GEORGE DUMITRIU HAZARD ENSEMBLE
George Dumitriu – viola, electronics
Raphael Vanoli – guitar, electronica
Fuensanta – vocals, double bass
Lennart Heyndels – double bass, modular synth
Joachim Badenhorst – clarinet, electronica, voice
Frank Rosaly – drums, percussion
Using a huge palette of sounds, Hazard Ensemble creates an otherworldly dimension through allowing the music to awaken, emerge and shine.
George Dumitru was commissioned by North Round Town Festival and Raluca Baicu, to assemble a group of musicians performance in the beautiful acoustics of Laurenskerk in Rotterdam. The choice was for an improvising ensemble made of some of the most sensitive and versatile musi- cians from the Netherlands and Belgium, and having as a source of inspiration the “sonic aware- ness” practices of American composer Pauline Oliveros.
Patiently sculpting in time, in a spiritual contemplative and immersive manner, the ensemble produces sounds belonging to both acoustic and electronic sources, where sometimes 6 people can sound more like 60. Fuensanta Mendez is reciting personal texts or singing beautifully heartfelt songs in Spanish while Raphael Vanoli (Knalpot) blows in the strings of the guitar, enhanced with his rich use of electronics. Belgian bassist Lennart Heyndels switches at times to a full array of analog synth layers from his modular rack, complementing Frank Rosaly’s great variety of percussive possibilities ranging from air beating to heavy smashes. Joachim Badenhorst switches his tenor saxophone melodies reminiscent of Garbarek to sampler or lo-fi keyboard sounds, next to his unique experimental and R’n’B signature sound with Zero Years Kid. Medita- tive and longing sounds with a touch of granular sampling come out of Dumitriu’s viola as he is taking the leading role in a subtle and placid way.
Hazard Ensemble creates a spiritual dimension, changing the perception of time, immersing the listener into a honest and heart opening experience.
Press quotes
The flow of the ensemble’s music completely created and shaped in real time was fed from a deeper source that connected the musicians with each other, allowing them to create and contribute their own colorings, take their own initiatives and get into each other’s elaborations.
Certainly, the music had its ambient qualities but there was a lot more in its dynamics and courses, especially the emergence and shining of melodies and song molded from the flow, the elegance and force of some elongations, its rhythmical accelerations and percussive explosions, and wonderfully embedded individual excursions.
Fascinating perpetual dynamics of sound waves unfolded and suffused the cathedral’s space, wandering between its corners at different heights.
Henning Bolte – All About Jazz