Double fun in Brussels & Sint-Niklaas for a successful conclusion of the year
We're approaching the end of BRZZVLL & De Beren Gieren's release tours. The past three months, both bands presented their brand new albums "Waiho" & "Dug Out Skyscrapers" in Belgium, The Netherlands & UK. The (inter)national press, programmers and audience were wildly enthusiastic, resulting in multiple five stars reviews and sold-out concert halls.
We end the year with two - not the least - Aubergine double bills in Brussels & Sint-Niklaas.
BRZZVLL and De Beren Gieren are performing together during “The New Wave Of Belgian Jazz” in AB, a terrific seven-dayer to conclude the outstanding JAZZ 100 series. The two bands will obviously present their new albums that day. Other inspiring bands joining them that day are Black Flower, Taxiwars, AAN/EOP & The Mechanics.
Further, December 21st in De Casino (Sint-Niklaas), Aka Moon & De Beren Gieren share the stage presenting "NOW" and "Dug Out Skyscrapers". An adventurous, exciting line-up, so save the date!
16.12 BRZZVLL & De Beren Gieren @ AB, Brussels (BE)
21.12 De Beren Gieren & Aka Moon @ De Casino, Sint-Niklaas (BE)
De Beren Gieren & BRZZVLL are smashing it! The past months, they received outstanding 4 & 5 stars reviews from De Morgen, Humo, Focus Knack, De Standaard, Trouw, Written in Music, ... But also: "Every one of the 10 tracks is a winner!" Electronic Sound Magazine on Dug Out Skyscrapers "One of the more idiosyncratic of the current crop of ‘live’ European piano trios, De Beren Gieren have The Bad Plus’ sense of supersized dynamics to add tot heir quirkily ambient electronic effects and offbeat grooves." Jazzwise (****) "BRZZVLL demonstrate on their third album an absorbing collection of instrumental jazz-fusion that evokes the spirit of Herbie Hancock in the 70s but manages to sound original and relevant rather than derivative and hackneyed."Record Collector Magazine (****)
"Named for the capital of Congo, Brazzaville, this seven-piece Belgian jazz outfit turn out to be more than just Afrobeat revivalists, drawing as much on fusion greats such as Herbie Hancock as Central African rhythms."Q Magazine
Kris Defoort & his 'Diving Poets' presenting their new album Diving Poet Society
One year after their successful creation tour through Slovenia, Hungary, Germany & Belgium, Kris Defoort and his ‘Diving Poet Society’ come out with the self-titled album Kris Defoort Diving Poet Society (WERF Records). They’re excited to present this gem to you in four Belgian cities:
For this album and its Belgian release, Hungarian singer Veronika Harcsa and French saxophone player Guillaume Orti join the Kris Defoort Trio (Nicolas Thys, Lander Gyselinck & Kris himself) to put several magnificent poems by poet Peter Verhelst (Bruges) into music. Balancing between improvisation, composition and instant orchestration, they search for that one magical moment. Or in the words of Kris: “five musical poets communicating the joy of diving into an ocean full of infinite colours, words & sounds.”
Belgian fusion band BRZZVLL (pronounced Brazzaville) are set to release their seventh studio album this autumn, entitled ‘Waiho’, released 6th October via Sdban Ultra.
Founded by Vincent Brijs in Antwerp in 2006, the seven piece interfuse improvised dance music with jazz-fusion, afro funk and rare groove. It is freaky, it is trippy and it follows no rules. Belgium has quite a tradition for jazz and funk infused leftfield grooves from Marc Moulin’s ingenious Placebo to library funksters Les Chakakas / El Chicles to the much sampled JJ Band and BRZZVLL follow in a similar tradition. Initially re-working arrangements from jazz greats Herbie Hancock, Eddie Harris, Freddie Hubbard and Archie Shepp, BRZZVLL eventually began to construct their own forms of free jazz in an attempt to return jazz to its primitive roots based around collective improvisation.
New album ‘Waiho’ is BRZZVLL at its best: excellent psychedelic jazz-funk in which the band’s solid, characteristic sound comes forward. After two inspirational collaborations with poets and ‘Nuff Said brothers Anthony Joseph (‘Engines’) and Amir Sulaiman (‘First Let’s Dance’), BRZZVLL play the instrumental card. With ‘Waiho’, the band express their current cry for solidarity within music as well as their daily lives. Nowadays, music is too often used as an individual consumption product. The band centralise the group experience, both in the creation process and in the interaction with the audience when performing live, by being “in the moment” and lifting the music to a higher level, as one. This way, BRZZVLL go back to the roots of jazz and funk.
Get ready, because within a month the long-expected albums of BRZZVLL, Waiho, and De Beren Gieren, Dug Out Skyscrapers, will be released on Sdban Ultra! Both bands will cross the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK to present this new repertory to you. BRZZVLL already kicked off last weekend: their showcase concert during the Belgian Jazz Meeting resulted in a lot of positive feedback. Next up is September Jazz in Bruges. Dug Out Skyscrapers from De Beren Gieren then will premiere at the B-EST Festival in Flagey (12/9).
De Beren Gieren: Dug Out Skyscrapers
Fulco Ottervanger (piano), Lieven Van Pée (double bass) & Simon Segers (drums)
Better than anyone else, De Beren Gieren know how to blend an avant-garde sound with melodious pieces and references to the great classical composers of the 20th century. They effortlessly shift from more rigidly styled compositions to improvised sections and thus reveal the pulsating and ominous futuristic sound of a new world. More so than in previous albums, on Dug Out Skyscrapers harmonies and compelling grooves interact and disclose the future of the past... the album’s ‘Leitmotif’. Like dedicated archaeologists from the future, De Beren Gieren use subtle electronic effects to uncover the potential of their acoustic instruments layer by layer. The piano echoes further, the drums split up into even more numerous fragments and the bass reaches deeper still into its musical universe. The compositions take on a 3D-dimension in this acoustic view-master and haul the listener from recognition to renewal, from nostalgia to exaltation.
Vincent Brijs (saxophone), Andrew Claes (saxophone, EWI & darbuka), Dries Laheye (electric bass), Jan Willems (keys), Geert Hellings (guitar), Maarten Moesen (drums) & Stijn Cools (drums)
Like The Heliocentrics, BRZZVLL is a band mainly known for its repeated collaborations with strong frontmen. After two inspiring adventures with poets & ‘Nuff Said brothers Anthony Joseph ('Engines') and Amir Sulaiman ('First Let’s Dance'), BRZZVLL resolutely strikes the instrumental chord on this new album. The septet performs in its most quintessential form: a cast-iron instrumental core.
Don’t expect compelling afrobeat rhythms but a full sound alongside a range of intonations that unveil the various spectra of these virtuoso musicians. Laid-back sax lines alternate with sharp guitar riffs, backed by the repetitive trance of two duelling drummers. The album is brimming with heavy grooves, to which the musicians associate uplifting saxes or futuristic keyboard or EWI sounds: a psychedelic cocktail of ‘space meets funk’, not mentioning a cheeky wink at the universe of Sun Ra and similar others.
Spellbinding, ominous sounds intersperse with cheerful impetuosity. Each track subsumes a sort of inherent tension, evolving towards a new balance: hope vs. despair, old vs. new, tradition vs. futurism, mellow vs. impassioned, mesmerizing vs. liberating... BRZZVLL are the shamans of a new musical world!
The standard-bearer on the cover, as well as the title Waiho (Maori for ‘leaving’), refers to what the album epitomizes: a journey to a new world. A world in which opposites harmonize, differences merge without ever lapsing into a monotonous sludge. A world in which colours point out & contrast. A world which blurs the boundaries between the sounds from a glorious past and the sounds foreboding a captivating futuristic new world.
