Het ICP Orkest - Misha Mengelberg

After their first concert in December 2002 met with such enthusiastic response, there was but a single reaction: they must return as quickly as possible. It can be said without exaggeration that ICP Orchestra is absolutely world class. Musically their work is experimental, adventuresome and surprisingly spontaneous. Their music includes references to music history, as well as to folk tunes. In the past years, ICP has submitted the oeuvre of Herbie Nichols, Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington to their expert scrutiny and added their own interpretation. ICP Orchestra approaches music with as few preconceptions as possible to preserve their own joy of performance. They proceed intuitively. Fragments of music linger on and are turned into a new piece. Then they decide about the formal aspect, for instance, whether it will be a suite with individual elements blending into each other, or a cakewalk for loose-limbed oddballs, a play with howlers and clangers, full of surprising interventions, and refined choreography of disruption, brilliance and inventiveness. It's as if music was reinventing itself: vital, subtle and incalculably well thought-out. On the eve of their departure on an extended tour of Asia, ICP Orchestra will present new material at the Belgian premiere. Don't miss it.