Elegiacal by PERCH HEN BROCK & RAIN

Perch Hen Brock & Rain featuring Ab Baars, Ig Henneman, Ingrid Laubrock and Tom Rainey is an improvising quartet drawing on myriad experiences and backgrounds. Each member is conscious of their own weight and power to add to the communal conversation, understanding silence and restraint can be as powerful a contribution to the whole as density. Ingrid Laubrock and Tom Rainey represent the best of the New York scene while Ab Baars and Ig Henneman are key members of the idiosyncratic Dutch improvised music community. Either duo showcases the kind of telepathic interplay that comes from years of dedicated playing. Together, the wealth of experience allows limitless possibilities.

The quartet gathered for a first extensive European tour in November 2014, followed by appearances at amongst others the North Sea Jazz Festival, a Canadian Jazz Festival tour and in 2018 the Dutch SummerJazzCycleTour. The day after they went into the studio and this is the music that is released on their 2nd album 'Elegiacal': a collection of oddly enchanting improvisations as Tom Rainey calls them.

(...) The cd 'Live @ The Jazz Happening Tampere' proofs that stunning music can be created without making any appointments. The interplay between timbre and dynamics is so well balanced that the listener however suspects a composers hand in the whole form. (...) You hear the musicians on the top of their focus. What happens next is a real miracle. - Mischa Andriessen

(...) The quartet's first tour together in 2014 yielded this live date from Finland. This intersection of the newer Dutch swing and post- Downtown New York sound evidences a newly refreshed improvised music. Not free jazz, nor exactly free improvisation, the pieces make mannerly and urbane connections. (...) Pieces that gather momentum as improvised music, but coalesce as seemingly composed music. Such prestidigitation is evidence of music making at the highest levels. - Mark Corroto

Hi Ig ! The cd ( IT”S BEAUTIFUL especially the title piece !) and the painting arrived last week ….THANK YOU BOTH ! --Paul Del Maschio April 19-2023

Salt Peanutes
[...] Baars and Laubrock engage in a poetic, playful talk in «Kites» and «Walking art», beautifully expanded by Henneman and gently ornamented by Rainey.
[...] The following, shorter pieces highlight the always fascinating sonic imagination of these gifted improvisers, individually and as a collective, and the profound, spontaneous interplay that turns these improvised pieces into instant and brilliant compositions. The quartet develops its poetic ideas in a deep listening manner but with no attachment, trusting its wealth of experiences. This performance is concluded with the meditative-ritualist, most impressive title piece. --Eyal Hareuveni April 2023

Allaboutmusic USA
The quartet Perch Hen Brock & Rain invites you to linger longer with their sophomore release Elegiacal. Their request is reflected in the music they make which has an imperturbable feel about it. --Mark Corroto May 2023

The NewYorkCityJazzRecord
The results can be as varied as the gurgles and susurrations of "One Hundred Hall", the quixotic journey of "Old West Blues" from deconstructed viola and drums hoedown to Laubrock's rampaging tenor saxophone and finally Americana-tinged wistfulness, or the penultimate "Walking Art", where the twin tenors intertwine in first melodic then bristling communion.
John Sharpe NYCJR May 2023

The Wire
Maybe red herrings are just how they roll. While there’s plenty of nuanced interplay, sharply turned angles and intriguingly contrasting woodwind tonalities, it’s boat rocking moments like the slurred diction of Henneman’s viola on “Old West Blues” and Tom Rainey’s periodic percussive koans that push this session beyond collegiality into collectively creative engagement. --Bill Meyer The Wire

(...) Abstract is also the code word for 'Elegiacal', but of the particularly subtle kind. Wonderful how the sounds of wind instruments by Laubrock and Baars, are interwoven here into one multicoloured pattern. We hear Henneman and Rainey together in 'Old West Blues', where Henneman's lingering patterns on viola are particularly striking. Further on, Baars squeaks through on tenor sax, immediately recognisable by his penetrating style of playing. Also fascinating is the combination of clarinet and tenor sax in 'Kites'. In 'Rain Perch & Brock', the two are joined by Rainey who strikes picket lines with focused strokes. Also beautiful is the sound palette in 'Dancing Steps', a high, very rarefied clarinet sound by Baars, mixed with pizzicato playing by Henneman. 'Walking Art' sounds equally subdued, but now we hear both horns again. At over twelve minutes, the title piece 'Elegiacal' is also the longest piece, which the quartet saved for last. A particularly convincing and intimate sound sculpture. --Ben Taffijn