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Back to intellectual music after a week or so of party music and easy listening now that the weather is a bleak gray again. It’s easy to classify me as an aspirant layman in avant jazz & rock & contemporary classic, that’s why I haven’t heard of Aka Moon, before a trio composed of alto saxophonist & composer Fabrizio Cassol, bassist Michel Hatzigeorgiou and drummer Stéphane Galland with 13 records under their belt. They seem to have “led an entire modern jazz movement in their native Belgium, attracting international acclaim for a truly inspired fusion of diverse musical genres.” Aka Moon gets their name & inspiration from the Aka Pygmies from Africa, who was once featured on the classic Steve Reich & Gyorgy Ligeti & Aka Pygmies African Rhythms project.

VSPRS Orchestra is a joint production by Aka Moon and the classical “Ensemble Oltremontano” led by Wim Becu, gypsy artist Tcha Limberger (flute, violin) that got together to make the score for a project by acclaimed Belgian choreographer and founder member of Les Ballets C de la B, Alain Platel. The contemporary dance theater remake is based on Claudio Monteverdi’s Maria Vespers which is one of the most crucial works in the history of European religious music. The 90-minute piece is for 10 dancers and 10 onstage musicians, who play a jazzish arrangement for period winds and brass, soprano, violin, saxophone, electric guitar, string bass and drums, all amplified.

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The music here is a natural fusion of gypsy music with baroque and progressive jazz/rock with improvisation around the music of Monteverdi. Now I’m not into ballet/contemporary dance/theater at all but this event which has already taken place in many biennials and festivals around Europe, excited even my unsophisticated ass. The obvious parallelism for me musically is the French Volapük, with a bit more classical influence thanks to Oltremontano.

VSPRS Orchestra - Dance Hyo Seung
VSPRS Orchestra - Ouverture