Iqnovara is a band to watch: their debut album, Onderstroom (2024), was immediately picked up and praised by Belgian public radio broadcast Klara. On May 29th, their follow-up album, O Innocent Heart, will be released by W.E.R.F. records. This album explores the boundaries between jazz and North Indian classical music.
For three years, they refined this music in close collaboration with Pakistani sarod maestro Asad Qizilbash. Bandleader, guitarist, and composer Haroun Iqbal deepened his understanding of the North Indian tradition during this period, including a study trip to New Delhi to learn from Shubhendra Rao, aprotégé of Ravi Shankar. O Innocent Heart connects both musical worlds in each piece in its own way, always seeking how each musician can shine.

Tracklist

A1. Iqnovara - Rosa's Enigma
A2. Iqnovara - Honey For Zizu
A3. Iqnovara - Wilting Tulips
A4. Iqnovara - Going Slow
B1. Iqnovara - Shahenshah
B2. Iqnovara - Carrying Roots
B3. Iqnovara - O Innocent Heart
B4. Iqnovara - Lahori Gate


Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More

Ola Tunji is a young French quintet based in Brussels. Together, they explore the boundaries between spiritual jazz and free jazz, following in the footsteps of their great heroes John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, and Albert Ayler. At the forefront is the still only 24-year-old Ornella Noulet, whose saxophone playing can both rasp and soothe with the authority of a seasoned jazz veteran.

The band describes their music as collective meditations, in which they express love, compassion, joy, and serenity through improvisation. By making music together, they search for a deeper sense of humanity.

Their self-titled EP was initially released only digitally on Bandcamp, but it was immediately met with enthusiastic international acclaim, including praise from the American platform All About Jazz. Bandcamp itself also highlighted the release as a jazz standout. While awaiting their first full-length album, W.E.R.F. records is releasing this outstanding EP on vinyl for the first time.



Tracklist

A1. Ola Tunji - Experimentation
A2. Ola Tunji - Sun Meditation
A3. Ola Tunji - Mr. Scott
B1. Ola Tunji - Blues For Swami Turiya
B2. Ola Tunji - Realisation

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More

LP in gatefold sleeve. Brussels-based power trio Don Kapot are set to release their rousing new album 'I Love Tempo' on the 15th of September via W.E.R.F. RecordsDon Kapot strike hard with their fourth album, mixed and co-produced by Greg Saunier (Deerhoof). Using a wide range of instruments, they evolve their sound into a solid complex rhythmic wave, shaken by demented samples and punk attitude.

TRACKLISTING

A1. Don Kapot - Me Pig
A2. Don Kapot - Macarona
A3. Don Kapot - Terryble
B1. Don Kapot - Bernadette
B2. Don Kapot - Don Be No
B3. Don Kapot - I Love Tempo

INFO

Brussels-based power trio Don Kapot are set to release their rousing new album 'I Love Tempo' on the 15th of September via W.E.R.F. Records - NEWS distribution.

A lifeboat of free jazz, afrobeat and krautpunk sailed by Giotis Damianidis (bass), Viktor Perdieus (baritone saxophone) and Jakob Warmenbol (drums), the album follows the release of their critically acclaimed 2022 album 'Un Peu Live' recorded with Dutch multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and composer Fulco Ottervanger, and described by Bandcamp Daily as a 'very fun mix of modern jazz and krautrock.'

Don Kapot strike hard with their fourth album, mixed and co-produced by Greg Saunier (Deerhoof). Using a wide range of instruments, they evolve their sound into a solid complex rhythmic wave, shaken by demented samples and punk attitude.

From the vibrant, pounding rhythms of opening track 'Me Pig' to the off-kilter, whimsical beats of 'Macarona' and 'Terryble,' Don Kapot integrate new instruments and sounds into their repertoire, including keyboards and sampling. The groove remains a central element to the sound as the trio deliver a palpable blend of high tension and joyous energy where genres are demolished.

Elsewhere, the funk-heavy 'Bernadette' allows the magical, freestyle sax work of Perdieus take centre stage while 'Don Be No' is an urgent, flippant blast of vigour and zest before the album title track 'I Love Tempo' is an exhilarating and hypnotic journey that combines the freedom and verve of free jazz with the trance-like zeal of artists such as Tony Allen, Fela Kuti and Kologbo

Releasing their self-titled debut album in 2018 via Mr. Nakayasi Records, in 2021 they signed to Flemish record label W.E.R.F. Records and have released three albums under the label and have performed sold-out shows across Belgium and the Netherlands.

The players in Don Kapot also extend their musical adventures to other projects. Damianidis leads Punk Kong and has performed with Akira Sakata, Sakis Papadimitriou, Oghene Kologbo, Tony Allen, Baba Ani, Balasz Pandi and Gonzalo Almeida among others. Warmenbol was a member of The Unrevealed Society, Robbing Millions and M(h)ysteria. He also performs with Ruth Tafebe & the Afrosoul Messengers (with Giotis), Under The Reefs Orchestra and Monolithe Noir. Perdieus performs in Punk Kong and with Pompelmoes and The Milk Factory and took part in Ifa y Xango, Laia Arkestra, Bolhaerd, Nest and VVolk. He has also recorded and played with Andrew Cyrille (Bambi Pang Pang).

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More

2LP in gatefold sleeve. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of one of Belgium's most important jazz records of the past three decades and on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of W.E.R.F. records, this gem is being reissued, for the first time ever on vinyl.

TRACKLISTING

A1. The Chris Joris Experience - A Four Letter Word
A2. The Chris Joris Experience - Out Of The Night
A3. The Chris Joris Experience - Djembe
B1. The Chris Joris Experience - The Long Way Home
B2. The Chris Joris Experience - Ballad For A Tortured Africa
B3. The Chris Joris Experience - June 25

C1. The Chris Joris Experience - Shaya Sebothane
C2. The Chris Joris Experience - Earth
C3. The Chris Joris Experience - I Heard A Milonga
D1. The Chris Joris Experience - Kobiyé
D2. The Chris Joris Experience - Friday The 12th
D3. The Chris Joris Experience - Kwaheri


INFO

In 2003, Belgian composer, percussionist and multi-instrumentalist Chris Joris released his Magnus Opus "Out of the Night" on the Belgian jazz label W.E.R.F. records. The album - an emotionally infused tribute to his late wife - became a commercial success and received several reprints over the years. Meanwhile, the release has been out of print for some time. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of one of Belgium's most important jazz records of the past three decades and on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of W.E.R.F. records, this gem is being reissued, for the first time ever on vinyl.


Especially for this reissue, the album has been enriched with some never before released tracks and alternative takes from the original recording sessions.

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More

LP on clear vinyl. The trance-inducing trio MDCIII is back. And that equals yet another delicious load of modular drums, wildly processed saxophone sounds, improvisation & pulsating grooves.

TRACKLISTING

A1. MDCIII - Minator
A2. MDCIII - Mineral Palace
A3. MDCIII - Signmen
A4. MDCIII - Hasslebanks
B1. MDCIII - Rain March
B2. MDCIII - Yscan
B3. MDCIII - Misses


INFO

Since Interstellar Space, John Coltrane's posthumously released duo album with Rashied Ali, the combination of sax and drums has received an aura of sublime spiritual ambition. It is where tireless truth seekers come together to aim for something transcendental. Something too big for words. Of course, a lot has happened in the meantime.

The available options - philosophically, stylistically, temperamentally - are endless. Musicians are aware of those historical turning points, yet they also try to add their own twists and interpretations. Some of them succeed. One of reed player Mattias De Craene's many projects - MDC III - is a project involving drums and saxophone. A striking difference: De Craene invited two drummers (Simon Segers, Lennert Jacobs), that have been active in the worlds of jazz, pop, free improvisation and experimental music. They are the ideal foil for De Craene's vision, which seems to exclude no opposites. While the use of a recorder, electronics and percussion steers the music beyond the classic acoustic limitations, the result becomes strikingly rich with contrasts. What is abstract and introspective the first moment can switch - gradually or abruptly - to moments of fierce ecstasy the next.

The music feels free (free from limitations, free to choose its own logic), but also invites. Shifting moods and textures are combined with intricate rhythmical patterns, as the drummers lock together in dense, complex and/or ritualistic grooves. A minimal pulse, accompanied by murmuring hisses of brushes and a serenading sax is contrasted with moments of exuberance. The result is many things at once, but despite these wildly varying colors, sounds, textures, rhythms and moods, they are all linked, part of a generous, iridescent whole.

The trance-inducing trio MDCIII is back. And that equals yet another delicious load of modular drums, wildly processed saxophone sounds, improvisation & pulsating grooves.

After their first EP, MDCIII ft. Sylvie Kreusch, and their subsequent first (internationally) acclaimed album 'Dreamhatcher', the 'double drums' saxophone trio with Mattias De Craene, Simon Segers & Lennert Jacobs is all set to show what angle rock 'n roll can really come from. On their new album 'Drawn In Dusk' (release: end of September via W.E.R.F records) the trio delivers a whole new palette of sounds that are just as mystical, energetic and wild as 'Dreamhatcher'.

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More

2LP in printed innersleeves. Mattias De Craene flirts with musical boundaries at the intersection of minimalism, ambient, jazz and free improvisation. Like a one-man orchestra he takes the listener on a dreamy and slightly conjuring journey.

TRACKLISTING

A1. Mattias De Craene - Fifth World Pt. I
A2. Mattias De Craene - Fifth World Pt. II
A3. Mattias De Craene - The Lighthouse
B1. Mattias De Craene - A.D.S.
B2. Mattias De Craene - Pattern 0.9
B3. Mattias De Craene - Gameboy Garden

C1. Mattias De Craene - Steve O' Riley's Meditational Curve
D1. Mattias De Craene - Memorkoor
D2. Mattias De Craene - Roy Frusciante
D3. Mattias De Craene - Farewell & Goodbye

INFO

In recent years Mattias De Craene has become one of the most idiosyncratic and controversial saxophonists in Belgium. Not only is he at the helm of groups such as Nordmann and his own project MDCIII, he is also a welcome guest on stage and in the studio with artists such as Dijf Sanders, Millionaire and Sylvie Kreusch. His relentless urge to reinvent himself resulted in a solo quest that initially only played out behind closed doors at home, but eventually found its way to an audience for the first time in April 2020 via a self-titled debut EP that was released on W.E.R.F. records appeared. Mattias went on the comtemplative tour in search of a highly personal and more introverted sound, flirting with musical boundaries at the intersection of minimalism, ambient, jazz and free improvisation. Like a one man orchestra he takes the listener on a dreamy and slightly conjuring journey. This new turn in the career of this special artist was appreciated by the press and the public and the EP sold like hot cakes.

However, the quest was and is anything but over. A year and a half of lockdown brought time and inspiration to write and play more material. Mattias eventually managed to can a double: "Patterns for (a) Film". As the title suggests, Mattias takes you on a cinematic trip in ten tracks. Where on the self-titled EP we mainly heard a dark, gloomy sound, on this new record Mattias also leaves room for more light textures and Oriental sounds also seep into the repertoire. Not only is this album a masterpiece musically, but also graphically Mattias decided to outdo himself and enlisted the help of designer collective Paule Josephe and graphic designer Benoît Van Geel.

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More