The Belgian group Flat Earth society is one of today's most exciting contemporary big bands. The brain-child of mercurial Begian composer and clarinet player Peter Vermeersch, the band is made up of 14 top-class turbulent and skilled musicians, including Tuxedomoon trumpet player Luc Van Lieshout and Bart Maris, formerly with Think Of One. Their music is an insane mix of punk jazz, cartoon soundtracks, classical avant-garde, rock, cha-cha, and much more. Peter Vermeersch has composed music for opera, theatre and ballet and has written pieces for the Arditti Quartet, the Smith Quartet and many others and has played with Fred Frith, Jazzwork from Berlin and has produced recordings by dEUS and Guy Chadwick.
'Psychoscout' is an unruly confluence of Carl Stalling's "Merrie Melodies", Henry Mancini's cosmopolitan swank and Sun Ra's slop - all performed with the whiplash attention span of John Zorn's Naked City.
Personnel: Peter Vermeersch - (clarinet), Stefaan Blancke - (trombone), Benjamin Boutreur - (alto sax), Berlinde Deman - (tuba), Bart Maris - (trumpet), Michel Mast - (tenor sax), Marc Meeuwissen - (trombone), Kristof Roseeuw - (double bass), Peter Vandenberghe - (piano, keyboards), Luc Van Lieshout - (trumpet), Bruno Vansina - (baritone sax), Teun Verbruggen - (drums & dustbingrooves), Wim Willaert - (accordion, keyboards), Tom Wouters - (clarinet, vibraphone)
Special guest: Roland Vancampenhout - (guitar, vocals) |