A "dream line-up" is possibly the best way to describe Warped Dreamer. Few quartets succeed in bowling over their audiences in such diverse ways as this quartet led by drummer Teun Verbruggen. This versatile Belgian percussionist puts together four top-notch musicians from the Belgian and Norwegian scenes, who bring out the best in each other on stage. Teun likes to be startled by collaborations with wayward musicians, musicians who inspire him because they rediscover and reinvent themselves each time again. He had already hooked up with trumpeter Arve Henriksen and with Jozef Dumoulin (Rhodes) previously. Guitarist Stian Westerhus is the right fit and perfectly complements the quartet. Include a big display of effects pedals and you get a music genre that defies any attempt at classification. Free improvisation, jazz residue and electronic interventions/manipulations are woven together in an organically flowing crossover that both hints at a Northern vastness and utilises a complex inner map that guides the audience past labyrinthine horizons, intricate textures and spontaneous interactions. As such, they incorporate both crackling, whirling walls of sound and claustrophobic whispers. Warped Dreamer is definitely looking forward in a way that makes the question whether it's in or out completely irrelevant. It's everywhere at once. The band gets its name from an Othin Spake composition, another of Teun Verbruggen's experimental bands, and also shares the same fickle, mysterious city vibe. If you like improv, you are in for a treat!
Warped Dreamer shares a fickle, mysterious city vibe with a few other bands these musicians are/were involved in. At the same time this project, which combines the talents of Belgian stalwarts Teun Verbruggen (drums) and Jozef Dumoulin (keyboards) with those of Norwegian experimentalists Stian Westerhus (guitar) and Arve Henriksen (trumpet), also has an entirely different identity. Free improvisation, jazz residue and electronic interventions/manipulations are woven together in an organically flowing crossover that hints at a Northern vastness and utilizes a complex inner map that guides the audience past labyrinthine panoramas, intricate textures and spontaneous interaction. As such, they incorporate both crackling, whirling walls of sound and claustrophobic whispers. Warped Dreamer looks toward the future in a way that makes the question whether it’s in or out completely irrelevant. It’s everywhere at once.
Recording: Dieter Claeys, Live the 17th of January 2015 at 'het Bos', Antwerp
Mixing & Mastering: Stian Westerhus
Production: Teun Verbruggen
Artwork: Michaël Borremans
Lay out: Peter Verbruggen
Stark music from the string trio of Mazz Swift, Tomeka Reid and Silvia Bolognesi; beautiful, swirling songs with flashes of dissonance. Bandcamp New & Notable May 1, 2017
All these trax are good. James Blood Ulmer, via Ornette, enabled me to emerge from my be-bop coffin 1981. Harmolodics & the No Wave inspired the formation of Great White Noise, Sydney 1982-83. I'm still enjoying shaking off the rigamort. Am happy to dance with idiots.
Michael Sheridan