Encounters

So I had all these recordings on my hard drive that won’t be used for a record, but do show what i consider to be an important part of my work. I’d like  to share some of them here. They are encounters in a very broad sense, often meeting the first time on stage, and trying to find a new musical geography with not much of a preconcept on the other musician. An open mind and liquid intensions. And a lot of trust in the unknown and each other. This is one of my favourite musical places to be, even before the first note is even played. Even more when it’s just about to be played. I hope you enjoy!

The first piece I’d like to feature here is a duo concert I played with an amazing musician, Thomas Rohrer, of swiss origin, now living in Sao Paolo. He plays a traditional brazilian bowed string instrument, the Rabeca. As well as having some impressive solo work and etnomusicological adventures, Thomas is a  part of the trail-blazing free improvisation group Abaetetuba.

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This next one is a ad hoc gig we played in our little Amsterdam living room venue, Zaal 100. On stage where our guest from Australia, Mike Majowski on bass, Eric Boeren on trumpet, Marcos Baggiani on drums, Oscar-Jan Hoogland on piano and myself on guitar. I think Ron Ruiten did a great job recording this gig as it’s one of the nicer recordings I hear from the space. For some reason my role ended up being the one that destroys everything beautiful that’s about to happen, but sometimes that’s just how it needs to be 🙂 I hope you enjoy!

Another encounter. I really like Ab and Michael. A bit of a weird gig with a bit of weird, wonky music. We’re going to play more, that is a certainty.

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This one dates from spring 2011 i think. We had the opportunity in my favorite venue in Den Haag, Loos Studio. While my our former experiences with Yedo Gibson in the city included getting kicked out of the prominent jazz club De Pater for playing the ‘wrong music’, this time we came back with a vengeance. Joining us where the amazing Luc Ex on bass and Michael Watcher, his old sparring mate. Mixed by Gijz Borstlap. This is about as heavy as it gets!