Various Artists — Martina Verhoeven Invites
Here’s a CD release of a set recorded in London’s Café Oto in 2023. It finds this Belgian pianist inviting a selection of kindred spirits and collaborators to create two slices of eventful and often dense improv.
The CD comes presented in a mini white gatefold. On its outside, we have two abstract/ colourful paintings of the players. Inside, we find minimal black text on a plain white backdrop. The album can be purchased directly here
The players here are: Martina Verhoeven: grand piano. Andrew Lisle: drums
Benedict Taylor: viola. Cath Roberts: baritone sax. Charlotte Keeffe: trumpet
Colin Webster: alto sax. Daniel Thompson: acoustic guitar. Dirk Serries: electric guitar. Tom Jackson: clarinet. Tom Ward: bass clarinet & flute.
The release features two sets- the first comes in around twenty-six minutes, and the second around the forty-three-minute mark.
Set One opens in a decidedly ominous and busy state, with a chaotic, yet gloomily sneering blend of baying horns, crashing ‘n’ darting percussion, guitar scuttles, and grimly darting keys. At around the sixteenth minute, we get this great sawing/ baying expanded crescendo, where the crystal clear recording makes it possible to hear individual instrument detail in the thick mesh of sound. In the last few minutes, we find a splendid chaos of banging keys, fiery baying horn work, and various cluttering instrumentation.
Set Two begins with a rather horn & percussion forward feel, with cascading flows of drum crashes, manic cymbal runs, and searing horn wails/ forks. In time, rapid flows of manic piano notation are added, as well as more piercing horn highs. At around the nineteen-minute mark, we return to the more gloomy 'n' searing feel of the first track with lumbering and forlorn horns, though these are overhung by screeching scrub & high-end saw. Towards the end of the track, we drop into a blend of tolling strums, sinster angular horn flows, and sawing bays.
If you like your improv dense and often busy, with fiery to moody undercurrents, I’d say Martina Verhoeven Invites will appeal. Not sure how many of these CDs were pressed, but I’d imagine not a huge amount, so if this is your type of thing, act sooner rather than later.