Following the critically acclaimed album, De Grote Vrouw (2020), Lara Rosseel delivers Hert, an experimental jazz ensemble with no boundaries. It welcomes the listener into a world of sounds and places them in a spirit of exploration and playfulness. The music is played on traditional instruments that connect the listener to previous generations of musicians – but only to a point. The soundscapes are spontaneous, honest and complex: At times warm and mellow, at others caustic, harsh, but always entertaining.

Rosseel has done more than just create a new album. It’s an experiment. An exciting recording adventure into the unknown. The musicians involved have followed their instincts and are releasing an album to which sounds, styles, and genres are foreign. The listener is taken on a magical journey from one experience to another: from high-end contemporary playing techniques to pulsating low-end riffs. Hert is both a game of intuitive musical experimentation as well as compelling, decisive and unique.

Representing a new milestone in Rosseel’s musical career, Hert deals with different textures and moods, but all contain the same elusive subtlety and delicacy that Rosseel seeks in music. There’s an incredible depth about the way she molds her songs, how she builds upon them and how she breaks them down again. Her bass feels like a natural element of her songs. It’s not striking nor intrusive, but smoothly penetrates all layers to create cohesion, coherence and depth.

Hert is an abstract piece of jazz music that is hard to absorb in a single session. You will need to sink into it and let the music be part of you. Rosseel has managed to communicate through sound in a very direct way, creating as cathartic an album as she had ever produced.

Hert is out now via W.E.R.F. Records.