Classical Music

Classical Music

2014 second album from the Dutch jazz trio. Buzz.

This release is the second album of the Pieter Bast European Standards Project. It is an album full of personal thoughts, ideas, experiences and memories of each of the band-members, which resulted in eight beautiful stories. The songs have elements of African music, contemporary jazz and bebop, while also giving reference to the "Electric" period of Miles Davis during the 70s and 80s. This is highly intense music, full of tenderness and desire, but also sometimes rough, heavy and exciting with a unique frontline of trumpet and trombone. With this release, the group also wanted to express their concern for today's world. At a time when many people are looking for a safe environment and hoping for a better future, they are also experiencing danger and resistance. This release is meant as a counterweight to the misery caused by mankind itself. A powerful, positive, and hopeful sound for the future.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

After celebrating their 15th anniversary in September 2014, the excellent Matangi Quartet presents a new CD featuring their extraordinary combination of classical and jazz, with several world premiere recordings Jazzics! Is an ode to jazz, from a classical point of view.

"Over the last few years, I have composed music for many literary concerts, where writers tell their story live and I create a musical scenario based on the story. I then arranged some of these compositions for the band and took them with me to the studio. All the notes were new to the musicians. Although we had only two days to record everything, I felt certain this would not be an issue, since the band is such a close-knit group. Plus, something special often happens when musicians are still exploring material. And you can hear it, too. The result is a mysterious album featuring layered, richly resonant pieces in which the musicians take turns telling their own musical story." (Corrie van Binsbergen) All compositions on this release were originally composed for stories and poems by famous Dutch writers and guitarist Corrie van Binsbergen. She later arranged her compositions for her "all-star" band VanBinsbergen Playstation.

Drummer Pieter Bast is one of Europe's most resourceful and creative drummers, performing with a wide variety of groups. In the past, he worked with artists including Kenny Wheeler, Charlie Mariano, Eric Vloeimans, Mike Mainieri, and Paul van Kemenade, whom he has joined for various CDs and concerts around the world. Pieter teaches drums at the Brussels Conservatory.

Classical Music

The Old School Band is the latest project of Dutch guitarist/composer Marnix Busstra. Together with his ‘friend for life’ bassplayer Norbert Sollewijn Gelpke he initiated this brand new band. Back in the early 80s they shared their first musical footsteps with the schoolband they played in, now it’s time for the Old School Band. In Marnix Busstra’s latest projects- the cooperation with renowned vibraphonist Mike Mainieri in the Mike Mainieri/Marnix Busstra Quartet, and his modern jazzband Marnix Busstra Band with pianist Rembrandt Freichs- the music was more purely jazzminded. In the Old School Band the focus is on funk! The classic combination of the electric jazzguitar and organ gives the music the sound and flavor you need to make it really funky, and the choice for the most funky musicians you can find in The Netherlands completes the concept. Marnix Busstra wrote nine brand new compositions for this debut album; different tastes, all funky. The recordings are very straight forward, no overdubs or other tricks were used. It’s a pure registration of a band playing ‘live in the studio.’

For jazz pianist Marc von Roon, these recordings are a dream come true. They represent the culmination of almost five decades of exploring, playing, performing, contemplating, constructing, deconstructing, searching, researching, reflecting, engaging in conversations, jamming, sense-making, traveling, instructing, sharing, dreaming and being. For a long time he desired to allow himself full immersion in this genuine kind of improvisational exploration with its invitation to let go of habitual patterns and grooves and to resonate more deeply with the music and her deep generative source: a source that expresses itself in silence and sound so infinitely mysterious. Recording this music has been an invitation to improvise on a tightrope, letting go of preconceived designed and trained artistic conceptualizations and has been a journey to the edge of technique and control with a strong refusal to repeat himself and a keen interest in taking risk and explore unknown territory. As an underlying framework he chose to use the printed keyboard scores of Johann Sebastian Bach. The result is beautiful album in which the listener can discover how to creatively connect the pre-composed orchestrated with the improvised "Jazz" of life to which we are continuously being invited: a "Jazz" that encompasses and integrates both the sorrowful blues and the joyful swing of Jazz and life.

Classical Music

Classical Music

This disc features Bram Stadhouders, one of the most promising jazz guitarists of the Netherlands, and Aart Strootman, a classical music pioneer on guitar. Endless improvisation, composing, and sharing of thoughts have resulted in a very special duo, with a mix of classical and jazz on two acoustic guitars. The album was recorded in the south of the Netherlands in an abandoned monastery, where the peace and spiritual atmosphere contributed to the quality of the music.

2014 hybrid SACD pressing. Buzz.

Classical Music

Bram Stadhouders’ Suite X is a collection of eight baroque music tracks for the present. It is the out of the box thinkers of Baroque Orchestration X (B.O.X), with whom he has entered into this unorthodox alliance. With Suite X, Stadhouders pays tribute to the soothing baroque sound, which he manages to mix with the sound of an electric guitar and synthesizer in a logical and surprising way: once as a soundscape, then in a catchy groove, and last but not least, with intriguing melodies that immediately settle into your head.

The Cologne based Haesen & Breidenbach is a jazz / chansons françaises duo consisting of vocalist Charlotte Haesen and guitarist Philip Breidenbach. Together they effortlessly combine jazz, indie-folk and other musical influences from all over the world into their own heart felt and authentic sound. Haesen & Breidenbach continue to perfect their ability to compose mind bending music and taking their listeners on an unexplored musical journey around the world. Knowing each other for more than fifteen years, it is only in 2019 that Haesen & Breidenbach join forces and start writing music as a duo. The two composers find inspiration in the story telling aspect of music and the cultural baggage it carries. With her crystal clear voice, Charlotte Haesen (born 1987) has already won several prizes, including the "Eu Jazz Award" or the "Concours de la Chanson" of the Alliance Française. In 2010 she completed her jazz vocal studies at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. The German radio station Bayerischer Rundfunk named her last album "Du bout des yeux" one of the most interesting albums of 2018. Today the international press calls her the"(...) future glimmer of hope for jazz from this region" (- JAZZISM) Philip Breidenbach (born 1985) starts playing the guitar at the age of eight and graduated from the Maastricht Conservatory in jazz guitar in 2009. To this day he has worked as a guitarist, composer and producer on more than 30 productions of various genres and travels the world as a performing musician.

Machiel Heremans and Rebekka Van Bockstal, together No Wasabi, is an experimental guitar duo that takes the listeners on a musical trip with loops, echoes and other effects. The two guitar players met each other at the conservatory of Brussels, where they found they shared a passion for composing, effects, free improvisation and sound. These elements are also main aspects in the music of No Wasabi. The self-titled debut album is a powerful but intimate story in which echo plays an important part, partly because the album was recorded in a church. The combination of improvised sketches and composed music blends into a fresh creative collection of songs in which different boundaries are explored.

Shakuar unites vocalists Shishani & Karima el Fillali who perform with a deep sense of intimacy, creating enchanting and transformative music. Their work marks a musical friendship with Western classical music, 90s R&B and Hip-Hop. Growing up in European & African households, they also share a parallel quest for the musical roots of their African parents. For Karima this path led to an introspective journey to Morocco, and for Shishani to her country of birth, Namibia. Shakuar challenges the notion of separate identities and cultural divides. The collaboration between Shakuar and the Residentie Orkest began in 2020. The concert took place on September 12, 2020 in The New Church (Nieuwe Kerk) in The Hague, built in 1649. A historic place of worship transformed into the scenery for a contemporary musical ritual grounded in intimacy despite the physical borders.

Although instrumental, the music on Descending is heavily inspired by movies from the 70s/early 80s and addresses themes of nostalgia, grief, identity, hauntology, psychedelics, the occult and supernatural.  Rich cinematic melodic electronica. The album has been recorded over a ten year stretch and will be released with an accompanying visual album reconfiguring existing footage into new narratives. All tracks are written, performed, and mixed by Thomas Heijmans.