Jan KUIJKEN - Vertigo

The cellist / pianist whose unpronounceable name appears on UNIVERS ZERO leader Daniel Denis' solo recordings, offers here ten compositions commissioned for ballet, produced by one of today's premiere labels (run by ex-UZ members Guy Segers, and Alan Ward).
These headly instrumental works will quickly separate the men from the boys. To lighten the load KUIJKEN alternates the color spectrum often: string quartets are contrasted by solo works for piano or clarinet, and further developped by combining the latter two with the strings, or simply cello.
Ignorance renders it difficult for me to make comparisons; our readers' unfamiliarity furthermore precludes the usual "sound just like..." tradition. But I won't let that stop me! So let me cite Boulez and George Crumb as the nearest points of reference that come to mind.
Though redolent of dark rumblings in the night, this music does have a lighter side, which shows up in the humor KUIJKEN brings to it. He has compromised zilch in the execution of his music (didn't have to: he had government funding) by coaxing impeccable performances out of such obviously world-class professionals, all of whom could easily sit in with any famous orchestra.
It's a pleasure at least to hear real acoustic instruments, rather than samplers. For those with little interest Vertigo would probably sound the same every time. But a knowledgeable fan could listen 50 times and each time would be as hearing it anew. It all adds up to a full banquet of post-modern academic music.

USA - EXPOSE - Michael EZZO

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Jan KUIJKEN - Vertigo

Vertigo is the second album by the Belgian composer Jan KUIJKEN, an artist whose music I have known since his first release called Louise Avenue. On this album, KUIJKEN works over tunes composed for 3 dance performances of Karine Ponties:

Brutalis - (2002) tracks 1-2
Capture D'un Caillot - (2001) tracks 3-8-9-10
Les Taroupes - (2000) tracks 4-6-7
The music is a cross between contermporary avantgarde chamber rock and classical music - completely mixed together with a result that is very precise (I am very attracted by this kind of experimentation). There are moments in which cellos are used as percussion in dialog with violins who are playing tensioned dark melodies. I cannot think of a better way to feel a cold breeze up the arm...

At times the music is like a wood in winter, cold, heavy air, white smoke from the mouth, wet.... At some moments you can hear sort of bird in the backgrounds doing strange melodies, a clarinet, a flute ...wind. The piano starts verticle spirals, starting running, need more oxygen! But. Air remains dense.

Vertigo can recall the Belgian tradition of chamber rock and actual promoters of this "avant -school" (but always taken in a precise situation).

When I first heard this album I was lying on the bed and tring to relax.... At first this worked our fine because I didn't know how the music would develop and so it can remain far from your attention as there are tensioned silences in between the album - pain atmosphere. Ager 10 listenings of Vertigo I started to breath it and it's clearly and incredible programme. This is to be recommended to anybody who is interested in the "avant-chamber" and who are oriented towards a love for experimentation. Be sure to pay attention to instruments and context when listening.

Italy - PROG GNOSIS - Valerio REINA

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Jan KUIJKEN - Vertigo

KUIJKEN is a ‘New Music’ composer published by Brussels-based Carbon-7, home to AKA MOON, SLANG, and a host of other obscure rock, avant jazz and modern classical artists.
A cellist and pianist, KUIJKEN penned the ten compositions found here for three separate dance performance showcases; these have henceforth been retooled for this package.
KUIJKEN is joined by a quintet of conservatory-trained players who add violins, clarinets, flutes, viola, and French horn to the mix. Sans percussion, a sense of space permeates throughout; the resultant beauty of milder pieces like “Slow Theme” and “Con Moto” unfolds, to be displaced by the impulsive discharge of notes from piano, clarinet and horn in “Dual” and “Vertigo.” A minor movement, “Capture,” interjects many a rest from various instruments, letting piano, flute or violin — or any combination of two — explore the microcosmic vastness before the other sessioners resume. Vertigo is an acquired taste, but it may prove to be a surprising listen when you’re in the mood for something a little more avant, a little more classical. Listeners of Ceux Du Dehors-era UNIVERS ZERO and RULE 29 may even find something to like here.

USA - SEA OF TRANQUILITY - Elias GRANILLO

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LOUISE AVENUE - Let's Take One More...

Seventeen songs (well, instrumentals actually), divided over forty-seven minutes, played by an acoustic ensemble, consisting of cello, piano, tuba, violin, saxophone and clarinet in a style somewhere between free-jazz, atonal avant-garde, dixieland and swing.
This is in short the description of Let's Take One More....
LOUISE AVENUE are rather an experimental project by cello player Jan Jan KUIJKEN, who comes from a family of baroque music players and instrument constructors.
Humour should be one of the main ingredients of this Belgian combo, who play entirely without percussion. You have got to have strong nerves to get through these forty-seven minutes of over-active music and I think the free-jazz-like improvisations will put off many listeners.
The music is progressive alright, but I do not think many BM readers will like it.

- BACKGROUND PROGR' ROCK MAG' - EdB

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LOUISE AVENUE - Let's Take One More...

Belgian cellist / composer Jan KUIJKEN leads this drummerless, yet rhythmically assertive, acoustic sextet through seventeen wry, ebullient instrumentals, suggestive of what UNIVERS ZERO might have wrought had they doubled as a wedding band.
In addition to KUIJKEN's back-up work on former UNIVERS ZERO principal Daniel Denis' solo albums, LOUISE AVENUE's connection with that darkest of all Belgian progressive ensembles extends to a line-up including ex-UNIVERS ZERO pianist Jean-Luc Plouvier and clarinetist / saxophonist Dirk Descheemaeker.
Eastern European harmonies, sharp, winsome melodies and a classical base seasoned with the spontaneity of a dance band are the raw materials of LOUISE AVENUE's intoxicating infusion.
"La Nuit Des Tritons" and "Sombre" bear a trace of UNIVERS ZERO's autumnal air, drawn with an ease and fluency that august assembly was never able to effect.
Descheemaeker contributes some of his most precise, piquant reed playing to date, having ameliorated the grating, nasal tone that characterized much of his earlier work.
Engineer Gilles Martin, whose spectral sonic palette has enriched numerous entries in "Crammed Discs' Made To Measure" series, opts for a clean, high-fidelity approach, allowing the intricacies of KUIJKEN's arrangements to flower in a live studio recording.
Free of both the grandiosity of symphonic rock and the dour preoccupations of the "ReR" stable, Let's Take One More... testifies to the enduring strengh of the small, yet vital, Belgian new music scene.

USA - IFE - Michael DRAINE

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