Bozar is also surfing on the new wave of jazz. The two-day festival 4th Stream is programming innovators who challenge the limits of the genre. The explosive kick-off will be given by MDCIII.
Dreamhatcher, MDCIII’s debut album, was only released two months ago and frontman Mattias De Craene finds himself in the perfect position that festivals seem to be made for bands like his. With his new trio, the saxophonist who made his breakthrough as part of the quartet Nordmann is doing whatever the hell he likes. And, with one eye on the programme of 4th Stream, he is not alone. “I have recently shared programmes with fellow saxophonists like Brandon Lewis and Soweto Kinch.” De Craene’s initial plan was to develop his own style in four bands, each with their own line-up. Thanks to the immediate success of MDCIII, we are going to have to wait a while for MDCI, MDCII, and MDCIV. “We are too eager to make a second album.”
Why would a saxophonist want to form a band with two drummers?
Mattias De Craene: I was partly inspired by the John Lurie National Orchestra, the trio in which saxophonist and artistic jack-of-all-trades John Lurie was accompanied by a drummer and a percussionist. The idea may simply have been floating around because singer Sylvie Kreusch was hatching the same plan. We share a drummer in Simon Segers. The challenge is the difference between album and live set. Live, you can stay in a repetitive trip for longer and become intoxicated. That doesn’t work on an album so we had to find a more varied sound, with more electronica and percussion. But the basic idea was the same: it had to be weird, tribal, spooky, and doomy.
Mattias De Craene (in the middle): "It had to be weird, tribal, spooky, and doomy"
Enter the dreamhatcher.
De Craene: I thought it would be cool to put the album together as though number by number, trip by trip, I was hatching a dream. “TinniT” came about after I closed my eyes and imagined I was in a jungle, pursued by evil forces. I consciously try to arouse an intense, paranoid mood. Films like Down by Law and Apocalypse Now can illustrate the fucked-up jungle vibe in my head, but I have recently met a number of spiritual people who sometimes literally go into the jungle to experience all kinds of things.
It is impressive how you immerse the final song, “Harry”, a bizarre song by your late uncle Wim, in the same morbid cinematic atmosphere.
De Craene: My career actually started in a small folky orchestra and I have always wanted to do something with his work. This is a whimsical song with strange lyrics (about somebody who has rat brains implanted, with troubling consequences – TP), but I like short songs that get to the point quickly. [Laughs] I also wanted to start and end the album with vocals. Nobody wants to sail against the wall, as you hear in the opener “Bobby”, as in The Truman Show. A guy in a little boat on a dreamy lake who has no idea where he is and gets a fright when he suddenly crashes into a wall. “Shit, what’s happening here is so strange!”: MDCIII true to life.
HIGHLIGHTS
Jameszoo
A DJ with ideas
As the hippest of all the Dutch jazz artists, Mitchel – Jameszoo – van Dinther debuted on Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder label. On Fool, the eclectic producer from Den Bosch proved himself to be the best student in the jazz lab. Live, a quintet plays his whirlwind of ideas.
> Jameszoo. 30/11, 21.00
The Headhunters
Percussionists with a past
In the 1970s, percussionist Bill Summers and drummer Mike Clark were both in the original line-up of The Headhunters led by Herbie Hancock. Along with saxophonist Donald Harrison and keyboard player Jerry Z, they will play some of the real stuff for a new cohort of funkateers.
> The Headhunters. 1/12, 21.00
Soweto Kinch
An MC with a sax
At the intersection of jazz and hip hop, alto saxophonist and rapper Soweto Kinch is one of the standard-bearers of the committed London scene. With roots in Barbados and Jamaica, rhythms by Nick Jurd and Will Glaser in his groove, and his new record Nonagram in his back pocket.
> Soweto Kinch. 1/12, 22.30
> 4th Stream Festival. 30/11 & 1/12, Bozar
> MDCIII. 30/11, 20.00, Bozar
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