Following some forty CD releases on his imprint New Wave Of Jazz, Dirk Serries thinks the time is right to expand to the world of vinyl with these two LPs, of which the first one contains music by the man himself. He plays a 1957 Hoffner archtop guitar, and recorded with a single microphone, some 50 centimetres from the guitar and there has been no other audio processing.
The liner notes, as always by Guy Peters, are on the front cover, and he uses the extra space the format allows him, to talk some more on the history of free jazz and connects that to punk and self-taught musicians, of which Serries is one. His direct approach to both the guitar and the recording (mono! Phil Spector would have been proud if still alive) makes that you sit up close to the music. It is almost as if Serries is in your living room, playing his guitar. As we know from his recent playing within the field of free improvisation, Serries is a skilful and varied player, not just within the context of playing with others, but also solo.
The guitar is all ten of these improvisations easily recognized and yet nowhere it sounds like some conventional. Maybe it sounds to the uninitiated as if somebody plays it without any knowledge as to how to play the damn thing, but to the trained ear (and, hold on, I am not saying I am an expert in this field; not when it comes to guitar playing, nor when it comes to knowing something freely improvised music) of unusual music, I’d say, he knows what he is doing. He plays odd little motifs, but seemingly hitting just strings or notes, but sometimes he repeats them and makes little differences within these and here’s when you recognize someone clueless and someone who sure knows what has to be done. No bowing, no drones, no lengthy spacious journeys, all of his trademarks from his long career, but immediate, direct music. Vital Weekly – The Netherlands
This is a mono recording, using the AEA R44 Anniversary Edition ribbon microphone placed 50cm away from the body of the guitar. One band eq and variable-mu compression was subtly applied across the spectrum to smooth out dynamics. No other audio processing was used.
1. Axis 02:11
2. Grid 05:23
3. Cluster 02:53
4. Overlap 04:45
5. Kinetic 02:53
6. Factor 05:07
7. Rhetoric 01:46
8. Sketch 06:04
9. Exertion 02:33
10. Areal 03:46
Dirk Serries played a 1957 Höfner archtop guitar
Performed, recorded, mixed and mastered at the Sunny Side Inc. Studio, Anderlecht (Belgium) on July 31st 2020
