Mark Lewandowski (bass), Liam Noble (piano) and Paul Clarvis (drums). All known for innovation, musicianship and humour. This is a tribute to another musician who had all those attributes – Fats Waller.
Bureau of Atomic Tourism
Jozef Dumoulin – fender rhodes (BELGIUM)
Jon Irabagon – sax (USA)
Hilmar Jensson – guitar (ICELAND)
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – bass (NORWAY)
Good luck finding an appropriate genre label for Teun Verbruggen’s Bureau Of Atomic Tourism. While the sextet delves headfirst into abstract free improvisation that abandons all conventional takes on musicalnotions such as melody, harmony and rhythm at one point, you witness them raging like a well-oiled outfit with years of experience the next. The front section of Jon Irabagon (saxophone) and Magnus Broo (trumpet) covers the entire stylistic range from muscular solos to extended techniques, and is often joined by guitarist Hilmar Jensson, who makes his instrument sing mysteriously, places poignant accents or rages with an equal eagerness. Initially the unpredictable improv may sound like an abstract sound poem, but this switches quickly to first dazzling freak-outs in the New York avant-garde tradition or even throbbing fusion with a nod to Miles Davis’ electric era, before ultimately arriving at muscular jazzrock in the vein of The Lounge Lizards and Belgium’s X-Legged Sally, with ultra-tight themes, subtly introduced electronics and turbulent dynamics.And what to think of the unstoppable groove of the Flaten/Verbruggen rhythm section and the musical action painting of Jozef Dumoulin on Fender Rhodes? What could have either been a failed jump into thedeep end or a haphazard performance with the handbrakes on, here leads to a powerful achievement, executed with discipline and the will to incorporate the outer edges of improvised music….’
