A duo of free and spaciously building exchanges between Dutch drummer George Hadow (Zwerv, The Blue Lines Trio) and Belgian guitarist Dirk Serries (A New Wave of Jazz), in an extended dialog of great technical skills and creative use of their instruments, performing live at the 2021 JazzBlast event held in the chapel Groels Kapel in Bocholt, Belgium.
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George Hadow-drums
Dirk Serries-guitar
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UPC: 5609063407228
Label: Creative Sources
Catalog ID: cs722
Squidco Product Code: 31308
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded live at Groels Kapel, in Bocholt, Belgium, on September 4th, 2021, by Dirk Serries.
"While the Belgian guitarist Dirk Serries, as an ambient/drone/noise musician, controlled his sounds to perfection, as an improviser he is an eternal seeker, audibly and visibly trying to find new ways and sounds - however small - and immediately to give. In his first free improvisational years he did this on the electric guitar, but for some time now an acoustic guitar has been his most faithful musical friend. Serries also tries to extract sounds from that instrument that he has not yet discovered, with his fingers or hands, but also with accessories if the music asks for it.
Recently two CDs were released on which Serries can be heard as a duo.INSTOCK The first is a live recording by the guitarist in collaboration with drummer George Hadow, the second is a recording with the Belgian double bassist Peter Jacquemyn. This also concerns a registration of a live performance. Both releases show how well Serries' eternal quest works in combination with two very different musicians.
George Hadow is from England but he operates from Amsterdam. He studied with Han Bennink and Michael Moore and he is a member of the Blue Lines Trio, The Bertch Quartet, the Xavier Pamplona Septet, Zwerv and Kuhn Fu, among others. Chapel is not the first collaboration with Serries, because three years ago Ideal Principle was published by a quintet that consisted, in addition to Hadow and Serries, of John Dikeman, Luís Vicente and Martina Verhoeven. It is also not the first duo CD of the two, because Outermission was already released in 201 , on which Serries played electric guitar.
That is not the case now and that has a major influence on the sound of the duo. Another difference with the previous duo album is that the music is not divided into eleven fairly short improvisations, but contains one long improvisation. The music of the two is not large, but is located in the small space and also comes into its own in a small space. As always, Serries is searching. That search is what it's all about. In addition, the guitarist has a trained ear for small nuances.
Hadow is, as you can hear on this album, an ideal sparring partner. He also doesn't think big, but in sounds, small sounds that can make the difference. The music is not always loud. That doesn't mean the music is good. Certainly not. Even at a low volume it can get unruly and angular. The music is not for everyone and it takes a lot of guts to make music like this, although the musicians will not consider it as guts but as a pure necessity. They must make this music; it's urgent. That is what this music radiates in the small space and in that sense makes it great.
The album was recorded in the Groels Kapel in Bocholt, Belgium, and if the recording is representative of how the live performance sounded, then that chapel has beautiful acoustics. Opduvel often has a preference for the electric guitar over the acoustic guitar, but with Serries it is exactly the other way around. The different sounds seem to distinguish better acoustically and thus come into their own better.
Serries is still growing as a guitarist and he manages to add more and more variation in his playing, whereby it seems that he often lets the tones resound a little longer. Perhaps that is also the influence that Hadow's dazzling and inventive drumming has on his way of playing. The drummer plays freely, with virtually no repetitions and using his entire drum kit. His playing with brushes is beautiful, which invites Serries to fabricate short experimental sounds on his guitar, which contrasts nicely with the rustling sound of the drums. At other times, the two musicians find each other in more intense passages, in which the guitarist scratches and scrapes and the drummer shaves his toms and hits edges.
The music can create a buzz of interest, but both musicians are also adept at creating tension under the skin, when the volume is dampened, the tempo drops and the music seems to be being played from silence. You know that the musical mood can change at any moment, you just don't know when. Hadow and Serries are constantly busy not only challenging each other, but also the listener with new discoveries, new timbres and changes in intensity. Even at the end, at a moment when you would think that the ideas would run out or the musicians would be tired, the duo surprises with a few high-pitched beeps, new sounds that come up spontaneously and serve as an excellent finish. Thus ends the exciting improvisation, which can be regarded as a sound investigation bursting with ideas."-OpDuvel, translated by Google
Get additional information at Opduvel
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for George Hadow "George Hadow represents the newest wave of improvisers to hit the Dutch scene. Like many of the active newcomers, George is an expat, hailing from Devon in the UK. George first came to the Netherlands in 2011 to take part in the Dutch Impro Academy, where he studied with Han Bennink and Michael Moore, among others. He has quickly developed into a mature musician, playing with acute sensitivity as well as unbridled power. The list of regular groups with whom he performs is impressive for its scale and diversity: The Blue Lines Trio, Mulligan - Baker Project, Terrie Ex/Raoul van der Weide/George Hadow, Aya ba yaya, Almeida/Dikeman/Hadow, Molino, Galm Quartet. George has also collaborated with Andy Moor, Roy Paci, Anne-James Chaton and Joe Williamson, The Ex and Cactus Truck as well as countless ad hoc combinations." ^ Hide Bio for George Hadow • Show Bio for Dirk Serries "Since his first releases in the early 80s, uncompromising Belgian artist Dirk Serries has garnered respect from and invitations to collaborate with recognised musicians like Steven Wilson, Steve Von Till, Justin Broadrick, Cult Of Luna and Alan Sparhawk of Low. He has been commisioned to write works for Dutch national television broadcaster VPRO, the Antwerp Zoo as well as architectural festival Biënnale Rotterdam and worked on stage with the Holland Symfonia orchestra. His discography encompasses stylistically diverse releases on labels like Relapse, Projekt, Conspiracy as well as his current creative partner Tonefloat, an outfit with years of experience in vinyl editions for acts like Porcupine Tree, Robert Fripp, Theo Travis and Anja Garbarek. Over the past thirty years, he has toured extensively through Europe and the USA and performed at some of experimental music's major venues and concert spaces, as headliner or in support of Low, Mono, My Bloody Valentine, Jesu and others. Dirk Serries never shied away from collaborations with Justin Broadrick, Steve Roach, Sam Rosenthal, Alio Die, Theo Travis, David Lee Myers, Asmus Tietchens, Stratosphere, Serge Devadder, Willem Tanke or under seperate entities like The Sleep Of Reason (with Jon Attwood), Continuum (with Steven Wilson), Principle Of Silence (with Joris De Backer), The Eightfold Model (with Michael Beckett), Akhet (with Marc Verhaeghen, Paul Van Den Berg), 3 Seconds Of Air (with Martina Verhoeven, Paul Van Den Berg) and The Black Fire (with Robert MacManus). After bringing his projects vidnaObmana (1984-2005) and Fear Falls Burning (2005-2012) to a satisfying conclusion, Serries no longer considers it necessary to hide behind alter egos. Confident enough to operate under his own name, he is continuing his ongoing search for uncharted territory while keeping in mind the essence which made him want to work with sound in the first place. Fascinated by the power of purity, he has built a reputation for building a personal galaxy of harmony and dissonance through dense caleidoscopes of slowly unfolding motives. His upcoming second microphonics-album is a further refinement of this approach. Eschewing stereotypical genre exercises, Serries refuses to be labeled as a guitarist, weilding his instrument in a way which never denies its original tonal colours while bringing out the unique intimacy of his music. Released in 2008, Serries's debut studio album under his own name was all about analog warmth and natural acoustics. For his second full-length and in a bid of creating the perfect sonic space, he has now taken on the challenge of engaging in a dialogue with digital processing. Lyricaly titled 'microphonics xxi - xxv - mounting among the the wings, there's a light in vein. the burden of hope across thousands of rivers', the album was released to critical acclaim in March 2013 on renowned Dutch label Tonefloat as a CD and double 10″ vinyl. The sobriety of his studio work is mirrored by Serries's philosophy to performing live, based on the concept that music should be heard, not seen. Focussed like a monk immersed in prayer, he is performing his music almost in complete darkness and entirely in real-time, making use of both electric amplification and the natural resonance of the room and taking the particular characteristics of each venue into consideration. This way, not a single gig sounds the same as the night before. While writing the follow-up to his second microphonics solo album, his ongoing fascination for jazz for more than 15 years solidified in 2011 when he was invited by improv and jazz musicians Kristoffer Lo and Tomas Järmyr to form YODOK III. Recording their debut album, completely performed real-time, at the legendary Athletic Sound Studio in Halden (Norway), brought projects in a rapid stream and on the right track. Teaming up with both musicians, in their trio format and with Tomas Järmyr on drums as duo THE VOID OF EXPANSION, Serries collaborates as well with Belgian jazzdrummer Teun Verbruggen as ART OF COSMIC MUSINGS and goes into a duel with Dead Neanderthals, Cactus Truck's American sax player John Dikeman and Dutch drummer Onno Govaert, UK saxophonist Colin Websters, UK drummers Andrew Lisle and Steve Noble. Born was Tonefloat's New Wave Of Jazz and the future foresees no boundaries, 30 years and onwards." ^ Hide Bio for Dirk Serries
11/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
11/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
1. Chapel 49:43
Creative Sources
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Duo Recordings
Guitarists, &c.
Percussion & Drums
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