program run by the Embassy of France in Indonesia through the Institut français d'Indonésie (IFI), now in its fifth edition since launching in 2022. This year's featured act is Watchdog, a piano-and-clarinet duo formed by Anne Quillier and Pierre Horckmans, touring six Indonesian cities Bromo, Yogyakarta, Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, and Ubud  from July 22 to August 8, 2026. Pricing isn't 

centralized: each stop is ticketed separately by its host festival, and several sessions, including the Bromo jazz camp and Jakarta masterclasses, are open to students and industry professionals at no cost.

Who Are Anne Quillier and Pierre Horckmans?

Watchdog was founded in 2016 by pianist-composer Anne Quillier and clarinetist Pierre Horckmans. The duo won a spot in Jazz Migration, a French program that backs emerging jazz acts for international touring. Their sound pulls from improvisation, contemporary composition, and electronic textures  closer to a live experiment than a standard jazz set, with the clarinet looping and bending against piano lines that shift key without warning.

Where and When Can You Catch Them?
The route reads like a jazz festival crawl. Bromo hosts the jazz camp on July 22–23, followed by a set at Jazz Gunung Festival on July 25. From there, Watchdog heads to Yogyakarta for ArtJog on July 28  but two days earlier, on July 27, they'll do something festivals rarely offer: a live recording session at Lokananta Studio in Solo, Indonesia's first record label, running since 1956, joined by the Aditya Ong Quartet. Jakarta gets a masterclass and a performance at Jazz Summit Indonesia, held at IFI Jakarta on July 31. Bandung follows on August 1 as part of Road to The Papandayan Jazz Festival, then Surabaya at JW Marriott on August 4. The tour closes at Ubud Village Jazz Festival in Bali on August 8.

Why This Tour Keeps Coming Back
The program leans on a long list of Indonesian and French partners  Forum Jazz Indonesia, AJC (Association Jazzé Croisé), Jazz Gunung Festival, ArtJog, Jazz Summit Indonesia, The Papandayan Jazz Festival, and Ubud Village Jazz Festival  to keep it running past a single tour date. It's built around workshops and masterclasses as much as concerts, giving Indonesian musicians, students, and teachers direct time with touring French artists rather than just a ticket stub.

"[Pull quote pending  request a direct quote from IFI, Watchdog, or a partner festival for this slot.]"

France's jazz lineage runs through names like Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli, and Michel Petrucciani, but Watchdog represents where the scene has moved since  toward improvisation that borrows as much from electronic music as from swing. For Indonesian audiences who've mostly met French jazz through old recordings, this tour is a chance to hear where it's headed next.