Many people view jazz as a boring, antiquated art form, one that exists only for pretentious twenty-somethings to virtue signal about and for geriatrics to fall asleep to. These people have not met the Flat Earth Society Orchestra.
The eccentric, innovative and sometimes downright absurd Belgian music group recently came to Seattle, performing a show at the Town Hall.
The Orchestra showed off their technical skill and intriguing compositions, impressing both longtime jazz fanatics and new listeners alike. While their music was often experimental, working with strange time signatures, fast tempos and nonconventional techniques, each piece still managed to captivate the audience, even with their tendency to embrace free jazz.
This was done by design. Longtime bandleader and clarinetist, Peter Vermeersch, emphasized the importance of crafting music that can be experimental and intriguing, while also not drifting so far away from convention that audience members can no longer keep up with it.
“I want the writing to be clear enough to be sure that each song or each section of a song has its own rules, like it’s a game. And it’s important that the people grab the rules so that they can go with you,” Vermeersch said.
Their Seattle show featured songs from their newest album, “The One.” While the Orchestra is not exclusively a jazz group, this album consisted mostly of avant-garde instrumental jazz compositions, with some multimedia and vocal segments.
The music widely varied, and it eluded simple comparisons. Some parts could only be described as L.A. Noir on hallucinogens, yet other songs used soft vocals and a slow buildup to simulate the everpresent and rapidly worsening human-inflicted damage on the environment.
Other songs innovated in new ways, incorporating distortion and cinematic snippets, with one even looping the beginning of Donald Trump’s comments about immigrants eating the animals in Springfield, Ohio. The band’s experience tracking silent films and making cinematic scores helped them to execute these techniques.
Throughout these performances, the band struck an extremely fine balance, having both unified, intense sections of full group involvement, yet simultaneously providing ample opportunities for each player to individually shine with dazzling solos from nearly every instrument.
The Orchestra has 15 members, playing a mix of brass, woodwind, percussion and string instruments. The compositions are done by Vermeersch and their pianist, Peter Vandenberghe. Notable instruments within the ensemble include multiple saxophones, a synthesizer, and a vibraphone, which is similar to a xylophone.
In creating such a big group, culture was an important value to members. Vermeersch spoke to the nature of creating such a varied group and the non-musical components that have led to 25 years of success.
“I don’t necessarily need to have the best trumpeter in the world or the best anything, it’s not interesting. It’s better to know the people and to enjoy this band,” Vermeersch said. “We are touring, and it’s fun. There is no ego.”
The group’s name, the Flat Earth Society, adequately represents the whimsical and absurd nature of their music. However, according to Vermeersch, the joke came with some caveats.
“10 years ago, five years ago, we really regretted it, because our mailboxes and Facebook received a lot of hate mail from people who really thought we were from [the conspiracy group],” Vermeersch said.
The 15-person band held the show as a part of the Seattle Jazz Festival, which is hosted by Earshot Jazz, a Seattle-based organization of more than 30 years. The yearly festival is part of their efforts to promote both local musicians and international acts.
“I hope they come back. Bring them back please. With [international jazz artists], they’re all so interesting,” Robert Boling, a longtime Earshot attendee said.
Audience reactions were also positive. Eden Crisler, a second-year forensic psychology major who attended the concert, marveled at how different the show was from any of the other live music she had seen in the past.
“It felt incredibly chaotic and like a cacophony of noise, but somehow it all worked together perfectly, and I think that’s really impressive,” Crisler said.
While they may not really believe that the spherical earth is a government conspiracy, the Flat Earth Society Orchestra still manages to bring revolutionary ideas to the table within their music.
More information about the Flat Earth Society Orchestra is available at fes.be, and their new album, “The One,” is available on streaming services and Bandcamp.
More information about upcoming Seattle jazz shows can be found at earshot.org.
