Dual Activity is an inspired homage to the seminal, free improvised work of British free improvising pioneers – drummer John Stevens and guitarist Derek Bailey, and especially to their duo album Playing (Incus, 1993). Wastell, who witnessed Stevens and Bailey’s performance in August 1992, says that «the music they played that night marked me for life. I reflect on that gig to this day. Their commitment, energy, seriousness, and musical intellect have informed me for over three decades». Prolific Belgian guitarist Dirk Series, like Wastell, was influenced by the work of Bailey and Stevens. Wastell (who also runs the Confront label) and Serries, with the same instrumentation as Stevens and Bailey, amplified acoustic guitar and small percussion set, recorded eight short improvisations as an homage to their mentors at Dave Hunt Studio in London in February 2025. This EP lasts only 25 minutes, and its limited edition of 50 CD-Rs is already sold out, but the music is still available on Confront and Serries’ Bandcamp pages. And the music is profound, uncompromising, thought-provoking, clear, and pure, just like their mentors.
Serries and Portuguese sax hero José Lencastre collaborated in the Transition Unit Trio (with fellow Portuguese pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro), in the Lemadi Trio (with Serries’ wife – and photographer – Martina Verhoeven on the Crummar electric piano), and as a duo. Trompe L’oeil (deceive the eye in French, an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface) is an expanded version of Lencastre and Serries’ duo limited edition of 20 copies 7” single Arcas / Callisto (Champion Version, 2024), recorded nat the Oude Klooster chapel in Brecht in April 2024. The seven duets – conversation – highlight a deep listening yet urgent dynamics, and, obviously, a strong camaraderie. Lencastre and Serries had a lot to tell each other, in a nuanced, deeply articulated and personal manner, exhausting their rich, mysterious and poetic sonic palettes. This acoustic duo of just alto sax and acoustic guitar operates on multiple dimensions of time and space, and its spontaneous music sounds like it was premeditated as mature compositions.
British violist Benedict Taylor and Serries have collaborated in many formats, mainly in the free improvising ensemble Tonus, but also as a duo. Geometric Folklore is their fourth duo album, recorded at Oude Klooster chapel in Brecht in October 2024, where the duo recorded its previous album, Obsidian (Creative Sources, 2024). The album features two extended, untitled acoustic improvisations, with Serries on acoustic guitar, that suggest a dense, restless, and urgent kind of urban folklore. These pieces cement the deep affinity of these kindred spirits and their unpredictable and always resourceful reimagining of folk music, especially on the second improvisation.
The Might Of Stars Sublime is Serries’s solo electric guitar album that expands his minimalist ambient music, now with a motherboard of analog pedals and often colored with delicate, noisy, and distorted effects. The album was recorded at Serries’ home studio between July and August 2024, and its title is taken from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s poem «The Bliss of Absence» («…Powers eternal, distance, time, / Like the might of stars sublime,…»). The five pieces were created spontaneously and are expansive, accumulate to a bigger whole, and enjoy a rare kind of nocturnal, deep space harmonies. The last one, «The Stars Sublime», suggests the most beautiful and peaceful territory of this journey.
The first collection of Zonal Disturbance extended ambient pieces was released by Serries (as a download-only release) and was recorded at his home studio in October 2025. The second one was recorded a month later, again, in Serries’ home studio (and released as a disc by the Polish Zoharum label) and injects an unpredictable, provocative spin to these disorienting, restless pieces. The four distinct, minimalist pieces are carefully layered, looped, manipulated, and distorted in real time. They use slow repetitive clusters of sound, with many effects that reference Serries’ sonic alter-egos as Vidna Obmana and Fear Falls Burning, with their strong industrial and experimental veins. They sound as if Serries sculpts their enigmatic, melancholic sound out of dark and highly resonant, extraterrestrial materials.
Eyal Hareuveni
Dirk Serries (archtop guitar, electric guitar, effects), Mark Wastell (percussion), José Lencastre (alto saxophone), Benedict Taylor (viola)
