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We had a blast in Edinburgh with our 4 bands!
From 7 to 9 February, 10 concerts all over Edinburgh showed us that the current Brussels jazz scene is alive and kicking! 4 of our bands - Aka Moon, Antoine Pierre URBEX & Echoes of Zoo & ESINAM - hit the stages in The Jazz Bar or St. Bride's Centre. The Scottish audience loved it! And so did the international press:
EN
"The weekend’s most arresting set came courtesy of veteran trio Aka Moon who are fast approaching their 30th anniversary. It had been almost a decade since many of the Belgian visitors had seen them play. This was a vital return, with electric bassist Michel Hatzigeorgiou being notably athletic with his resonant harmonics, alternated with dub basslines. Alto saxophonist Fabrizio Cassol spouted with fleet liquidity, while drummer Stéphane Galland emphasised the dub feel with his splashing rim-shots."
"Starting from a similar point as STRATA, URBEX's sound was a lot cooler and, at times, impressionistic or abstract. The music was a slow-burner, ending up with the appropriately named Closing Off being full of frantic guitar and an angular, jagged sound. Jean-Paul Estiévenart's trumpet had an open, spacey sound, reminiscent of Tomasz Stanko.
Drummer Antoine Pierre's band ends up sounding like avant garde post bop,
with quirky time signatures belying a strong groove."
NL
"Sinds korte tijd behoort Echoes of Zoo tot een van de toonaangevende baanbrekers. Met de onlangs verschenen debuut-ep ‘First Provocations’ hebben ze een intrigerend visitekaartje in handen. In de Jazzbar van Edinburgh kwam hun caleidoscopische mengvorm van ritmen, grooves en Ethiopische invloeden volledig tot zijn recht."
"Wat valt er nog te vertellen over een topact als Aka Moon? Bij elke cd
en elk optreden overtreffen ze zichzelf. [...] Hun polyritmiek, technische superioriteit en doorgedreven mix van assertiviteit en melodische details blijft telkens verrassen.
Hoofdtroef is de chemie van een jarenlange vriendschap."
FR
"Esinam, seule en scène avec sa flûte, ses percussions et son appareil électronique,
une musique qui colle parfaitement à l’ambiance fin de soirée de ce genre de lieu,
plus d’un spectateur y allant de mouvements de danse frénétiques, histoire de
visualiser ce que signifie le délire à l’écossaise !"
"Programmé en quintet, « URBEX » a littéralement soufflé le public à la fois par la créativité des compositions du leader, l’interactivité constante entre musiciens et… le sens de l’humour d’Antoine Pierre dont les commentaires collaient à merveille à l’humour british."
Even the Polish Laboratorium Muzycznych Fuzji was praising all our bands and the festival. Read their article here.
We want to thank everyone for the glorifying words and for being a part of this amazing experience!
