Doek Composes – A Bunch of Little Gestures by Jasper Stadhouders

Doek composes for solo improvisers, a new and ongoing series on Doek RAW featuring original artwork by Lena Czerniawska.

“I wrote a series of little musical phrases and gestures with space for improvisation in between, around, underneath, above, throughout. A way to approach the piece is seeing it as a dialogue between the improviser and the composed elements in the score, which ideally trigger a certain way of improvising. The composed elements are suggestive, and I hope the improviser feels invited to approach the material in any way they see fit, whether it comes to articulation, (s)pacing, dynamics and form.”

Michael Moore – clarinet
Marta Warelis – piano
Kaja Draksler – MiniNova synth
Ada Rave – bass clarinet
Jasper Stadhouders – acoustic guitar
Eric Boeren – cornet
John Dikeman – soprano sax

Doek Composes
One of the main pillars of Doek is how improvising musicians deal with composed musical elements. When the world was struck by the corona virus and all of us were asked to isolate ourselves as much as possible, we thought: what can we do to perpetuate our music and still share it with our audience and each other? We came up with the simple idea that each Doek member, who feels so inclined, composes a piece for solo improvisers. Each Doek member, who feels so inclined, records each composition in his or her own way, which results in a broad palette of interpretations of the exact same composed material, but played in completely unique ways by each player. It’s an open invitation to compose and record. It gives an image of who we are individually as composers, improvisers and interpreters. Completely in line with Doek’s vision. Next to that, these compositions could easily be included in Doek’s Amsterdam Real Book project, which is a vast and open ended collection of compositions written by Amsterdam composers in Amsterdam for Amsterdam improvisers.