alto sax, lyricon, electronics

loops beeps blips lirps bloops lurps burps leaps bups lips bips blirps lisps

In his solo project saxophonist Jorrit Dijkstra (Netherlands, 1966) processes his saxophone sounds with electronic devices to create live improvised counterpoint studies and soundscapes. With a loop machine and a delay he layers rhythms, melodies and sounds into drones, beats, chords, polyrhythms and sometimes chaos. A ring modulator, a modular synthesizer and a pitch shifter are used to pull his already broad spectrum of saxophone sounds into extremes. Besides the alto sax he uses the Lyricon, the first analog electronic wind instrument from the seventies. Because all the sampling and processing occurs live, the listener is witness of a highly improvised event, where the electronics behave like another player. Jorrit’s background in jazz and improvised music makes the balance between the processed sounds and his clear and lyrical saxophone playing even stronger. He has performed his solo project in various clubs, internet cafes, squat buildings, art galleries, and festivals across North America and Europe.

Jorrit Dijkstra has been an active member of Amsterdam’s vivid improvisation scene since 1985, before moving to Boston early 2002. He studied improvisation and composition with Misha Mengelberg, Steve Coleman, Steve Lacy and Lee Hyla. He toured Europe with his own projects Trio Jorrit Dijkstra (3 CD's on BVHaast Records), Drones in the Bones and Tone Dialing. He has worked with Willem Breuker, Guus Janssen, Maurice Horsthuis, Jaap Blonk, Gert Jan Prins, Cor Fuhler, John Butcher and Thomas Lehn, as well as Gerry Hemingway, Marty Ehrlich, Herb Robertson, Jim Black, Barre Phillips and Marc Ducret, to name a few. His collaboration with Vancouver based Talking Pictures has led to two tours and the CD Humming (Songlines 1533-2). In 1995 he received the prestigious Podium Prize from the Dutch Jazz Foundation, and in 1998 he received a Fulbright grant to study and teach at the New England Conservatory in Boston. In Amsterdam Jorrit is currently co-leading the cool-jazz Quartet Sound-Lee! (with Guus Janssen, playing the music of Lee Konitz). In Boston he is active in the local improvisation and new music scene, with Curt Newton, James Coleman, Charlie Kohlhase and Andrew Neumann.

press quotes:

'30 Micro-stems develops (...) into a radical and satisfying new direction.'
'Showing the breadth of Dijkstra’s aspirations, 30 micro-stems crosses the boundaries of the improvisational and the compositional.'
'...creating some haunting soundscapes.'
(Andy Hamilton - The Wire)

'This is a throughly listenable, well-conceived record regardless of the process behind it.'
'Given the complexity of some of these compositions, performing them on the fly is like doing multivariable calculus while competing in the Daytona 500.'
'30 Micro Stems is a thrilling new work by an exciting young talent.'
(Charlie Wilmoth - Dusted Magazine)

'Sometimes he responds to the electronics and sometimes the processors respond to his sounds as on the title cut. What is ultimately noteworthy here is that this saxophone improviser builds engaging and very human music in collaboration with and in response to a machine presence.'
(Mark Corroto - All About Jazz)

'I particularly appreciated the simple high-pitched whines of anxiety and the gentler more organic sounding ciclings.'
(Colin Thomas - Georgia Straight, Vancouver)

'A very nice mix of post Trane/Jimmy Lyons sax and electronic processing -effectively mixing jazz, techno, and ambient soundscapes. The fusion of styles is effective because Jorrit keeps his jazz at full strength- the electronics layers with the jazz without in any way diluting it.'
(Emile Tobenfeld (Dr. T) - Bos Improv, Boston)

'Dijkstra initially used the electronics for echo-layerings, but when he left this idea, he created an unexpected magic. Behind the busy and scattered improvisations, a hypnotizing pulse emerged. The swing kept it going, but the rhythm stayed subtle, and the feeling of time of the listener seemed off balance until the last note'
(Remco Takken - De Volkskrant)

'Dijkstra plays a number of lines on the saxophone creating an ambient atmoshere. This forms the basis of an inventive game of sounds and patterns, sometimes diminutive and subtle, other times extravert...'
(Jaqueline Oskamp - De Groene Amsterdammer)