Utopic Cities explore progressive jazz in Belgium 1968-1979
On June 11th, independent groove label Sdban Records will release Utopic Cities: Progressive Jazz in Belgium 1968-1979 featuring twelve essential compositions from a highly creative period in Belgian jazz. The release follows Sdban’s critically acclaimed Let’s Get Swinging: Modern Jazz in Belgium 1950-1970, released back in 2017.
Utopic Cities is an eclectic selection of forward-thinking jazz from the Belgian underground, including the left-field fusion of Marc Moulin’s Placebo, Koen De Bruyne and Solis Lacus; the intense post-bop of Jacques Pelzer and Lou MacConnell; the cutting edge soul jazz of Philip Catherine and Open Sky Unit or the otherworldly avant-garde of Babs Robert and the Brussels Art Quintet. Recorded in the aftermath of the revolutionary year 1968, this music is the fruit of a highly creative momentum in Belgian jazz history that produced a unique sound which distinguishes itself from its American source of inspiration by an indefinable characteristic that can be hardly better described than ‘Belgian’.
TRACKLIST
A1. Placebo – S.U.S.
A2. Solis Lacus – Utopic Cities
A3. Open Sky Unit – Open Sky
A4. Brussels Art Quintet – Vas-y Voir
B1. Koen De Bruyne – Pathetic Dreams
B2. Raphaël – Archangelo
C1. Philip Catherine – Memphis Talk
C2. Jacques & Micheline Pelzer Quartet – Face Reality
C3. The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band – Sakara
D1. Marc Moulin – Tohubohu pt. I
D2. Babs Robert – Pro Forma I
D3. Lou MacConnell – Naima
Sdban will release Utopic Cities on June 11th, 2021