"Two wind players from Belgium who have been involved in free improvisation for many years: Jean-Jacques Duerinckx on sopranino and baritone saxophones and Jacques Foschia on bass, E-flat and high B-flat clarinets, often met in joint concerts and finally in a duo concert (at my request), a duo that has continued over the years. But J.J. has a passion for duos or trios of wind players with, among others, alto and soprano saxophonist Adrian Northover and clarinettist Tom Jackson etc... Subsequently, Adrian and J.J. recorded a real gem for two saxophones: Hearoglyphics (Setola di Maiale).

To make the opportunity of a single performance by the trio at the Chapelle du Grand Hospice in Brussels on 23/04/24 more attractive, it was decided to make a recording the following day, the 24th, because a 24th of the month in 2024 must be good.

But since his time in Brussels, Jacques Foschia has invented a new passion: Japanese bamboo flutes ("shakuhashi"), of which he himself selects pieces from nature in the Drome valley where he has lived for several years. He cuts sections and precisely carves the notch for the mouthpiece. He has learned to blow his "kyotaku" with great precision and that extra soul of the great wind players, being himself a clarinettist of stature and maestro of the bass clarinet.

Adrian and Jacques became friends in the London Improvisers Orchestra between 2000 and 2011. They sat in a reed section alongside Lol Coxhill, Evan Parker, John Butcher, Caroline Kraabel, Harrison Smith and Alex Ward. Visiting London in 2000, Jacques Foschia played one evening with the L.I.O and the orchestra asked him to come back to record their second album The Hearing Continues (Emanem).

Seriously, the L.I.O. had a great clarinettist at the time, Alex Ward, but Jacques played the bass clarinet at a level that had no equivalent in the U.K. in the field of improvisation in 2000, even though he felt like a novice from classical and contemporary music.

Similarly, Jean-Jacques Duerinckx is arguably the most distinctive improvising saxophonist on the improvisation scene in Belgium, playing in electroacoustic or free-rock-psychedelic projects (Neptunian Maximalist and ZAAAR). The sopranino sax is a rather daunting and difficult instrument to master, and it is to J.J.'s credit that he made it his main instrument.

And Adrian Northover, a talented and experienced saxophonist, has long been a staple of the London scene (Adam Bohman, the legendary bands B Shops for The Poor and Remote Viewers) with many strings to his bow.

The trio's music being based on listening and the ideas - feelings - tacit suggestions of each, it covers a wide panorama of timbres, sounds, dynamics of playing and breaths, melodic or harmonic substrates, ramifications, an imaginary folklore side.

We hear one solo or another (Adrian, J.J.), Adrian's "curved" soprano saxophone which offers a real particularity (guess which one, we won't explain everything) which adapts with a real singularity to the alternative techniques of JJ which implodes the column of air of the sopranino or the baritone with "far out" breath effects or reacts instantly in "free-jazz" mode on occasion.

But also the mysterious Ryokaku of Jacques completely opens the horizon by making his net of pure ethereal sound heard among the breath of the two saxophones. The Ryokaku is perfect for blowing with J.J. who doesn't hesitate to blow into the sopranino tube without the mouthpiece... the air column vibrates without a reed, offering the passage of the blown air as a fake but lively sound.

Facetious, Jacques has kept a sufficient quantity of bamboo sections unsuitable for transforming into flutes to be able to play them as percussion instruments in a completely free perspective close to Paul Lovens and Roger Turner, bursting and wild without excess sound volume. Colorful and singularly resonant percussions with this natural "woody" quality in terms of sound.

In short, this trio is a real pleasure to listen to, creates a magnificent atmosphere this organic creation, made of air, winds, reeds, tubes and bamboos..."—Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, Orynx (Via Google Translate)