Flat Earth Society

Bulliphant
Sleep
Off Record OUI026

Linchpin of the Amsterdam’s Spinifex band, Ghent-based trumpeter/flugelhornist Bart Maris also has a busy career adding his talents to other aggregations often featuring fellow Belgians. These new discs from the long-standing, 15-piece Flat Earth Society (FES) band and the newly formed Bulliphant quintet displays his perceptive adaptations in maximum and minimal settings.

Combining swing band bluster, Rock group beats, rollicking circus music-like choruses and a willingness to feature almost all of its members in solo breaks, the FES has been around since 1997. Other distinguishing features here are that arrangements of the six compositions half of which were written by either keyboardist Peter Vandenberghe or Peter Vermeersch, who plays bass clarinet and electronics. All move past standard big band riffs to integrate unexpected dynamics from instruments like Berlinde Dema’s tuba and Wim Segers’ vibraphone.

Some tracks are also segmented around numerous tempo changes as well as motifs that can ascend to be jagged and pressurized or winnow downwards as effervescent but not procumbent episodes. That means a track like “The Last One” can balanced pre-programmed voices and faint Latin rhythms with huffing and puffing horns and power thumps from bassist Kristof Roseeuw. Or that the bassist’s mid-range intro to “The Lost One” sets the scene for a sliding bass clarinet ostinato, some brass oomph pah pahs, vibes bar clattering and a final snort from Bruno Vansina’s baritone saxophone before settling into regularized drum beats from Gert-Jan Dreessen.

More crucial are The One’s multi sectional tracks which open up the arrangements for distinctive section work. Since Maris is one of two trumpeters with Pauline Leblond, it’s not certain who plays which part. However it’s most likely Maris who contributes the emotional brass ascent in the middle section of the ternary “bONEs”. It bridges the crime film soundtrack suggestions with plunger slurs from one of the two trombonists, energetic piano clips and tough bites from tenor saxophonist Michel Mast with the middle section where echoing piano dynamics, trumpet smears and a walking bass line. This in turn leads to a climax of drum paradiddles and ruffs plus guitarist Maarten Flamand’s overdrawn Rock-like flanges. It’s also likely that the  whizzy triplets and squeezes that enliven one sequence in “The Previous One” are from Maris. This sectional Vermeersch composition also evolves from a languid piano theme to tinkles and cascades from the keyboard that, following a tutti ascension, calms down to contrast swelling horn vamps with the rhythm section’s twanging ricochets, rolls and thumps, then after a full band crescendo a stop-time sequence with sandpaper percussion scrapes and hunt-and-peck pianism pushes the flighty horns to a defined conclusion, completed by a definite keyboard clang.

Personalization is easier on the other CD with only five players, although the ringing alarm clock-like knelling from the FES is initially replaced on Sleep with a near-somnolent unfolding of tracks meant to replicate the states of of sleep. Luckily the muted drowsiness reflecting dedicated REM sleep with smooth trumpeting, featherlight reed lines and careful keyboard plinks is soon propelled into near-wakefulness with drummer Friso van Wijck’s swift clatters and eventually Maris digging deep into his horn’s innards to project toneless air with no valve movement as well as some basement wallowing baritone sax smears from Ruben Verbruggen. During the disc’s second half it appears that everyone has ingested some stimulants with the tracks rife with smeary brass triplets, saxophone scoops and flattement, Thijs Troch’s buzzing electronics, scraping sul tasto runs from bassist Gonçalo Almeida, Maris’ Spinifex associate, and bell ringing plus percussion shakes and vibrations.

Overall it’s van Wijck who makes the most resounding impression on livelier tracks such as “6. Sunday, part II: Develop and conclude” and the connected “Deep sleep” and “Waking up”. Consisting of slow entrances and exits and a defining andante centre, the first tune balances on the drummer’s clave shakes and later bass drum smacks and snare rumbles as broken chord patterns expressed with Maris’ brass obbligato and Verbruggen’s reed smears and slathers climax with Troch’s single piano key emphasis and more clave reverb.

Meanwhile the final resolution from flat line slumber into wakefulness is first described with hard drum smacks, bass string rumbles and mid-range trumpet swells. It’s confirmed as thicker, tougher strokes are added by the pianist, bass string stops swell and there’s a passionate exchange of irregular textures from Maris and Verbruggen that flutter downwards into linear motion.

Besides showing off the skills of Maris and other soloists, the discs are noteworthy in that they establish that the FES is still evolving musically after more than 25 years together and that a new quintet of veteran and budding talents is premiered with Bulliphant.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: One: 1. 1. bONEs Part 1: wONEdering Part 2: second to ONE Part 3: Mr. ONE the Third Part 4: no ONE in the final 2. The Lost One 3. Zippo Raid 4. The Previous One 5. The One 6. The Last One

Personnel: One: Pauline Leblond, Bart Maris (trumpet); Peter Delannoye, Marc Meeuwissen (trombone); Berlinde Dema (tuba);  Benjamin Boutreur (alto saxophone); Michel Mast (tenor saxophone); Bruno Vansina (baritone saxophone, flute); Peter Vermeersch (bass clarinet, electronics); Peter Vandenberghe (piano, keyboard); Wim Segers (vibraphone); Maarten Flamand (guitar); Kristof Roseeuw (bass); Gert-Jan Dreessen (drums)

Track Listing: Sleep: 1. Cinematic fields 2. Inner forces 3. Hypnic jerk: a 12-tone discovery 4. Inhale, exhale 5. Sunday, part I: Inception 6. Sunday, part II: Develop and conclude 7. A dream leaving Bali  8. REM stage 9. Deep sleep 10. Waking up

Personnel: Sleep: Bart Maris (trumpet); Ruben Verbruggen (alto and baritone saxophones); Thijs Troch (piano and electronics); Gonçalo Almeida (bass) and Friso van Wijck (percussion and bells)