Alex Koo Trio +

THE HEART, THE

HEART, THE HEART,

HERE, NOW! +

Matthias De Craene

&

Black Koyo

^{BELGIUM BOOMS X JAZZLAB}

Pianist Alex Koo previously played a fantastic concert at our Nova Express jazz club. His album Appleblueseagreen with Mark Turner and Ralph Alessi was named one of the best albums of the year by America's leading Downbeat Jazz Magazine, while his solo album Etudes for Piano garnered comparisons to grandmaster Keith Jarrett, among others. In early 2025, the highly anticipated Blame It On My Chromosomes was released. Expect a blistering melange of colorful compositions, quaint combinations and compelling interplay.

Piano, composities: Alex Koo • double bass: Lennart Heyndels  • drums: Dré Pallemaerts • image © Alexander Popelier

Hanne De Backer is equally at home playing with intimate details as she is with big-hearted, expressively chasing free music (cf. BRAND! 2024). With this new band, she shows a different face, a pulsating unity in which a crucial role is played by the creative beats and samples of Damon Locks and masterful bassist Silvia Bolognesi. With that foundation and a combination of uplifting and comforting lines, this concert will undoubtedly grow into a unique, compelling sound....

A fusion of traditional gnawa music and the sound world of Mattias De Craene. In Morocco, he became acquainted with cultural customs, musical traditions and local musicians. In the trio Black Koyo from the Brussels gnawa community, he found the ideal allies to process his impressions and ideas. Expect a mix of tradition and innovation, of earthly ritualism and ethereal exploration, provided with the dark edge that characterizes so much of De Craene's music. Not just a meeting of cultures, then, but an entanglement, a dialogue in depth.