This Sunday, August 21st, saxophonist COLIN WEBSTER invites some of his friends and frequent collaborators to form his Large Ensemble. Most of them familiar to followers of our label but in group this is the first time and overwhelming it will be. Join Colin’s tribe at Cafe OTO, London, 2pm (matinee show!). Tickets and all info you can here.

Known critic EYAL HAREUVENI just wrote a lovely review for SALT PEANUTS (Norway) on SERRIES/THOMPSON/VERHOEVEN’s Today And All The Tomorrow album. The album is available through our bandcamp store.

“Today And All The Tomorrows brings together three free improvisers with singular voices – Belgian guitarist Dirk Serries, the head of the label A New Wave of Jazz, his partner in life and music double bass player Martina Verhoeven (who is also a pianist) and British guitarist Daniel Thompson, who recorded before for A New Wave of Jazz but this is his first recording with Serries and Verhoeven. The album was recorded at the Sunny Side Inc. Studio in Anderlecht on August 2019. Guy Peters, who writes the liner notes to all the A New Wave of Jazz, compares this album to «cinematic experiments that disband linear narratives and opt for less traditional ways of telling a story, by displaying a mood or addressing a theme». No doubt, there is nothing traditional in the intimate dynamics of «Today And All The Tomorrows», and Serries, Thompson and Verhoeven do not attempt to play the acoustic guitars and the double bass in any familiar roles and voices. Verhoeven acts here as the central force that anchors the restless, inquisitive conversations of Serries and Thompson, with timely and precise playing, and all sound eager to take risks and explore fast-shifting dynamics and textures. Peters calls this guitar duo «a slightly deranged parody of rock n’ roll twin guitar attack» and captures some of the ironic elements of Serries and Thompson’s playing and the importance of surprise in the trio dynamics. The intense, physical playing is integrated beautifully with the sparse but deep listening spirit of this meeting and calls for much more sonic adventures of this great trio.”

VITAL WEEKLY just reviewed our two newest releases, in our new line of limited cassettes. Both tapes are still available of course as they are officially released next Saturday August 20th.

“Following many CDs, the Belgium imprint A New Wave Of Jazz released a few LPs, and now they are expanding to the world of cassettes. I am unsure if there is a particular reason to switch to cassettes, and I won’t speculate. The first cassette is a sort of split release. Dirk Serries, with his archtop guitar, appears on both sides. On side A, he duets with Anton Mobin and his well-known prepared chamber and on the other side with Quentin Stokart on guitar and amplifier. Nine pieces with Mobin and seven with Stokart. In case you wondered, Wiki can help you with the meaning of the word ‘Stochastic’: “Stochastic refers to the property of being well described by a random probability distribution. Although stochasticity and randomness are distinct in that the former refers to a modelling approach and the latter refers to phenomena themselves, these two terms are often used synonymously. Furthermore, in probability theory, the formal concept of a stochastic process is also referred to as a random process.” The prepared chamber is a box of amplified objects and, as such,
something that works very well with Serries’ playing of the guitar; not too chaotic but very much improvised and there is lots of room for little accidents. Please sit down and play and record the proceedings. The outcome is not decided in advance, but let’s see what happens. That is the approach of Serries and Mobin in a fine duelling duet of acoustic sounds and a guitar. Most of the time, it sounds very much like electro-acoustic music, but then without the electrics. The amplifier used by Stokart indeed might play a role in his duet with Serries, but I fail to hear it. These seven pieces are obviously two guitars and are less electro-acoustic. Here too, there are certain chaotic elements to be noted, but it is also a bit more traditional improvised music, music of the variety that this label has a lot of. These seven pieces are short and to the point, leaping forward, restraint and joyous. A bundle of emotions, I’d say. Lovely stuff!
The other cassette contains a duet between Colin Webster (alto saxophone), a New Wave Of Jazz regular, and Matthew Grigg (guitar, amplifier), whom we heard once before (Vital Weekly 1040). They recorded their music in a single day, following which Serries did the mixing and mastering. I am sure this mixing didn’t interfere with the order of the music; I believe it instead has to do with putting the right balance between these instruments. The eight pieces on this cassette offer some more radical free improvisation music. The alto saxophone is easily recognized, and Webster plays it most chaotic. The guitar is something else. I have no idea how Grigg plays his instrument, but it is barely recognizable as a guitar. I think he mutes his strings and creates mainly a scratching sound. This way of playing instruments results in quite a nerve-wracking spiel between the two players. This cassette lasts fifty minutes, and it is quite a ride; it is a wild but most exhausting one. Indeed, the music has the most overwhelming
quality when played at a maximum volume. But I don’t see any other way to enjoy this music except at total volume. Perhaps, at times a bit too much free improvisation for me, but I enjoyed the sheer brutality here. “

What a feature on A NEW WAVE OF JAZZ and the related releases on the most recent episode of GENE BULMER’s Ambient Landscape. Just enjoy this beautifully constructed episode wailing through most of the recent albums on our label and other albums by affiliated artists like Asmus Tietchens, Guilherme Rodrigues and Dirk Serries. Epic.

Proud to share that BBC 3’s excellent FREENESS radioshow featured two of our label releases in their latest episode. RENNIE/ROBERTS/SERRIES’ Translucence and the recent COLIN WEBSTER & MATTHEW GRIGG’ Good To Be Back In Reality. Both albums are still available from our bandcamp store. Listen to this excellent episode, exquisitely hosted by Corey Mwamba.