Last weekend multi-instrumentalist and CONFRONT RECORDINGS owner MARK WASTELL (UK) and Belgian guitarist DIRK SERRIES celebrated the release of their EP ‘DUAL ACTIVITY’ on CONFRONT RECORDINGS with two concerts and a session at the Oude Klooster chapel in Brecht (Belgium).

Mark Wastell wrote : One hot summers evening in August of 1992, I sat, together with about thirty others, in a small room above a pub in north London, to witness a duo concert by Derek Bailey and John Stevens. The music they played that night marked me for life. I reflect on that gig to this day. Their commitment, energy, seriousness and musical intellect has informed me for over three decades. John had exploded into my realm a couple of years earlier, and remains a constant inspiration. His concepts and theories about improvised music have influenced generations since. The other great theorist of the period was Derek Bailey. Dirk Serries love and appreciation of Derek is self evident. He holds Derek in the highest regard and, in just the same way I feel about John, his love of Derek is obvious. So, here we present a duo of our own. Same instrumentation, guitar and a small percussion set, with the intension of presenting a music as clear and p ure as our mentors.” 

The EP is already sold-out but digitally you can find it on the CONFRONT RECORDINGS’ bandcamp or at DIRK SERRIES’ bandcamp.

Check out the video footage (by Seppe Durnez) from their concert at the 2025 CITADELIC FESTIVAL in Gent (Belgium) on June 1st. Photos below are from Peter Wüllen, Jan Kees Helms, John Sax and Jef Vandebroek.

UK improvisor and label director Mark Wastell has been a driving force in the British free impro scene for years. As part of Derek Bailey’s COMPANY group in his younger years to being the label curator of the tone-setting CONFRONT RECORDINGS, Mark is a talented multi-instrumentalist, known for his cello work solo and in a group like IST with Rhodri Davis and the late Simon H. Fell. While guitarist Dirk Serries has been transparant about his fascination for Derek Bailey, Mark is equally inspired by the legacy UK drummer/percussionist John Stevens left behind.

As a sincere ode to Bailey & Stevens’ oeuvre and important contribution to the free improvisation scene, as we know it now, Mark Wastell & Dirk Serries are joining hands for a set of percussion/guitar duo concertsand recording sessions. They are playing Rotterdam’s KOFFIE & AMBACHT on May 31st and the open-air CITADELIC FESTIVAL in Gent on June 1st. Their first ‘tour’ ep is scheduled for a limited run release on Confront Recordings around that time.

TONUS’ latest album ‘Analog Deviation’ gets a beautiful review from Ken Waxman over at Jazz Word (Canada). The album is of course available from our store.

“Under the rubric of creative improvised music a variety of sonic notions can be expressed even if the instrumentation and inspirations arise from similar circumstances. Abstract and pointed, Tonus’ two improvisations encompass tonal ambiguity and rhythmic transformation as the trio members languidly stretch out their distinct response to free form challenges. The band is Belgians, guitarist Dirk Serries and pianist Martina Verhoeven, who singly or together have worked internationally with among many others Charlotte Keeffe and José Lencastre; while the UK’s Benedict Taylor, playing viola and broken fiddle, has worked with Paul Dunmall and Alexander Hawkins. Before Verhoeven’s inner string strums and soundboard echoes from the piano are finally obvious about 10 minutes into the improvisation. That’s because Taylor’s arco viola pinches intersect with Serries flat string clanks and frails at the top. The two string players’ flanged strains, rubs and stretches are further emphasized as the pianist’s rolling patterns provide a complementary bass line. The subtle timbral transformations are further emphasized as an adagio slide finds isolated guitar picking prominent among elevated and basement shakes from piano pitches. The trio’s slightly longer “Outbound” confirms Tonus’ identification as a string trio combining discordant fiddle rubs, bottleneck-like guitar frails and massed inner piano string shakes. Additional percussion arises from Verhoeven smacking the piano’s wood and Serries doing the same on his guitar’s body as Taylor brings out his broken fiddle to screech dog whistle-like strains as the exposition speeds up. Reaching a sequence of group tension so intense that imminent string breakage is suggested, intermittent passing tones finally connect individual split tones. First suggested by Serries’ mandolin-like frails and Verhoeven’s keyboard thumps, eventually Taylor’s elevated rubs propel a final sequence that that is as imbued with intermittency as improvisation.” Jazz Word – Canada