RELEASED 24.10.2011
Atmosphere and emotions are key words for the European Union Quartet and its CD ‘The dark peak’. A quartet that is really European with its combination of a Dutch, a German, a Slovak and an English jazzmusician. The title piece (by bassplayer Gavin Barras) has a nearly picturesque quality: one hears a landscape growing in the sheer suggestive lines of sax and guitar. Adventurous music making is what these nine, own compositions have in common. It can be in subtle musings, with a dreamlike feel, like in the beautiful soundscape of ‘House by the lake’. Or in the way the quartet grows together towards a structure in ‘Reddish Vale’. All four instruments are equally important in their improvisations and strikingly together in emotionality. Saxplayer Iman Spaargarens composition ‘Zieleroersel’ is all about emotions and it is a joy to hear how suggestive and controlled the band explores form and sound. The European Union Quartet plays a modern jazz that looks for the inside of things. With great emotional and melodic qualities.
Iman Spaargaren - Saxophones & Bass Clarinet Ulrich Elbracht - Guitar Gavin Barras – Double Bass Marek Dorcik- Drums
1 Reddish Vale 6'28 2 Schmeissendorf 7 5'28 3 Na de Regen 5'05 4 House by the Lake 4'02 5 Sixth Sence 4'52 6 Zieleroersel 7'40 7 Dear Mr. Scofield 4'19 8 The Dark Prelude 3'01 9 The Dark Peak 5'47