DONDER – SAME (CD, private)
Donder is a trio of young musicians from Belgium. They debuted in 2016 with their album ‘Still’ that
received good reviews. In 2017 Danish reed player Lars Greve joined them. With him they recorded
their second album in an acoustically very suited church in Copenhagen, all on one day! In 2017 they
won the Storm! Context- award giving a good push to this new jazz ensemble from Belgium. Yes, we
are dealing here with some promising talents: drummer Casper Van De Velde graduated at the Royal
Conservatory of Antwerp where he studied with Teun Verbruggen, a.o. Also Harrison Steingueldoir is
a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp where he studied piano. Bassist Stan Callewaert
moved in 2016 to Copenhagen in order to continue his studies and started to play with local musicians.
This way they met Lars Greve with whom they produced this next step. The opening track ‘Lichaamloos’
is an open improvisation, and very different from what follows as most compositions are about melody
and harmony. The closing track ‘Nachtzwemmen’ however is again an exception to this. So that I
conclude that both these works are the ones that were based on graphic scores, they speak of. Both
are more abstract nature compared with the rest. In between we find six fine jazzy compositions, like
‘Oskar’, which is a very relaxed lay back jazzy tune, with soft brushes, open piano playing. Also jazzy
but far more dissonant and edgy is ‘Secrets’. The music is obviously rooted in jazz and moving towards
a kind of chamber music. They work with open and subtle constructions that are minimalistic but
effective. A strong concentrated work by a promising collective. (DM)
––– Address: https://dndr.bandcamp.com/
