Let's Call Ed - freedom and wired electronics
We recorded Let's Call Ed in just a few hours time during the summer of 2005. I remember well. I arrived a few days earlier at that cozy cottage of GAM Recording Studios in the heart of the Belgian Ardennes, together with friend, sound engineer and human extraordinaire Patrice Hardy. We had decided to take a few days more to set everything up nicely. And while waiting for the other musicians to arrive, we recorded some solo material from Koyà, my project for saxophone and live electronics. Yes, material that has never been released so far... I'll see what I can do.
The band Let's Call Ed started out as a trio in 1989 (CDs "Some Sounds" and "Eleven"), featuring master musicians Dré Pallemaerts on drums, Michel Hatzigeorgiou on Fender bass, and myself on saxophone. Keyboard wizard Jozef Dumoulin on Fender Rhodes, joins the original trio many years later. I remember him asking before going on stage, those first few gigs together, what the setlist was going to be that night. He soon understood there was no point asking... Often we changed the order of the tunes on the spot, so a setlist became useless. This tendency evolved even further into our feeling that pre-set structures, forms, melodies and harmonies, became obstacles of something else that was starting to happen spontaneously. More creativity? More freedom? More being in the moment? More acting in the now? Thinking less.
We all manipulate live electronics. Lots of pedals, wires and stomp boxes everywhere. All tracks on this recording are complete improvised. No former agreements, cues, or structures, no lengthy discussions... We played for 3 hours, and took 2 breaks. This is the result. Hardly any post-production, besides mixing and mastering.
We love to play in the moment, compose in the moment. Listening to each other with great interest and openness, accepting whatever comes our way, supporting and enhancing each other's ideas and personalities musically, that's what Let's Call Ed is about.
Listen to the music in the player below. Leave a comment, a question, let us know what you think. You can purchase your favourite tracks directly by clicking on the shopping cart in the music player.
