Description

Aula is the first document of the ongoing musical relationship between Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis and his Belgian percussion counterpart Nico Chkifi on drums and percussion. These two simpatico musicians first met in a group curated by longstanding Belgian concert organizers Koen Vandenhoudt and Christel Kumpen. In April of 2023 both musicians took part in a version of the Visitations concert series in Antwerp, curated and produced by Vandenhoudt and Kumpen’s organization Sound In Motion and their affiliated record label Dropa Disc. That version of Visitations featured a transatlantic sextet including these two alongside Larry Ochs (saxophones) and Darren Johnston (trumpet) from the US, and Marta Warelis (piano) and Hugo Antunes (bass) from Netherlands and Belgium.

Based on the personal and musical strenghts of that collaboration, Rempis and Chkifi decided to delve further into their work in the fall of 2023 when Rempis returned to Europe. The two did a five-concert tour of Germany and Belgium, including this date recorded at the legendary L’An Vert in Liège. Long a home of creative music, that intimate club and dedicated audience gave them the perfect place to relax into the extended exploration of the duo format documented here. With a shared understanding of the meditative and spiritual aspects of their practice in improvised music, these two undertake a patient exploration that builds from long tones and delicate brushwork into volcanic overtures across the arc of a set-length improvisation. Both musicians allow their focus to dictate patience in the trajectories they unfurl, taking their time to alight on peaks that rest on the astounding structures they’ve built beneath. 

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