Traverse by Paul Van Gysegem 3

Paul Van Gysegem (Berlare, Belgium, 1935) can look back on an impressive record of achievements and varied oeuvre: sculptures, paintings, drawings and etchings. Moreover, he is a very passionate musician.

The album Aorta (1971) of Paul Van Gysegem Sextet, often in one breath as Peter Brötzmanns cult album Machine Gun, is recognized worldwide as one of the classics of European free jazz. When the late '60s many key figures of American jazz, such as Steve Lacy, Sunny Murray, Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry ... did to the European latitudes, it could not help but get into Belgium following. Especially as happened in Ghent, where the young bassist Paul Van Gysegem few like-minded musicians around him knew gather to explore this genre together. From this stemmed the groundbreaking album Aorta.

Bart Maris trumpeteer extra-ordinair and the Italian poet/singer/performer Paola Bartoletti engage and improvise. There is a encounter of two worlds: one of poetry, word and sound in dialoque with this very sensitive bass player, renowned for his farreaching research of form.

"Bart Maris is what you could call a musical bricoleur – in the best sense of the term. Someone who builds things with his trumpet and music, who cobbles them together in an artisanal fashion. For me that is the height of being a musician. I like to compare Bart with Han Bennink, the Dutch drummer. To him too, everything is percussion and everything is music. " Wim Wabbes