Tumult is the living proof that the Amsterdam improvised music scene is alive and kicking. The new international scene draws onjazz-, impro-, contemporary-, noise-, rock- and en punk improv. They freely experiment on small, musician run venues in the Dutch capital, and play in each other’s bands. From those creative hotbeds the eleven groups have arisen that have now joined forces in Tumult:
In spite of the various differences in the musical designs of the bands, there is one common denominator: the desire to make distinctive and independent music, in which the musicians compose and improvise with no holds barred, and no genre division is sacred. Free improvisation may exist alongside tightly composed elements, heavy noise may interchange with charming quietude and jagged abstraction with (almost) recognizable tunes. The only criterion that all groups apply is that of their own, inimitable identity, not guided by copycat behavior or retro trends, nor solely aimed at pleasing the audience. This results in raw, rugged sounds rather than in mellifluous niceties. Tumult should be heard, and it will do all it takes to achieve this goal.
jan mikael szafirowski 