Moers Festival 2025 (Part 1) ~ The Free Jazz Collective

Photos by author, unless otherwise indicated.

By Paul Acquaro 

Arriving in Moers on Friday afternoon, the shuttle bus from the train station
offered a chance encounter with the group from Shenzhen, China. Dedicated to
creating and fostering a creative music scene in their city, they run Old Heaven Books, a book shop, record label and cafe, the B10 Live music
space, as well as organize the OCT-LOFT and Tomorrow music festivals. Free-jazz saxophonist Lao Dan was also onboard. Having recently acquired his
new solo recording To Hit a Pressure Point (Relative Pitch Records,
2025), I was looking forward to hearing him play. So, only a few minutes in the
city and it already seemed like a promising start to the weekend. 

Spinifex Maxximus

This year is the Netherlands based group’s 20th anniversary. The core
players are main composer and alto saxophonist Tobias Klein
, along with Moers artist-in-residence and trumpeter

Bart Maris

, saxophonist John Dikeman, guitarist

Jasper Stadhouders

, bassist Goncalo Almeida and drummer

Philipp Moser

. For a series of concerts during this China Anniversary year, they have
added violist Jessica Pavone, cellist

Elisabeth Coudoux

and vibraphonist Evi Filippou, resulting in their
manifestation as Spinifex Maxximus.

Jonas Gerigk and Ying Yang

After the set, there seemed to be a long break before the next concert.
After wandering about the festival market place, I stumbled on the
‘Traktor Stage’ where a “Freysinn” set,
one of 12 musician organized concerts of the festival, was happening. This one was with
with bassist Jonas Gerigk and violinist

Ying Yang

, two young music students from Koeln. Shortly afterwards, a pianist was
playing “Ueber’m Platz,” which was one of the
platforms that hoisted the musicians over the festival grounds.

Darius Held on the scissor lift. Phpt

Exciting in concept, however pianist Darius Held’s minimalist
solo performance was rather inaudible and the spectacle of the raised stage
wore off soon enough (something to do with that the musicians having to wear
a safety vest somehow detracted from the experience – I know, safety first). What I didn’t realize is that while I was bumbling about the fairground,
a (reportedly) excellent set was playing out under the guise of the
“moers sessions!” at the larger outdoor stage, while a
collection of British musicians from the Huddersfeld Festival contingent
were quietly taking-over the downtown spaces, a couple of kilometers away. 

 

Marmar. Photo by Dennis Hoeren

The blast of sound from the stage was not unexpected, but it
certainly did shatter the stillness. From under an eerie green glow on the
stage, the surgical mask covered face of Marmar peeked out from under a
hooded sweatshirt. He held an electric bass in hand and stood before an
electronics bedecked table. A massive, throbbing sound emanating from the
cloaked figure as he tweaked devices on the table. Feedback and deep
guttural whispers shook the dirt and made ripples in the sky. It was a bit
frightening, but it was also magnetic. Off to my side, I noticed Lao Dan and
made a gesture to him in which I tried to express that the music was slowly
unscrewing my face but I was okay with this effect. I’m not sure what he actually understood of this.

Zhao Cong

A perfect setting really. Small Christmas tree ornaments and porcelain
curios lined the precisely and densely packed display shelves, while Cong
was in the middle, her table set up with a mixer, a stainless steel cup with
water, an array of little objects and many contact mics. This was her sound
laboratory for the moment, and the small store was soon packed with curious
onlookers. Cong blew up a balloon and when it popped confetti rained down.
She placed an effervescent tablet in the cup and amplified the fizzing. She
used many objects that clicked and clacked, moving gracefully through the
constricted room, activating sounds from everything. How someone did not
knock over a delicate tchotchke may have been the most impressive part of
all. 

Jan Klare and Charlotte Keefe

Next, the duo of British trumpeter Charlotte Keefe and
German saxophonist Jan Klare (who was also in charge of the
‘moers sessions’) were scheduled to play at a cafe around the corner. Not
feeling ready for a beer, I settled for a decent milchkaffee (or was it a
cappuccino? my notes are lacking here) and waited. I was quickly learning
that for these small in-town sets, they fill up quickly, so you needed to be
early and patient. This is also where I overheard Keefe and Klare meeting
for the first time, mere minutes before they were set to perform as a duo. 

 

Elisabeth Coudoux, Willi Kellers Gonçalo Almeida, and Thilo Schoelpen

After a walk back through the park to the main festival grounds, it was
almost time for the ‘moers sessions’ at 2 p.m. The first
set was the combination of cellist Elisabeth Coudoux,
bassist Gonçalo Almeida, pianist

Thilo Schoelpen

, and drummer Willi Kellers.Their set turned out to be a
welcome blast of good ol’ free jazz. The group started with the flames on
high and kept turning it up until the heat began escaping not only from the
instruments in hand but in a series of excited screams from Coudoux. Next,
saxophonist Hayden Chisholm, violist

Jessica Pavone

and pianist Darius Heid took an opposite approach.
Minimalist and delicate, the set was a test of tension and restraint, the
birds in the park were louder. Then, after a sudden downpour, the third set
began with saxophonist John Dikeman, electronicist
Achim Zepezauer, pianist Rieko Okuda and
percussionist Jonas Evenstad. It was a free-jazz sandwich,
the piano was ablaze with sharp tonal splats and jabs, the drums setting the
energy level on high. After dialing it back for a moment, a gentle rumble of
the piano led to a saxophone fueled melee of unbridled intensity.

bBb bBb: Lao Dan and the duo of Li Daiguo

I cannot say I recall what happened after this set, I must have wandered
around, bumped into people and said hello, perhaps I ate some pizza … that
is usually correct … and then it was time for bBb bBb
(the duo of Li Daiguo & Lao Dan) on the
outdoor stage. The duo began with a set that seemed to blend tradition and
modern techniques. Li Daigou, an American born, China based,
multi-instrumentalist approaches the lute-like pipa guitaristically. Lao Dan, playing a wooden flute, seemed to bring forth
traditional melodies but, again, in a more contemporary manner. The two
settled into a groove that encouraged some heads bopping in the
audience. After cycling through the flutes, a naked mouth piece, and an alto
clarinet-like instrument with a long, flexible neck, Lao Dan turned to his
saxophone. Li Daigou had also pivoted from the pipa to the piano, creating a
different atmosphere by interjecting beat-boxing. Then, like the
sporadic cloudbursts that had been happening all day, the two let out a
deluge of sound. The minimal piano lines
and the fiery shredding of the saxophone began to peel back the layers of
reality. This was something gobsmackingly new.

Willi Keller’s The Circle

The group began with the vibrating sounds of Hiby and Kneer. Keller and Okuda
entered shortly thereafter, slowly building humming intensity. The piano was
an agitating force, while Keller and Kneer laid a strong foundation. Then,
Hiby began pushing fiercely, waves of intensity followed, the players
retracting, regathering, and attacking again and again. Okuda physically
bounced against the keyboard, before she began striking the piano from the
inside. Hiby played tightly-wound lines, and the entire band pulled in,
rigid, taut, thrumming and humming away. If there was a gauge, the needle
would have been hovering between sizzling orange and boiling red, but they
never quite went over the edge.

 

Chronograffiti. Photo by Zalesskaya

The set that followed was a percussion based piece by

Koshiro Hino

called Chronograffiti. Through an
evolution of drumming, first a set of players from the renowned Taiko group
Kodo playing at an increasing tempo, adorned by flashing lights, to then a
single player on a large drum in the front of the stage area, and finally to
a piece with again multiple drummers. The crowd was enthusiastic,
underscoring that the diversity of the music ensured something
unconventional for everyone. 

Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

The day was feeling already quite full, but there was still much to come.
The next event being the highly anticipated

Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. The group, which came together in 2023, is a timely update to free-jazz,
freely mixing elements of electronics, hip-hop, rock and free improvisation.
Under a blanket of fog, the groups two electronicists,

Gabriele Mitelli

and Mariam Rezaei, flanked by saxophonist

Mette Rasmussen

and drummer Lukas Koenig, ignited with passionate fury —
they began at full throttle and took it from there. A potent moment arose
when their volume level reduced to an electronic throb, and while Rasmussen
started a long drone, Mitelli spat out sharp licks on his pocket trumpet,
which he seemed to favor for long stretches of the set. Soon, Koenig settled
into a sludgy groove and the band reached the first of several energetic
peaks.  

 

Lao Dan

Stumbling out of the event hall into the cooler evening air on the market
square, it was just in time to see Lao Dan being hoisted
into the air on the scissor lift. Sounds, first of a sampled guitar and
electronic drones, followed by his flute, permeated the skies around the
festival, shaking the entire area. Half way through this unusual set, Lao
Dan began to focus on electronics entirely, using a stick like object to
control the sound. Watching his dramatic expressive gestures with the saber,
he did seem a bit like a Jedi from afar.