Tuesday 16 September 2008

Surreal Sounds

Delirious yet sophisticated, lush yet furious, sarcastic yet sentimental, FLAT EARTH SOCIETY are one of the most exciting big bands around.
FLAT EARTH SOCIETY is the brainchild of mercurial Belgian composer & clarinet player
Peter Vermeersch, and consists of about 14 top-class turbulent and skilled musicians.
What is this insane music ? Rock, classical avant-garde, cha-cha-cha, punk jazz or cartoon soundtracks ? Or a bit of all of these ? Let's hand it over to the media:
"A band capable of everything from beautiful chamber jazz miniatures to slinky crime-theme jazz noir to driving rock rhythms. The songs are all very approachable, but there's plenty of punch in the playing and soloing and great detailed arrangements." (Allmusic.com)
"An unruly confluence of Carl Stalling's "Merrie Melodies", Henry Mancini's cosmopolitan swank, and Sun Ra's cosmic slop-- all performed with the whiplash attention span of John Zorn's Naked City. (They) draw as much inspiration from such 20th century composers as Stravinsky or Bartok (not to mention art-rockers like Zappa or Beefheart) as they do from the blues or other more traditional American sources. You'll be enthralled by (their) seemingly bottomless creativity." (Pitchforkmedia)
"Far removed from the historicized big-band sounds one mostly hears these days in the United States… fresh, inventive and witty." (The New York Times)
Are we starting to get the picture ?…
* Peter Vermeersch has composed music for numerous pieces by major choreographers Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Wim Vandekeybus. He's written for opera, theatre, ballet, was a founding member of bands such as Maximalist! and X-Legged Sally, wrote pieces for the Arditti Quartet, Quadro Quartet, the Smith Quartet and Ensemble Musique Nouvelle, played with Union, Fred Frith, Jazzwork from Berlin, The Simpletones, produced recordings by dEUS and Guy Chadwick.
◊ The band currently includes
Tuxedomoon trumpet player Luc van Lieshout, ex-Think Of One member Bart Maris (three other Think Of One members used to be part of FES), keyboardist Peter Vandenberghe, bassist Kristof Roseeuw, trombone players Marc Meeuwissen and Stefaan Blancke, Berlinde Deman on tuba, Teun Verbruggen on drums, Tom Wouters, Michel Mast, Bruno Vansina & Benjamin Boutreur on woodwinds, occasional singer/guitarist Roland Vancampenhout, and film actor/accordion player/vocalist Wim Willaert, who starred in the multi-awarded French feature film "Quand la mer monte/When The Tide Comes In".

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