Recollection Epoxy Quartet
Album info
Album-Release:
2025
HRA-Release:
07.02.2025
Album including Album cover
- 1 Arecibo 06:21
- 2 Made 05:54
- 3 Mettā 04:59
- 4 Out of Reach 08:33
- 5 Shelter 05:49
- 6 Three Strikes Out 03:41
- 7 The Clearing 05:43
- 8 Last Chance 05:42
- 9 Daybreak 04:36
- 10 Inertia 04:40
Info for Recollection
This album consists of 9 pieces based on scenes, photos, people, and experiences from my own life, plus two free improvisations. Although they are my personal memories, we recollect these experiences collectively as we translate them into sound. I share my personal experiences with the ensemble using materials ranging from graphic scores and written melodies, to photos and stories. I invite the others to individually interpret what I offer them. These materials function as unfinished compositions and as such challenge us to creatively connect our own ideas and sounds to the music, over and over again. To deal with this freedom in a musical way, we developed strategies for collective improvisation during a two-year artistic research process focussed on the Dutch tradition of free improvisation from the 1960s. This combination of recollection and improvisation has resulted in a record that is playful and personal, yet has an evocative, nostalgic, and impressionist character.
Our name, Epoxy Quartet, refers to my grandfather Joop Gijsman who spent a large part of his life pioneering the production and development of epoxy in the Netherlands. This debut release is dedicated to him. It means a lot to the me that my grandfather was able to listen to this record in the final days of his life. For the album artwork, Conor Hunter used a Hasselblad CM-500 to photograph the Oosterscheldekering, the largest storm surge barrier of the Dutch Delta Works, that was constructed with epoxy from my grandfather’s factory.
Epoxy Quartet:
Koen Gijsman, piano
Kasper Rietkerk, saxophone
Kim Jäger, cello
Martijn van Ditshuizen, clarinet
Tuomas Ruokonen, drums
Epoxy Quartet
was founded by pianist and composer Koen Gijsman, who set out to combine free improvisation with European jazz and chamber music. Their music is built on a simple idea: compositions are not fixed pieces, but invitations—to improvise freely, and to listen closely. Drawing on the Dutch tradition of free improvisation, the quartet creates performances that are lyrical, spacious, and constantly in motion, often evoking the colour and atmosphere of composers like Debussy and Ravel. No two concerts are the same. The ensemble features saxophonist Kasper Rietkerk (Edison Jazz Newcomer Award 2025), cellist Kim Jäger (Erasmus Jazz Prize 2023), drummer Tuomas Ruokonen, and pianist Koen Gijsman (Codarts Artistic Research Prize). Together, they merge into a single, responsive sound that moves fluidly between jazz, chamber music, and contemporary improvisation.
This album contains no booklet.