Belgian radioshow WUNDERKAMMER already paid attention to our label more than once, so thank you for that support. Here in their latest episode they play a piece from COLIN WEBSTER & ANDREW LISLE’s NEW INVENTION cd. The album is still available from our website or bandcamp store.

The wait has been long but finally this Saturday the first of hopefully many to come, organised by the great Jazzblazzt, is a duo concert of Gonçalo Almeida & Dirk Serries. Of both artists we released their solo album on vinyl early this year so you can expect a melange of both their individual styles and a first time get together in duo.

Saturday June 5th, open air at OZO Land (Neeritter, The Netherlands), limited seating, doors open at 7pm, concert starts 8pm.
Get your reservation by emailing Jazzblazzt

Our PORTAMENTO episode for May is available online. On this episode we focused on the excellent music of Maria De Alvear, which balances beautiful between the strict minimalism and extrovert composing and performing, mostly on piano. Listen here.

For Nordic’ SALT PEANUTS critic Eyal Hareuveni wrote a lovely review on ‘ONE IN THE EYE’, the double disc release of ALAN WILKINSON & DIRK SERRIES. Still available here and here.

“Journalist Guy Peters imagines the free-improvised meeting of British reeds master Alan Wilkinson and Belgian guitarist Dirk Serries to action painting, «an arena in which to act – rather than as a space in which to reproduce, redesign, analyze or ‘express’ an object, actual or imagined». Likewise, according to Peters’ liner notes for «One in the Eye», the sound is abstract, so why not embrace it, and focus on the range of sounds, extended techniques, density, dynamics and the here and now.

«One in the Eye» is a double album. The first disc was recorded at the Sunny Side Inc. Studio in Anderlecht in Belgium in November 2019. The second disc was recorded live two months later during A New Wave Of Jazz festival at the Hundred Years Gallery in London in January 2020. Serries plays on both discs on acoustic guitars and this choice of instrument forced Wilkinson to adapt his sonic palette-  on the bass clarinet, baritone and alto saxes, to the sonic spectrum of the guitar.

The pieces in the studio recording are urgent and dense, explore an array of extended techniques and different modes of energy and intensity, sometimes quite playful («In The Long Run») and at other times even abrasive, but all flow naturally and stress the immediate affinity between Wilkinson and Serries. «In The Here and Now» surprises with its lyrical melody and its quiet contemplative spirit and «The Stings Of The Flesh» relies totally on Wilisnson and Serries extended techniques and on «Pull The Other One» Wilkinson employs his voice (alongside the baritone sax) as an exotic and passionate instrument, matches beautifully by Serries’ rhythmic guitar playing. All these pieces are remarkably cohesive.

The two live improvisations are, as expected, are longer. Despite the time that has passed since the studio recording, these improvisations still highlight the immediate, organically flowing interplay. «HYG 1» is quite playful and rhythmic even in its most abstract and tense segments. «HYG 2» introduces first a mysterious vein when Serries explores Far-Eastern sonorities while Wilkinson suggests gentle, meditative lines, but soon Serries and Wilkinson settle again on loose and inventive rhythmic games.

Adventurous, insightful but highly engaging.”