Last Thursday, October 16th, DIRK SERRIES performed one of his rare ambient concerts, and one of his last ones for a longer time. In the ‘kapel sessies’ series organised by the city of Brecht, Dirk played an hour long set in the beautiful setting of the Oude Klooster chapel in Brecht (Belgium). Photos are courtesy of Jan Kees Helms.
As previously announced, since we are starting to move houses from next week on, we’ll be putting our mail-order service on hold till at least February 2026. You probably know that a lot of work comes with moving so in order to focus completely we can’t accept any new physical orders. Since it’s pretty time-consuming and rather cumbersome to opt out every title we sell, we’ll just refund any new physical items that comes in till our re-launch.
Naturally as much as we can we’ll continue to contribute to the bandcamp fridays with discount campaigns, etc. The Streams Of Consciousness series, for our subscribers, will of course continue over the months to come.
Digital sales are still greatly accepted and appreciated.
Thank you for your understand.
To support digitally :
https://newwaveofjazz.bandcamp.com/
https://dirkserries.bandcamp.com/
https://streamsofconsciousness.bandcamp.com/
https://vidnaobmana.bandcamp.com/
https://vidnaobmanatf.bandcamp.com/
https://dirkserriesmicrophonics.bandcamp.com/
https://fearfallsburning.bandcamp.com/
https://fearfallsburningtf.bandcamp.com/
Fairly quick after the release of our welcomed duo record Jörg A. Schneider and I teamed up again for recording the follow-up. While this first one was already a kick in the face, this follow-up goes deeper into the frenetic and noisy side of our duo. Familiar yet bolder, equally dynamic but more powerful, still noisy but fuzzier. This 2nd one was a blast to record, all done in real-time at the Laundry room studio in Germany and brilliantly recorded, mixed and mastered by Peter Körfer.
VITAL WEEKLY REVIEW :
Following their first collaborative LP, which I reviewed in Vital Weekly 1451, there’s a new album by Dirk Serries (guitar) and drummer Jörg A. Schneider. For me, that was an introduction to this musician (Dirk, I have known since 40 years!), who plays with Gaffa, Glimmen, Jealousy Mountain Duo, Les Hommes Qui Wear Espandrillos, Nicoffeine, Roji, SWWS, Tarngo, Teen Prime, The Nude Spur and has several collaborative projects, mostly with guitar slingers, such as Thisquietarmy, N, Mikel Vega, Aidan Baker and others. No doubt, Schneider operates in a wide field of interests, but I am unsure, as I haven’t heard them; for Serries, I am sure, as I have listened to a lot of his music over the past 40 years. With Schneider, he taps into an interest he doesn’t tap into very often, and that’s the combination of improvisation, noise and metal music, which, on paper, may sound like an oddball thing, but it works pretty well. Schneider rocks his kit in a wild manner (can I reference the Muppets’ Animal for once?), and creates a hotbed for Serries to go all wild with his guitar and effects. These effects set this improvisation aside from his other improvised music, for instance, his solo work or with Tonus. These effects create the buzz and distortion that is now part of his playing. As before, the music is dark, loud, and owes something certainly to a highly demented shape of jazz music. The previous may have a ‘light’ piece, but not so on this one; the six pieces are concise explosions of fragment bombing and not for the weak of heart. I wonder if they play concerts and at what volume they do so. Now it’s time for a lie down.
JAZZHALO REVIEW :
Een waardig vervolg op ‘Schneider Series’ en zodoende een nieuw lapidair statement van gitarist Dirk Serries en drummer Jörg A. Schneider.
Een introductie met een titel als ‘Drill Cycle Theory’ is van meet af aan met open kaarten spelen. Vooral omdat de inhoud volledig overeenstemt met de aankondiging. We horen een “wall of sound” opgebouwd met gitaar waar wat reverb, distortion en delay aan toegevoegd werden en een drummer die tekeergaat alsof hij een machinegeweer hanteert. Kortom, een impressionante lavastroom van “hardcore noise”. Gitaar en drums versmelten tot een energieke vuurbal.
De vijf andere titels zijn al even spraakmakend. Bij ‘Stutter Strenth’, ‘This Tactile Collusion’ (!), ‘Blood Steam’, ‘Inward Metal Flow’ en Factory Reprise’ klopt de inhoud eveneens telkens met het beloofde. Alles wordt gegenereerd aan de hand van axioma’s gebaseerd op improvisatie en de drang om te laten ontsporen maar volgens een welbepaalde methodiek. Agonie en disharmonie door toevallige componenten die convergeren. Te situeren ergens in de galaxies waar ook Earth en Sun O))) musiceren.
Wie deel 1 van deze samenwerking tussen Dirk Serries en Jörg A. Schneider in huis haalde, weet wat hier uit de luidsprekers gaat knallen. Diegenen die voor het eerst kennismaken, zetten zich best schrap. Aanvankelijk enkel overdonderend maar wie goed luistert, ontdekt wel degelijk de onderliggende patronen. Het duo creëert hiermee een nieuw capharnaüm naar eigen methodes en bijhorende congruenties. De heren hadden het duidelijk naar hun zin want binnenkort verschijnt een derde luik.
KRAUTNICK REVIEW :
In eine ähnliche Kerbe hauen Schneider und der Antwerpener Tausendsassa Dirk Serries, der sich ebenfalls auf E-Gitarren-Drones verlegt. Doch schwingt Serries sein Instrument viel weiter durch die Landschaft, er scheint es gar zu malträtieren, er erzeugt einen größeren Eindruck von Geschwindigkeit, und das, ohne Riffs oder Licks zu spielen. Während Schneider sein Kit verprügelt, bratzt Serries nach alter Tradition von Neil Youngs „Dead Man“ auf der Gitarre herum und überdreht die Knöpfe an seinen Effektgeräten. In dieser Kombination dieser Kollaboration ergeben sich sechs Tracks, die den Anschein erwecken, Songs zu sein, mit der irrlichternden Gitarre und dem irrsinnsschnellen Schlagzeug. Die Stücke ergeben Formen, und sobald man versucht, sie zu fassen zu bekommen, entziehen sie sich wieder, drehen lange Nasen und scheren sich nix um feste Formen und erwartbare Abläufe. Was für eine Energie die beiden entfesseln! Hielten sie sich an gerade Takte, könnte man beinahe von klassischem Noiserock sprechen. Das erste gemeinsame Album der beiden erschien vor einem Jahr, ein drittes nahmen Schneider und Serries bereits auf. Als wären sie beide nicht ausgelastet, dabei kommt man bei keinem von ihnen mit dem Sammeln so richtig nach.
SPONTANEOUS MUSIC TRIBUNE REVIEW :
Najwyższy czas trochę pohałasować! I to w dobrym towarzystwie! Jak świetnie wiemy, belgijski gitarzysta Dirk Serries ma tysiące artystycznych twarzy, ale dość rzadko używa swego instrumentu, by zgłębiać niuanse soczystego … impro noise’ rocka! Najlepszym partnerem w tych niecnych zabawach bywa niemiecki drummer Jörg A. Schneider. Zgodnie z tytułem albumu, to ich drugie spotkanie, tym razem studyjne. Przynosi sześć muzycznych petard w sam raz na post-sylwestrowe rozkołysanie.
Schemat poszczególnych utworów jest podobny – wątek inicjuje sfuzzowana, charcząca gitara, która zdaje się stać w miejscu i wyć z dna piekła po dżdżysty nieboskłon. Wokół niej tańczy perkusja, silna, masywna, kłębiąca się w sobie, rzadziej wpadająca w typowy, rockowy galop. Brzmienie jest szorstkie, niekiedy wręcz siarczyste, a w toku narracji nie brakuje fałszywych fraz i nietonalnych sprzężeń. Najciekawiej jest chyba w trzeciej odsłonie, gdy introdukcja gitary przypomina gęsty dark ambient, a cała opowieść wydaje się dzięki temu nieco lżejsza. Po czwartej, definitywnie dynamicznej przebieżce, w piątej muzycy znów toną w mrocznej mgle. Gitara frazuje tu chyba najgłośniej, ale jej flow ucieka w silny pogłos. Na plamach siarczystego ambientu bazuje też ostatnia opowieść. Dużo w niej perkusyjnych przełomów i wyrafinowanej psychodelii. Jest też kilka istotnych zagęszczeń i drobnych eksplozji.
AUDIOVISUAL OHLSEN OVERKILL REVIEW :
Schneider und Dirk Serries, der sich bei mir ja gerade mit Yodok III die Bronzemedaille für eines der besten Livealben des Jahres abgeholt hat, machen da weiter, wo sie 2024 aufgehört haben. Mit sechs im Schnitt etwas über fünfminütugen Tracks auf einer LP ist das Format ähnlich – und grundsätzlich erkennt man das Duo aus Dauerduracelldrummer und Experimentalgitarrist auch wieder.
Auf diesen Aufgnahmen habe ich den Eindruck, dass der gerade nach Frankreich umgezogene Belgier sich nicht immer ganz so sehr von der rhythmischen Panik mitreißen lässt, sondern auch mal bewusst langsam und sphärisch dagegensteuert. Die Klangwände, die er dabei aufbau sind allerdings sowohl in gemäßigteren als auch wilderen Arrangements stets vielschichtig und undurchdringbar.
“Schneider Serries 2” bleibt dabei allerdings immer sehr hörbar, denn was dem improvisierenden Duo hier besonders gut gelingt, ist die Portionierung des überwältigend groß dröhnenden und polternden Sounds in verträgliche Häppchen.
In 1987 VIDNA OBMANA was approached by a local experimental theatre compagny for creating a soundtrack to their pending theatre piece ‘Experience Artaud’. A play that focused on the turbulent life of French artist Antonin Artaud (1896-1948). After several meetings, VIDNA OBMANA worked on the soundtrack which initiated his departure from his pure noise work. Utilizing a KORG MS 20, tape loops, shortwave radio and his voice VIDNA OBMANA created a haunting soundtrack that would support the turmoil artist Antonin Artaud experienced. Unfortunately the funding fell through for the theatre company and the play was never materialized and ever performed. However VIDNA OBMANA’ soundtrack got a small cassette release on his own short-lived M.O.M. (Mechanical Orchestration Music) label.
For a limited time the full soundtrack is available at ‘name your price‘. Thank you for your support !
Today is BANDCAMP FRIDAY (a special day in which bandcamp allows us musicians, independent labels to collect fee-less our sales).
But we also have some important news to share…
Due to moving houses to another country, we’ll be putting our mail-order service on hold till at least February 2026 – in order to sort everything out in terms of shippping options and costs, etc. However if you want to catch upon your collection, now it’s that moment. We’re offering you a 40% discount on any title you want to order, this runs to October 15th. Till that day we’ll accept any order of physical items. This way we can still handle all the packaging and making sure the orders are on their way to you.
Use the code : moving2025
Unfortunately we’re still not able to ship any physical orders to the USA, due the unclear situation with the pending import taxes and the required documents. Our sincere apologies for this inconvenience.
Use your discount code through the following bandcamp sites :
https://newwaveofjazz.bandcamp.com/
https://dirkserries.bandcamp.com/
https://vidnaobmana.bandcamp.com/
https://dirkserriesmicrophonics.bandcamp.com/
https://yodokiii.bandcamp.com/
Dirk Serries is joining Mark Wastell‘s big band INVISIBLE GUARDIANS for an unique concert at Cafe Oto (London, UK) this Tuesday September 16th.
In Mark’s own words :
“Somehow, I seem to have pulled this one off. INVISIBLE GUARDIANS BIG BAND at Café OTO this coming Tuesday, 16th September. Featuring Jazz FM and Parliamentary Jazz Award winners, a founding member of the Brand New Heavies, a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Award, a current member of the mightly Cymande, a platinum selling Blue Note Records recording artist, Poll toppers, and collectively, musicians that have worked with the likes of John Zorn, David Sylvian, Chaka Khan, Derek Bailey, Tony Conrad, Keith Tippett, Stewart Lee, Oasis, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Maggie Nicols and Kid Creole and the Coconuts!“
Matthew Bourne / piano
Binker Golding / tenor & soprano saxophone
Rachel Musson / tenor & soprano saxophone
Ed Jones / tenor saxophone & bass clarinet
Sue Lynch / flute, clarinet
Ntshuks Bonga / alto saxophone
Kevin G Davy / trumpet, flugelhorn
Charlotte Keefe / trumpet, flugelhorn
Raph Clarkson / trombone
Dominic Lash / double bass
Caius Williams / double bass
Dirk Serries / electric guitar
Jackie Walduck / vibraphone
Ansuman Biswas / percussion
Lascelle Gordon / percussion
Will Glaser / drums, cymbals
Mark Wastell / drums, cymbals
Tickets are available through the Cafe Oto website.
MATTHEW GRIGG & DIRK SERRIES – INTERVENTION MODEL (lathe cut / tape, Unknown Tongue 2025)
Intervention Model is the first recorded meeting of Belgian polymath Dirk Serries and British free thinker Matthew Grigg. From overamped Shock recs squall to frayed Xpressway thrum, two guitars scorch and smoulder through these four improvised unedited tracks – captured in the reverberant shimmer of Brecht’s Oode Klooster Kapel. The results read like an exploration of sound and noise, stasis and movement, feedback and freedom. Twin guitars in constant exchange of ideas and detail, documenting the calm before/after, and the eye of the storm.
The release is very limited, the numbered lathe cut edition is on 16 copies, the cassette is on 34 copies. Get your copy here…
I had the pleasure and honour a few weeks ago to talk on my weekly radio show, “Between the Grooves,” with Belgium-based Dirk Serries — a sonic artist of longstanding.
I play Dirk’s music quite regularly on my overnight show, “Night Lights with Malcolm Burn” on Radio Kingston in Kingston, New York. If you don’t know Dirk’s work and you enjoy ambient and experimental music that has the ability to transport you to another state of mind, you need to look him up and explore his discography.
Malcolm Burn’s The Long Way Around Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Go here.
Dirk has experimented with music on the border between avant-garde, industrial, experimental and ambient for close to 40 years now. He released his earliest work (1984) behind the pseudonym vidnaObmana up to 2007 when he closed the book on this project (realizing an extensive discography). In October 2013, Dirk Serries re-booted his classic vidnaObmana ambient sound from the mid-1980s/early 1990s. In contrast to his original music that was mostly synth-based, this ambient music is constructed on electric guitar. Dirk also runs the A New Wave Of Jazz label, dedicated to free improvisation and minimal avant-garde.
Through his experience in the free improvisation Dirk transformed his solo ambient music, originally constructed meticulously by writing strict motives before performing, to being able to improvise 200% and still create his trademark ambient music for which he is recognized worldwide.
“All of this started from the time I was a kid and enjoying early film soundtracks, which fascinated me to the extent that I thought, this would be really cool to make myself,” says Dirk. “It somehow sparked sort of an obsession… it’s not a hobby, it’s not a profession. For me, it’s an obsession — it’s part of who I am, part of my DNA, so to speak.”
We talked about the creative process. “For me, despite how you have to describe your music, for me it’s always been part of an ongoing search for that refinement in sound, and how it would trigger me as a musician to go deeper into something I would love to listen to myself,” says Dirk. “It’s part of an external world that you create for yourself and that’s where I love to be [in].”
Every musician has his ups and downs in realizing — who am I, what am I doing here, is this worthwhile to do? — and I do have that, as well,” says Dirk. “But each time I’m drawn back into it just because of the fact that it just feels comfortable with sitting in that world of sound whatever it is — if it’s an ambient record, an experimental jazz record… it’s all part of one continuing organism that grows, that expands and changes over time as I am, as a person.”
I think it’s fascinating that Dirk puts it this way because I experience the same thing. It’s the same kind of compulsion that I have, if one can call it that. There are a lot of other things that I could be doing in a day but this is what feels like it matters the most. Whether anybody else cares or not it’s not relevant.
Dirk agrees: “It’s a pretty egocentric situation you’re in but it’s also a very therapeutic situation — I feel good about it because there are a lot of things going on in the world, unfortunately, which are not that positive. The music, the sounds, the little space you create for yourself — these are things which I feel comfortable sitting in and from the moment you’re really in there and it works and the music gels, you feel really nicely despite the fact, indeed, whether you will share it with people or not, with the audience.”
“The Stars Sublime” — Dirk Serries — The Might of Stars Sublime (April 2025)
“As a musician you go through phases although it’s all in the same genre but still you have these kinds of variations on the aspect of recording soundscape music. This piece really resembles a little bit of everything I have been doing over these past 40 years. It’s a really beautiful introduction to who I am now,” says Dirk.
“There are different rules to creating such a soundscape although you could easily record it or compose it in a shorter time,” says Dirk. “I always admired Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois when they did their ambient works together. A couple of those songs are pretty short but they still work, and keep the slow pace, as well, so that nothing is abrupt, nothing is really produced in sort of its own level that really changes the entire mood of the songs. It’s artistry.”
This brought back the memory of when I was young and was listening to Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.” When I listen to that record now years later, having made albums and knowing how they’re made, I realized that record was made like a pop record. It wasn’t a pop record, per se, but all the pieces, for instance, even “Us and Them” and some of those tracks are six minutes long but somehow they seem longer. I think there’s an art form to that.
I asked Dirk how he would describe the relation between a keyboard instrument and a guitar in terms of the two instruments’ expressiveness. “That’s a good question and also a difficult question to answer,” says Dirk. “It took me a long time to actually get to the guitar. I started out as a young kid. My first synthesizer was a Korg MS-20 — great sounds and unpredictable, as well. That was all part of my discovery of sound and I stuck to that for a long time. I moved onto digital work stations like the Korg M1 and the wave station and your recording equipment evolved from the 2-track cassette (and 4-track cassettes). Younger listeners will probably never know what happened back then.”
“Also there was the saturation of it when you bounce it because your sound changes over time and back then you had to know that up front,” says Dirk. “Because you knew there was no way back. All these things evolved for me and created such a huge machine to operate because when the computer came, the multi-track and all the editing … and all the synthesizers together … it actually burned me out.
“At that point, I had already introduced the guitar a little bit in my music,” says Dirk.
“After I had recovered from the burn-out…, I sold all my synthesizers. And left over was one very cheap electric guitar and I started from scratch,” says Dirk. “Could I play guitar? No. I couldn’t really play it well then and I still don’t at this point call myself a guitar-player.”
I think that’s the beauty of the guitar. I use a lot of open tunings. I never change my strings. There are a lot of weird, funny things that I do that are very individual; and we invent those things for ourselves. Think of Jimi Hendrix with his guitar upside down and strung the other way up and playing, etc. These are all things you can do with a guitar. Whereas with a keyboard, you press the key and that’s the note that comes out.
Dirk agrees. “The guitar is very organic whether it’s an acoustic or electric guitar,” says Dirk. “Of course, there are big differences. It’s how you apply it, how you take it into your hands. The guitar is an extension of who you are at that point and I learned despite the fact that I was kind of an anti-guitarist. It made me discover a tool (I prefer to call it a tool) that I got so comfortable with over time. I’ve more and more started to play actual real chords on the guitar and incorporate it in my music but keep it experimental. Keep it not really too tonal.”
“This opened a different kind of spectrum for me,” says Dirk.
Photo by Shaun Cullen
I asked Dirk how he would describe his music — that is, the kind of music that he’s generally the most enthusiastic about creating. “This goes in phases,” says Dirk. “I also have a label for free jazz and experimental improvised music which I do with a lot of sound colleagues from London, Germany, Holland and from Belgium. That’s a different part of me. If somebody would ask me what kind of music I make, I would prefer to say just experimental music, which I think really covers a lot.”
“Who I am as a musician is that I’m also a huge listener of music and always want to discover new music,” says Dirk. “That’s how I learned about musicians, such as Hirotaka Shirotsubaki, classical music … and Emmylou Harris, who I discovered later because of the “Wrecking Ball” album, and that’s our connection.”
“This is what opened up my ears and my mind to other music; you discover that a lot of other people doing other music also listen to your music, which you would never expect,” says Dirk.
“If you would ask me now about my five favorite musicians, that would be impossible to do because you listen to so much music and in every little corner of a particular genre you will discover a new musician or an old musician who was already there for a long time but you never knew before and then they become part of your playlist, so to speak,” says Dirk.
I believe if there is one musician that we could all despite our musical tastes agree on it would be Jimi Hendrix. He was someone who changed music forever. Nobody was playing loud like that, bending the notes, etc. It’s hard to think about music before Hendrix. That sense of musical adventurism, I think, is something that he left behind for all us to learn from. Keep pushing wherever you can go with it and experiment. John Coltrane is another good example.
“Yes, this is very interesting and also signifies, I think, how important these musicians were back in the day, although they lived short lives,” says Dirk. “They touched upon something so unique you can’t really think about the pre-Jimi Hendrix or pre-John Coltrane, it’s mind boggling.”
Passage Dawn — Dirk Serries — Streams of Consciousness (A Series of Works by Dirk Serries, 2025)
I asked Dirk what format he works in as there are so many options available now. “I work with an Apple computer,” says Dirk. “I used to work with Pro Tools. But it’s not really compatible with all the plug-ins. I work now with Reaper, a software that’s very intuitive, very user-friendly and is compatible with all the plug-ins you want to use.”
“For young musicians who just stumble into the music scene, I think it’s also pretty overwhelming because I’m afraid they will lose the sense of the beauty of creating music because you’re so absorbed by the huge possibility of [too many] options,” notes Dirk.
I personally think that having too many options is the death of art. For example, the Abstract Expressionist American artist Jackson Pollock did something original in his art when he threw cans of paint on his canvases. Many people have tried to recreate that but they don’t and can’t. What Pollock did was unique and original. He was the first. It’s the same with music. You can make all kinds of fancy sounds but there still has to be some kind of heart and soul in there that comes from being a musician.
“Art itself has always been approached as being the more intellectual, especially the visual arts,” notes Dirk. “You have music as entertainment. But there is way more to music.”
“the ultimate drone album. My bible of inspiration from two amazing artists : Brian Eno with his legendary 80s ambient records (foremost ON LAND) and Robert Fripp’s own Frippertronics (think of LET THE POWER FALL and A BLESSING OF TEARS). NO PUSSYFOOTING still underrated, to my humble opinion.”
The Heavenly Music Corporation II — Robert Fripp, Brian Eno — No Pussyfooting (1973)
The best way to find Dirk is at his website: https://dirkserries.com/. His music is on many platforms, including Spotify and Bandcamp. Many of his live performances are on YouTube. Dirk also has a new, magnificent release — “YODOK III – NIDAROSDOMEN.” It will be officially out on September 19 but pre-ordering is now available through Consouling Sounds. After September 19, copies will be sold on Bandcamp. Check out the album teaser on YouTube.
Dirk chose a few more excellent tracks for our talk that we didn’t have the time to play on the show. I’ve included them here for your listening pleasure.
“from his vast and impressive catalog it’s difficult to choice, but this piece is one of my absolute favorites as it resembles everything I got to know Steve for, when I met him personally becoming good friends and collaborators. This piece blends in just a pitch-perfect manner the esoteric and spacious character of his music with the tribal-infused phase in his oeuvre.“
The Origin of Artifacts — Steve Roach — Artifacts (1994)
M.B. 55 T.D. 56 — Maurizio Bianchi — The Plain Truth (1983)
Listen to our entire one-hour talk here. Start at 1:01:17.
BANDCAMP FRIDAY !!
Today it’s once again BANDCAMP FRIDAY. Not only can you still benefit from the fantastic offers we have over at A New Wave Of Jazz but also are we giving you a
50% discount
on any physical/digital release on these bandcamp collections
use code : bcfridayseptember
TIP ! You can also use the discount code if you want to purchase the full digital catalogues.
https://dirkserries.bandcamp.com/
https://vidnaobmana.bandcamp.com/
https://dirkserriesmicrophonics.bandcamp.com/
https://fearfallsburningtf.bandcamp.com/
and
https://newwaveofjazz.bandcamp.com/
Valid thru September 5th!
DIRK SERRIES was interviewed by renowned producer MALCOLM BURN (Emmylou Harris, The Neville Brothers, Bob Dylan, and his work with Daniel Lanois) on his BETWEEN THE GROOVES radio show on Radio Kingston (Kingston, NY). In this episode of his radioshow they talk about music, the world around us and more. Quite different and spontaneous. Do check it out.
https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/between-the-grooves/episodes/dirk-serriesthe-eternal-artist
dirkserries.com 