COLOUR TALK

TRACKLISTING


A1. Bram De Looze - Tu Vois
A2. Bram D e Looze - Obstacle
A3. Bram De Looze - Dream Box
A4. Bram De Looze - Colou r Talk
B1. Bram De Looze - Dual Puzzle
B2. Bram De Looze - Hypnosis
B3. Bram De Looze - Royal G
B4. Bram De Looze - Circa





INFO


Bram De Looze is a Belgian pianist and composer whose distin ct musical vision has found its way through both solo projects and collaboration s. His unique technical skill and musical maturity have earned him considerable critical acclaim back home as his work spotlights his far-ranging interests - fr om traditional classical piano music, to solo improvisations that have often bee n compared to Keith Jarrett and Jason Moran. On the 21st February 2020, Sdban Ul tra will release his highly anticipated new solo album, 'Colour Talk'.

De Looze made his entrance onto the national jazz scene with LABtrio, formed i n 2007 with Anneleen Boehme and Lander Gyselinck, and he immediately impressed, flirting with urban jazz, electronics and hip hop.

After a period of studying abroad at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York, w here he studied with Uri Caine and Marc Copland, in 2014, De Looze launched the international septet, Septych, that once again stressed his affinity for jazz, c lassical music and improvisation. With diverse and astounding improvisors like D aniel Levin, Lester St-Louis, Robin Verheyen, Gebhard Ullman, Bo Van Der Werf an d Flin Van Hemmen, it was the start of an explorative musical journey.

Over the past few years, De Looze could frequently be heard with kindred spir its like Stephane Galland, Dre Hocevar and Antoine Pierre but it was a visit to the historical collection of pianofortes of Chris Maene that inspired De Looze t o release his first solo album 'Piano e Forte' (2017), and it received critic al acclaim for its creativity, spontaneity and passion. He would later garner fu rther acclaim working alongside fellow Belgian Robin Verheyen and American rhyth m painter Joey Baron with whom he recorded 'MixMonk' (2019), a tribute to the l egendary jazz pianist Thelonius Monk.

Bram De Looze's solo career too k off in an unexpected way with 'Piano e Forte', a project for which he approach ed historical instruments from a contemporary perspective. The switch to the Chr is Maene Straight Strung Grand Piano for 'Switch The Stream' (2018) indicated a renewed search for movement, evolution and introspection. His latest solo projec t 'Colour Talk', continues this trajectory with another revolutionary piano mode l, designed by lauded architect Rafael Vinoly, and a continued attempt to renew from within.

On 'Colour Talk', what you hear is a musician who has fr eed himself from stylistic constraints and limitations. While still rooted i n jazz, classical music and free improvisation have found a new balance, a coexi stence that enables the pianist to express himself with a new vigour. Switching between shorter pieces that feel like curious, unresolved puzzles and more exten ded explorations, 'Colour Talk' is once again an ode to (re)invention in the gre y zone were the classical idiom and improvisatory urges meet, with the 13-minute tour-de-force of 'Hypnosis' as one of several undisputed highlights.

If you asked De Looze about his current position as an artist, he would probab ly tell you that it's all about forward movement and the need to keep evolving, about a trajectory as work-in-progress. However, if you consider 'Colour Talk' a s a freeze frame of where De Looze is at, it is hard not to consider it a highli ght in a career that should have some more surprises in store.