Rolf Delfos is a teacher at the Academy of Music of The Hague and Zwolle. Since the eighties he has been perfoming with THE HOUDINI'S, during which time he recorded 12 CD’s with this jazz sextet, and played at the famous Rudy van Gelder Studio in New York. During his career Delfos has recorded more than 100 records with artists such as GINO VANNELLI, AZYMUTH and DR LONNIE SMITH, and he is active part in several of his own bands, like THE JAZZINVADERS, DELMONTIS and the hugely groove-based big band LICKS AND BRAINS. For the latter he is the chief composer and writes majority of the arrangements, in addition to directing the future course of the band. At the end of the 1990’s he received the prestigious ‘Gouden Notenkraker’ award with the HOUDINI’S and in 2014 he was granted the PETER SCHILPEROORT award. In 2017 he released his first piece of work as DELFOS: ‘Road trip for the last 90 days of your life’. Since 2015 he has been involved in theatre projects like NEW YORK ROUND MIDNIGHT and SWINGING HARLEM. Delfos continues to travel the world with his projects and bands; from Australia to South Africa, from Colombia to Canada. In 2017 he was asked to arrange the programme ‘Sophiatown’ for a small ensemble with compositions of South African composers during the ‘Apartheid’.
Bart Wirtz graduated cum laude in 2002 at the Rotterdam Conservatory and pursued his study in New York. Wirtz was co-founder of the bands MONSIEUR DUBOIS, YOUNG SINATRAS and THE VERY NEXT. He is also a member of THE ROTTERDAM JAZZ ORCHESTRA. From the moment he released his début album ‘Prologue’ his career took off. Wirtz won several prizes like the Erasmus Jazz Prize, Leiden Jazz Award, Breda Jazz Price, two Edison nominations and the Edison for his album IDreamer. He recorded ‘IDreamer’ in New York with an all- American band starring NICHOLAS PAYTON. The track 'Evolution of the Innocent' was streamed more than 3.5 million times on Spotify. In 2014 Wirtz released the album ‘Interview’, a collaboration with trumpet player SEAN JONES. In 2017 he released his latest album 'Beneath the Surface' with a new band thus delivering an entirely brand new sound. This resulted in another Edison nomination and a tour at several great venues and festivals like The North Sea Jazz Festival.
Mete Erker graduated from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in 1998 and subsequently was invited by DAVID LIEBMAN to join his group at the North Sea Jazz Festival. Over the years he has worked in a great variety of musical settings, ranging from the premiere of his 2015 ‘Near East Up North’ project with modern classical ensemble ASKO|SCHÖNBERG and kemence virtuoso DERYA TÜRKAN, to the 2016 recording of the latest album of his hard-core-impro group ESTAFEST at the renowned BMC label in Budapest. In 2017 three new albums were released: FUCHS, ERKER & VAN VLIET: ‘Linden’, ESTAFEST: ‘Bayachrimae’ and METE ERKER TRIO: ‘Live!’.
Peter Broekhuizen studied at the Rotterdam Conservatory and his long career started off in soul-jazz/funk: he toured the world for years with artists such as SUE CHALONER’s Soultrain (UK, support act Ray Charles) and CANDY DULFER’s Funky Stuff (Japan/Asia/USA/Europe, performing with VAN MORISSON and MAVIS STAPLES). He has performed latin/world music with Lucas van Merwijk’s CUBOP CITY BIGBAND (and also with the fabulous harp player EDMAR CASTANEDA) and with RUMBATÁ (touring in Colombia). He has also played impro jazz with the JAZZERALL drummer Arend Niks. Broekhuizen has now released four albums with his own soul-jazz band THE AURATONES. Highlights are guest performances and recordings with GERARD PRECENSER (tpt/UK). He’s currently performing with Dutch jazz talent KIM HOORWEG and, together with Delfos in THE JAZZINVADERS and DELMONTIS. His latest project is the hard-bop band MESSENGERS REVISITED.
Artistic Process Artvark in ‘trance’
One of Artvark’s unique characteristics is the collective creation process of their compositions. From the beginning of the quartet’s existence the band members have written their own music themselves. As they rehearsed and played the compositions of the different band members they wanted to adapt it constantly. And they still do this! Gradually this ongoing adaptation process became their core composition process. As a result, the unique sound of Artvark was born. Coming from a true co-creation process of four completely different musicians and personalities. Since the fifth album ‘Bluestories’ all compositions have been collectively created by Artvark and have become unique co-compositions.
Co-composing, how does that work?
It all begins with someone bringing an idea to the rehearsal room. This can be a part of a piece of music like a base line or a specific melody or sound. Or even a finished composition. The idea or sound is the starting point of a collective experiment. By practising and improvising on the idea, base line or melody something new is evolving. Through this process even a composition that was thought to be finished, changes completely.
Each member of the quartet has very specific and outspoken ideas on music and by discussing this together and practising trial en error they look for the form that best fits Artvark. That particular form in which the core of the piece is best expressed and which adds something new to the Artvark repertoire. This process of fine-tuning and updating continues often until say the 30th time it is played for an audience. In that moment of focus and exchange with the audience they can experience what works. As soon as a piece of music has evolved into its ‘final’ form the collective improvising starts with this form. This means that they continue to vary on the form and play it in different ways. The music must always be fresh and alive. Artvark’s eternal search for the truffle ....
Besides the major differences in musical background of the Artvark members they have something in common that is key to the quartet: their focus on how the music communicates with the listener. Compositional and saxophonic techniques are always in service of the sound. Depending on how it feels when it is played, a piece of music is included in the repertoire and is there to stay. Artvark is looking for music with a strong visual or narrative character, a collective pulse, for poetry. To create a specific feeling or texture, the base of a piece of music is often formed by an unorthodox sound or playing mode on the saxophone.
Latest album: trance
By creating trance Artvark strikes a new direction. Their intention was to create one big story, instead of many different pieces each with their own character and sound. Each member of the quartet brought compositions from multiple parts, like a suite, to the rehearsal room. Through their unique co-composing process they’ve recreated all of this into one big arc of tension. The central musical starting point of creating trance is: departing from one note, the listener will be taken through a pulsing rhythm and system into a kaleidoscopic universe of different melodies, layered and overlapping each other, all to return to that one note.
‘Darkness’ is a clear example of this process. The piece consists of two parts. Part 1 is based on a repeating melody in Ab minor, a key with a very dark character. The melody is played in a constant pulse, which suggests a drum with a lazy backbeat. Then the melody is passed as a baton in relays and the rest of the parties are improvised. Who is playing the melody or improvising where and when is found through trial and error. Part 1 is ending into a lying low Ab from which a tenor solo begins. In Part 2, the lying note pulses at the rate of Part 1. The unisono Ab slowly floats into a sound borrowed from the third symphony of Gorecki: a stack of seconds. Together with the tenor solo this is building up to a groove and dynamic peak. A sudden stop and three echoes of fragments of the first melody finalise the music.
Artvark’s trance intends to take the listener on a cinematic journey.
