On June 11th, independent groove label Sdban Records will release Utopic Cities: Progressive Jazz in Belgium 1968-1979 featuring twelve essential compositions from a highly creative period in Belgian jazz. The release follows Sdban’s critically acclaimed Let’s Get Swinging: Modern Jazz in Belgium 1950-1970, released back in 2017.
Utopic Cities is an eclectic selection of forward-thinking jazz from the Belgian underground, including the left-field fusion of Marc Moulin’s Placebo, Koen De Bruyne and Solis Lacus; the intense post-bop of Jacques Pelzer and Lou MacConnell; the cutting edge soul jazz of Philip Catherine and Open Sky Unit or the otherworldly avant-garde of Babs Robert and the Brussels Art Quintet. Recorded in the aftermath of the revolutionary year 1968, this music is the fruit of a highly creative momentum in Belgian jazz history that produced a unique sound which distinguishes itself from its American source of inspiration by an indefinable characteristic that can be hardly better described than ‘Belgian’.
1. Placebo - S.U.S. 04:23
2. Solis Lacus - Utopic Cities 07:02
3. Open Sky Unit - Open Sky 05:38
4. Brussels Art Quintet - Vas-y Voir 05:30
5. Koen De Bruyne - Pathetic Dreams 09:03
6. Raphaël - Archangelo 12:52
7. Philip Catherine - Memphis Talk 04:02
8. Jacques & Micheline Pelzer Quartet - Face Reality 08:19
9. The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band - Sakara 07:13
10. Marc Moulin - Tohubohu pt. I 05:13
11. Babs Robert - Pro Forma I 06:14
12. Lou MacConnell - Naima 11:09
