Part One
Part Two

Martina Verhoeven : piano

Performed, recorded, mixed and mastered at the Sunny Side Inc Studio (Anderlecht, Belgium) on January 6th, 2022.

https://newwaveofjazz.bandcamp.com/album/catharsis

“I realize I am in a privileged position. Hearing releases before they are out there means I can think of ways to talk or write about these albums in relative peace (deadlines are another matter). Even more interesting is being able to keep track of what a bunch of musicians are doing in their individual and shared trajectories. This label has set sail for a rather specific course with its releases, but within that field of music, there is a wide variety. It depends on the setting and specific combination of musicians, but also of the place where a musician is, or wants to be, at that moment.
Self-taught musician Martina Verhoeven is surely one of the most interesting examples. She already had some experience as a musician before the start of this label in 2014, but her first steps as an improviser were documented here. Originally, she performed on bass, but it did not take long for her to switch to piano, on Innocent As Virgin Wood (2017), a duo recording with Dirk Serries that thrived on the use of space. Similarly, her first released piano solo music, a long cd-track that accompanied her photo book Gratitude, worked within the delicate frame of a post- minimalist grace.
There were some meaningful steps along the way (I’m thinking of Impetus, with Serries and Kris Vanderstraeten, Cure And Mound with Anton Mobin, and the meeting with Onno Govaert on Twofold), but the most direct connection to Catharsis might be the recently released rollercoaster ride
of Driven (Live At Roadburn 2022) by the Martina Verhoeven Quintet. That is where you find that peculiar kind of energy also present in these recordings. Two entirely different settings – solo in a studio vs. on a stage with a band – but the same energy is there.
This is not to suggest that Verhoeven was missing anything on previous albums, on the contrary. She has always approached the music with a refreshing lack of convention, but it seems that she did not only find a new confidence, but is also willing to share it. The muscular fervor of the Roadburn performance (actually recorded three months after this) is mirrored in the short, spidery blurts that kick off the first piece, the rolling thunder of the second one and the album’s overall spirit. It is the voice of an artist who realized it takes a lot of courage to go out there all alone, but perhaps even more so to do it with such abundance and generosity.
There is something unfiltered and boisterous about this recording, as if a withheld urge finally gets free reign. The music jumps all over the place, using the entire range of the ivory, with sizzling arpeggios, red hot repetitions and fierce wanderings into unknown territory. But most of all, there is this unstoppable thrust, indeed a sheer cathartic force, for which I can find no better term than pure joyfulness. She is flying on this one.”
Guy Peters