STELLAR LEGIONS

TRACKLISTING


1 Stellar Legions - Alice
2 Stellar Le gions - An Arp in Tunisia
3 Stellar Legions - Jahzz
4 Stellar Legions - We ssel
5 Stellar Legions - Odyssey
6 Stellar Legions - Witches
7 Stellar Legions - Alcyone
8 Stellar Legions - Covix





INFO


Stellar Legions is four experienced space cadets from the Antwerp i nterstellar legion, led by Captain Andrew Claes (STUFF., BRZZVLL, Internal Sun). With a sound rooted in jazz, improv, hip-hop, dub and electronic music, brace y ourself for an intergalactic trip through colourful musical worlds and allow you rself to be carried away to indefinable, otherworldly but always hospitable beac ons.

Alongside Claes, the delegates on duty are all heroes from the Allied star: Bram Weijters (Raymond Van Het Groenewoud, Crazy Men), Klaas De Som er (Tourist Lemc, Selah Sue) and Fre Madou (ex-DAAU, Namid). With them, come sto ries and artifacts from the multidimensional cosmos to our beloved mother planet Earth and this autumn, they passionately present their first omnibus 'Stellar L egions', released 21st October via the groove-obssessed Sdban Ultra label.

The album consists of eight tracks recorded in the studio and live, result ing in one big cosmic experience that exhilarates down to every last arrangement . From Claes' twisted sax on the semi-electronic ecstatic dream world that is an 'An Arp in Tunisia' to the jazzy snatches of 'Wessel' where De Somer's hurried drum patterns and Weijters frenzied keyboard solos catch light, Stellar Legions unites the adventure and improvisation of jazz with contemporary sounds.
At the core of the Stellar Legions sound is a rhythm section Sly & Robbie wo uld have approved of: loose and sticky, grinding and unwinding: De Somer's drums fizz with expectation while the relentless bass strokes from Madou provide the beating pulse. It's fresh, it's raw and it keeps us listening, grooving and want ing more. Elsewhere, 'Odyssey' is a cataclysmic mix of feverish sounds and melod ies that take you to an extra-terrestrial place, while the live recording of 'Al cyone', basks in a spatial mix of futuristic grooves and ethereal soundscapes be fore album closer 'Covix', results in a spacious and wonderfully atmospheric aff air.

Electronics wizard Andrew Claes has recorded music in a wide ran ge of styles ranging from free jazz outfit Chaos of the Haunted Spire (duo with Teun Verbruggen) to techno icon Marco Bailey and New Wave hero, Marcel Vanthilt. In addition, he has collaborated with Zach Danziger, Zap Mama, Brussels Jazz Or chestra, Hermes Ensemble, Mauro Pawlowski, Josse De Pauw and many others and rel eased music with the electro-jazz collective AAN/EOP and his solo project, Inter nal Sun.

Claes is also a teacher of 'Live Electronics' at the Conserv atory of Antwerp and a doctorate in the arts, where he is currently investigatin g the possibilities of an electro-acoustic saxophone. He also regularly gives wo rkshops on the Belgian synthesizer microcontroller platform, Axoloti. His latest achievement is AI-driven robot-jazz project 'BotBop' with Dago Sondervan and Ka sper Jordaens, which explores the possibilities and limits of 'computer aided mu sic performance'. Their latest project 'Integers & Strings' premiered at the Sòn ar festival in Barcelona in November 2021.