DESCRIPTION:
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