OUI088 : Haard / Haard

 

Cover art by Maria Prokopaki - Design Manos Barkatsas

OUI088 : Haard / Haard

Neither the night. Nor the last drink. Neither the morning. Nor the birds.

Ούτε η νύχτα. Ούτε το τελευταίο ποτό. Ούτε το πρωί. Ούτε τα πουλιά.

Deriving inspiration from the Cretan mountains, this Brussels based band brings free improvised music going from ear-tickling noise to meditative soundscapes and free jazz outbursts. The improvisations have a suite-like form, developing slowly, sometimes cutting fast from one idea to another, creating one long body of work.

The self-titled album is a first encounter of Jordi Cassagne (double bass), Manos Barkatsas (guitar & fx), Stan Maris (accordion & fx) and João Lobo (drums).

Recording: Manos Barkatsas - Studio Grez - June 2025

Mix and mastering: Dries Van Ende

Stan Maris (see also OUI058) is a Belgian accordionist, composer and electronics artist based in Brussels.
Growing up listening to hip hop beats and alt-pop, combined with a background in jazz studies and improvised music, he brings a new sound to accordion.
Stan has performed and recorded with artists like Joe Talia, Robert Landfermann, Giovanni Di Domenico, Sofia Jernberg, Julian Sartorius, Radwan Gazi Moumneh, Clara Levy and others.

Manos Barkatsas is a boundary-pushing musician based in Brussels active in the spheres of free improvisation, experimental ambient  and interdisciplinary performance.
Primarily a guitarist, he also plays the Cretan lute and performs live electronics. 

His Cretan origin functions as an underlying thread in his musical practice, without limiting his work to geographical or stylistic boundaries.
He has collaborated with important musicians from the international experimental scene, including Akira Sakata, Luke Stewart, Chris Pitsiokos, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Aquiles Navarro, Shoji Hano , Giovanni Di Domenico, Peter Jacquemyn, Audrey Lauro, and Christos Yermenoglou among others.

João Lobo (see also OUI070): from jazz to gnawa music, electro-acoustic trance to total improvisation, in solo or in a big band, collaborating on dance and theatre productions and making soundtracks for movies, João Lobo maintains a versatile career as a musician mainly playing the drums. He has released two records under his name: “Nowruz” in 2017 and “Simorgh” in 2020.He is the co-founder of Oba Loba, Going, Tetterapadequ, Norman, Mulabanda, and a proud member of Giovanni Guidi Trio, Manuel Hermia Trio, Punk Kong, An Pierlè&La Lumière, Daniel Stokart Quartet

He has recorded more than 60 albums, some self-produced and others for labels such as ECM, Clean Feed, CamJazz, De Werf, El Negocito, three:four records, Challenge, NEOS.
He has performed and/or recorded in many countries around the world with many musicians including Enrico Rava, Marshall Allen, Roswell Rudd, Carlos Bica, Nate Wooley, Maalem Hassan Zogari, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Thomas Morgan, Chris Corsano, and collaborates intensely with Norberto Lobo, Giovanni Di Domenico, Lynn Cassiers, Manolo Cabras and Giovanni Guidi.

Based in Brussels since 2014, Jordi Cassagne ( see also OCD048) is a composer and musician from southwestern France, skilled in bass, double bass, and violone. Jordi’s musical journey has taken him along a path shaped by his diverse artistic encounters. At times, he is drawn by the alchemy of jazz and improvised music, while at others; he experiments with various musical aesthetics, including early music, modal traditions, and alternative rock.

Jordi composes and arranges for various groups, including the quintet Barbastelle, the post-rock group Limite, the sextet Cielo Vivo, the duo Yiasemi and his violone solo Soir Fossile. He has also been involved in numerous other projects over the years, including: Terpsichore (contemporary jazz), Haratago (Basque music), Julien Marga Quartet (jazz), Omega Impact (post –retro songs), Le Bal de Marie Galante (Caribbean ball), HAARD (improvisation), Beñat Achiary’s Un Poète à New York (jazz, improvisation). He also crossed paths with musicians such as: Denis Badault, Beñat Achiary, Maddi Oihenart, Mixel Etxekopar, Pedro Soler, Nicolas Nageotte, Olivier Thomas, Catherine Delaunay, Léo Jassef, Théo Lanau...

His discography includes several albums that have been warmly acclaimed by the music press. Barbastelle's album "Vestige Étésien" (Aut records) is selected in the Best Jazz on Bandcamp playlist of March 2025 and is awarded "Élu Citizen Jazz". “Bengalifère” (Futura/Hôte Marge - 2014) and “Terpsichore” (Outnote Records - 2022), were awarded “Révélation Jazz Magazine”. In 2016, the Julien Marga Quartet won the "Trophées du Sunside", and in 2019, they also won the 'Tremplin' prize at both the Tonnerre de Jazz festival in Pau and the Cosmojazz festival in Chamonix.

Digital release on the 18th of September 2026.

Track listing:

1: Neither The Night

2: Nor The Last Drink

3: Neither The Morning

4: Nor The Birds

Apple Music , Itunes, Deezer, etc.:

https://bfan.link/haard

And on Bandcamp:

OUI084 : Max Devereaux / Expression on the Rooftop

 

Cover art by Max Devereaux

OUI084 : Max Devereaux / Expression on the Rooftop

Recorded in the fall of 2025 using a portable electric guitar rig, this project is a dialogue between intentional composition and environmental chaos. Standing on the roof of his downtown Minneapolis apartment building, Devereaux performs pieces directly influenced by the wind, city ambiance, and the unpredictable textures of the atmosphere.

These recordings are intentionally raw, featuring natural wind distortion and unique environmental sonic elements. By overlaying the direct guitar signal with the ambient audio from the video recording, the album creates a blend of deliberate playing and the "dis-organization" of the world outside. It is a document of a performer reacting to his environment in real-time.

Full video for Expression on the Rooftop:  

Digital release on the 11th of September 2026.

Track listing:

1: Facing North

2: Facing West

3: Center

4: Facing South

5: Facing East

Itunes, Apple Music, Deezer, etc.:

https://bfan.link/expression-on-the-rooftop

And on Bandcamp:

OJP087 : Miss Canine Hoe / Four Bootlegs I

 

Cover art by Mytyl

OJP087 : Miss Canine Hoe / Four Bootlegs I

A secret Bandcamp only album with various live recordings which were found back on diverse bootlegs cassettes. Passing from hand to hand until Mytyl found one and decided to make it available to all.

To enjoy before their long awaited new album!(see also OJP079, OJP080 and OJP085).

Digital release on the 8th of September 2026.

Track listing:

1: Indifferentia (15/07/2023@Osaka)

2: Here, there, but nowhere (02/02/2025@Osaka)

3: Onism (20/09/2025@Osaka)

4: Pèlerinage de l’âme : de la Genèse à l’Acéphale (13/06/2026@Yokohama)

5: Concrete Poetry Party Vol.1 - Seiichi Niikuni Tribute & Cover - (25/08/2024@Osaka) - Bonus Track

Bandcamp:

OUI083 : The Wrong Object featuring Annie Whitehead - Harry Beckett / Platform One

 

OUI083 : The Wrong Object featuring Annie Whitehead - Harry Beckett / Platform One

John Kelman in AllAbout Jazz (2007):

"Belgium's The Wrong Object is on a roll. An album as strong as The Unbelievable Truth (MoonJune, 2007), documenting a first (and, sadly, only) encounter in 2005 with the late British saxophone legend Elton Dean, would be more than enough for any group in any year. But with Platform One, this intrepid art/rock group teams with another legend—trumpeter Harry Beckett, born in Barbados but a fixture on the British scene since the 1950s—and trombonist Annie Whitehead, who may not be a legend yet, but deserves to be. Recorded live, Platform One isn't necessarily better than The Unbelievable Truth, but it is more powerful, brimming with reckless abandon and rock energy.

The term reckless abandon makes a lot of sense for The Wrong Object. The group's reputation was first established paying tribute to the music and, more importantly, spirit of the late Frank Zappa. Platform One features two Zappa covers—the complex, twisting and turning and ultimately swinging "Big Swifty, from Waka/Jawaka (Ryko, 1972), and the slower but no less visceral "Filthy Habits, from Sleep Dirt Ryko, 1979). The former features a lithe and unpredictable solo from Whitehead, while guitarist Michel DelVille's unfettered solo on the latter approaches Zappa's solo of complete abandon on "Zombie Woof, from Overnight Sensation (Rkyo, 1973).

There's no shortage of fine original material either. The brief improvised fanfare of "Intruth leads into Delville's Middle Eastern-tinged "Honeypump Riff, where bassist Damien Polard and drummer Laurent Delchambre propel a brief but outrageous Zappa-esque solo from DelVille, before Jean-Paul Estiévenart takes an increasingly frenetic trumpet solo that's equally matched by Whitehead. The guitarist's episodic "Wet Weather Wet moves from gentle waltz to "Peter Gunn -style rifferama to periods of greater freedom that the group navigates with complete ease.

The rest of the album features equally strong material by Whitehead and Beckett. Whitehead's title track, a 5/4 minor blues, is introduced by a probing a capella trombone solo that is reason alone for Whitehead to garner greater international acclaim, while "This Affects That swings hard, but is kept sonically off-kilter by DelVille's guitar synth. It's a testimony to the flexibility of the group and its guests that Beckett's fiery and open-ended "Scarlet Mine, from 1970's Flare Up, sounds absolutely contemporary thirty-five years later. Beckett's elegant flugelhorn work is featured on "Tinseltown, an elegant jazz waltz carried by The Wrong Object's flexible support.

That Platform One sounds like a group that's played together longer is even more remarkable for the fact that the group and its guests never met prior to hitting the stage. Instead, they passed mp3 files back and forth before meeting, so each could learn the other's material. It may be a new way of dealing with the prohibitive costs of bringing geographically distanced artists together, but based on the many wondrous sounds of surprise on Platform One it's one that, in the hands of capable musicians, clearly works just fine."

The album was originally released in 2007 on JazzPrint UK.

Michel Delville: Guitar, Guitar Synthesizer, Electronics
Annie Whitehead: Trombone
Harry Beckett: Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Jean-Paul Estiévenart: Trumpet
Fred Delplancq: Tenor Saxophone
Yves Dellicour: Soprano Saxophone, Bass Clarinet
Frank van der Kooij: Baritone Saxophone (11)
Damien Polard: Bass, Electronics
Laurent Delchambre: Drums, Percussion

Liner Notes – Matthew Wright
Mastered By – Gaëtan Streel

Digital release on the 4th of September 2026

Track listing:

1: Intruth

2: Honeypump Riff

3: Big Swifty - Written by Zappa

4: Platform 1 - Intro

5: Platform 1

6: Filthy Habits

7: This Affects That

8: Wet Weather Wet

9: Scarlet Mine

10: Tinseltown

11: Hello Max

Apple Music, Itunes, Deezer, etc.:

https://bfan.link/platform-one

And on Bandcamp:

OUI090 : Ever Present / Flight of the Plastic Seagull

 

OUI090 : Ever Present / Flight of the Plastic Seagull

Single taken out of the forthcoming album 'alledaagse gedachten' coming out on the 2nd of October 2026.

A teaser for the album:

Digital release on the 3rd of September 2026.

Track listing:

1: Flight of the Plastic Seagull

Apple music, Itunes, Deezer, etc.:

https://bfan.link/flight-of-the-plastic-seagull

And on Bandcamp:

OUC057 : Nicolaï Della Guerra / Five Birds

 

Cover art by Jonathan Gomand

OUC057 : Nicolaï Della Guerra / Five Birds 

Nicolaï says:

"*Five Birds* is a short musical poem in five stanzas for piano, featuring interludes on the Rhodes. 

Each stanza possesses its own color and world, while remaining part of a continuity that links these distinct elements."

Nicolaï Della Guerra is a pianist whose music evolves through the intersection of diverse worlds and approaches. Drawing inspiration from folk traditions, jazz, minimalism, and modal music, he seeks a balance in his work between composition and improvisation—and between the music itself and the imagery it evokes.

Deeply European, he is of Italian-Bulgarian heritage, was born in Germany, and divides his time between France, Belgium, and wherever the birds take him.

In recent years, he has developed numerous ensemble projects, including musical tales, an opera, contemporary works, and collaborations with artists from diverse backgrounds. For the past two years, he has been performing solo piano concerts in Belgium centered on his album *Piano Sketches*, in which the instrument is transformed and enriched by voice, singing, and electronic textures.

With *Five Birds*—a short album dedicated entirely to the piano—Nicolaï continues this theme of the journey. Five tracks representing five places, five landscapes, and five ways of moving. It is an invitation to listen, to view things from a new perspective, and to follow the birds.

The music of Nicolaï is more than just a classical crossover as it has touches of Jazz (Adage) and the musicality of soundtracks music at times.

The Rhodes interludes bring something more contemporary and modern as well.

As Nicolaï says, different colors but a very fine album which announces a full length one magistral more experimental tunes in November.

Stay tunes and meanwhile enjoy already this mini album.

Piano Recording — Studio Chroma
Rhodes Recording — Studio Archeus
Artwork & Photography — Jonathan Gomand
Mixing & Mastering — Gabriel Dubois, Studio Chroma

Digital release on the 28th of August 2026.

Track listing:

1: Le renard

2: Les pliés

3: Barbuyo

4: L'oiseau

5: Adage

Itunes, Apples music, Deezer, etc.:

https://bfan.link/five-birds

And on Bandcamp:

OUI080 : Max Devereaux / Free Jazz on a Saturday Afternoon

 

Cover art by Max Devereaux

OUI080 : Max Devereaux / Free Jazz on a Saturday Afternoon

A raw, solo electric guitar session captured in single, uninterrupted takes during the summer of 2025. Following in the avant-garde tradition of solo works like Masayuki Takayanagi’s 1982 recording Lonely Woman, this album finds Devereaux swapping between two separate Fender Stratocasters to carve spontaneous structures and gestural expressions out of thin air.

Recorded in Devereaux’s downtown Minneapolis skyscraper apartment, the music is a pure, free-form expression of the guitar. The session was filmed in its entirety by long-time collaborator Michael Sodnik, whose expressive, kinetic camerawork reacts to the sonic shifts of the guitars in real-time, capturing the physical intensity of the recording process.

A nice video:

Digital release on the 10th of July 2026.

Track listing:

1. Improvisation I

2. Improvisation II

3. Improvisation III

4. Improvisation IV

5. Improvisation V

6. Improvisation VI

Apple Music, Itunes, Deezer, etc.:

https://bfan.link/free-jazz-on-a-saturday-afternoon

And on Bandcamp: