ARTIFACTS

TRACKLISTING


A1. Black Flower - Bones
A2. Black Flo wer - Alexandria
A3. Black Flower - Helios Victor
A4. Black Flower - Realm And Era
B1. Black Flower - High Upon The Mountain High Upon The Hill
B2. Black Flower - Abeba Zeybekiko
B3. Black Flower - Artifacts
B4. Black Flow er - Lunar Eclipse





INFO


Stirred up from deep within, from an abstract spiral of sound and movement, from a sensation of time and space absolving and converging at once, the Black Flower musicians hav e molded a tangible matter: the album Artifacts. Their second full album sounds international and ageless. Eastern influences, Ethiodub and jazz effortlessly me rge. Fantasy and reality seem to fuse. In a word: nourishment for body and soul.

"Psyche-delicious and accessible 20th century Ethiodubjazz. As if J ohn Zorn put on Fela Kuti's shoes and imbibed Mulatu Astatke's whirls."
Piloted by saxophonist /flutist /composer Nathan Daems (Ragini Trio, Dijf Sa nders, Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra), this instrumental band aims for originality. Fellow musicians and 'brothers down the road' are Jon Birdsong (dEUS, Beck, Cal exico) on cornet, Simon Segers (Absynthe Minded, De Beren Gieren, Stadt) at the drums, Filip Vandebril (Lady Linn, The Valerie Solanas, Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkest ra) at the bass and Wouter Haest (Los Callejeros, Voodoo Boogie) playing keys.
For many of us, the Ethiopian aspect once made known to the world by Mulatu Astatke will stand out. Still, Black Flower further adds oriental scales, Afrobeat à la Fela Kuti, jazz in a John Zorn way and varied western music tradi tions such as rock and dub. The resulting melting pot is undoubtedly inspired by Nathan's distant travels and the multifariously colorful city of Brussels.

...Pretty legit if you ask me - LeFto, Studio Brussel

After their well-received debut album Abyssinia Afterlife (2014, W.E.R.F. / Zephyrus R ecords) that created an atmosphere of mythical figures and psychedelia, Black Fl ower now reflects on ancient and modern cultures. The album title Artifacts refe rs to centuries-old fragile objects or tools that empowered the development of h uman culture. The world today would look entirely different without those artifa cts. The seemingly brittle suddenly becomes a powerful welding cornerstone. Add the musicians' personal musical backgrounds and the result is an album with an a geless mystique. Artifacts is the synthesis of different cultures, of the past a nd present, and personal and collective memories. It is the soundtrack to modern reality, based on the elements that connect us.

Brilliant - Gilles Peterson, BBC Radio 6

One of Belgium's Best Bands of these past yea rs (...) Black Flower does not simply play a tune, they always groove! - Kurt Ov erbergh, Ancienne Belgique

Uncomplicated originality, plenty of spac e for fantasy and an organic tone: those are the ingredients for Black Flower to lay claim to an age-old human ritual: dancing! Still, Black Flower also stands out in various other settings. Their audience at a jazz club will have felt exal ted, their audience at a late-night show will not have resisted dancing. The ban d wields influence over their surroundings in a way only heart-and-soul musician s can. This mastery has repeatedly taken them to United Kingdom, France, the Net herlands and Germany.