Quat @ Rex, Ring Ring Festival 19 May 2012

A smashing classical free imrov set from some of the hardest core veterans of this music in Europe. Van Hove and Lovens have invented this stuff for what it's worth and Blumen and Wandeweyer have not been selected to accompany them in Quat on good looks alone. The set, following Sonore's smashing performance was a total victory for uncompromising, non-idiomatic free improv with awesome dynamic range and some genuine collective composition. Whoever said this music has no groove? From press release: Els Vandeweyer Fred van Hove Martin Blume Paul Lovens vibraphone piano drums, percussions drums, percussions Pianist Fred Van Hove is one of the pioneers of improvised music. Not quite jazz, not really classical, Van Hove's music has elements of both, but manages to transcend those classifications to create a genre all its own. Van Hove's virtuosity brings to his music an almost impossibly broad range of influences, clear echoes of Erroll Gardner, Arnold Schoenberg, Lennie Tristano, Cecil Taylor and othersn uncommon and tantalizing combination. He has performed with most of the world's improv musicians in a variety of combinations: solo, duo, trio and large ensembles. Van Hove studied musical theory, harmony and piano in Belgium. He began an association with saxophonist Peter Brötzmann in 1966, playing on his early quartet and sextet recordings including 1968's Machine Gun album, and then as part of a trio with Brötzmann and drummer Han Bennink. Van Hove has played in a number of combinations with musicians like Steve Lacy, Lol Coxhill, Albert Mangelsdorff, Vinko Globokar and Joelle Leandre. In 1973 he founded the WIM, a musicians collective which organized the Free Music Festival in Antwerpe. Els Vandeweyer is a Belgian vibraphonist and composer currently living in Berlin, where she explores the middle ground between classical, jazz, and free improvised music. After studying classical percussion at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp and jazz at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and Musikhogskule in Oslo, Vandeweyer traveled to Portugal, where she co-founded the IMI Kollektief (whose critically acclaimed debut album, ..Snug as a Gun.., was released on Clean Feed in 2006), as well as Chicago, where she played with Ken Vandermark, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Kent Kessler, and Tim Daisy. In Berlin, Vandeweyer remains heavily involved in the improvised music community. Current projects include work with Ute Wassermann, Georg Graewe, Tobias Delius, Tristan Honsinger, children's theater projects and solo performance. Martin Blume has worked as a composer and performer since 1983 with several musicians and in different musical situations, both as a collaborator and in leading his own groups including musicians like Johannes Bauer, Phil Minton, Phil Wachsmann, John Butcher, Marcio Mattos, Thomas Lehn and Frank Gratkowski. His work is at present documented on more then 20 CD`s. Martin Blume's playing is characterised by a gossamer aesthetic, whose drive is not just his own rhythmic energy but above all the accord with the other instrumentalists. Paul Lovens played the drums as a child. Self-taught, from the age of 14 he played in groups of various jazz styles and popular musics and from 1969 has worked almost exclusively as an improvisor on individually selected instruments. He has worked internationally with most of the leading musicians in free jazz and free improvisation, among whom have included the Globe Unity Orchestra, the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, the Schlippenbach Trio, Quintet Moderne, Company, and a duo with Paul Lytton. He has undertaken concert tours in more than 40 countries, is a founder member of a musician's cooperative and has produced recordings for his own label, Po Torch Records since 1976. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Van_Hove http://www.myspace.com/elsvandeweyerhttp://www.martinblume.de http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lovens

Added 3 Apr 2026