George Dumitriu’s Hazard Ensemble: Sonic Awareness
George Dumitriu viola/electronics, Otis Sandsjö saxophone, Raphael Vanoli guitar/electronics, Fuensanta double bass/vocals, Lennart Heyndels double bass/modular synth, Frank Rosaly drums/percussion
Viola player George Dumitriu’s Hazard Ensemble is new in the game, but is brimming with talent. The ensemble is a super group of improvising musicians from the Netherlands and Belgium who operate in various genres. Don’t expect cannonades, but a trip of intoxicating acoustic-electronic soundscapes, in the spirit of deep listening, from Pauline Oliveros. “Not-doing instead of doing,” says Dumitriu, that’s Hazard’s game. Wait, listen. And then it happens.
Dumitriu formed the ensemble on behalf of North Sea Round Town, the fringe festival of North Sea Jazz, in the summer of ’22. Due to their success, they started touring internationally. Guitarist Raphael Vanoli, who conjures up otherwordly timbres by blowing into his strings, is known from the experimental music group Knalpot. Our Nieuwe Maker Fuensanta describes her participation in the ensemble as ‘an immersion into a mystical experience’. Top musicians Frank Rosaly, Otis Sandsjö and Lennart Heyndels complete the line-up.