Tonus

"Tonus is a group that always contains Dirk Serries and his wife Martina Verhoeven, but otherwise seems to be an open membership group. Today, on Segment Tones, it is a trio. Serries plays accordion and soprano melodica (the latter I would believe for the first time), Verhoven is on concertina and cello and Colin Webster on clarinet and alto saxophone. Whatever the line-up of Tonus might be, I do believe they play slow and quiet music; music that is not in any way, shape or form, part of the hectic world out there. It is, perhaps, the music you could believe to be part of some kind of meditation; maybe you already do, if meditation is your ‘thing’. It is not for me, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t think like this or appreciate it. Slow, quiet music asks for some listening and that is something I like. That, and of course the Serries approach to ‘I never played this instrument so I am sure I can do it’. They don’t use these instruments on all of these pieces. In Modulation Grid 1, I would think it is the concertina, melodica and clarinet together in a fascinating interplay of long sustaining tones with irregular intervals. In the title piece and Amplitude the cello plays a big role, striking is slow and low with the microphone close by and the result is that Amplitude is quite a dark affair and Segment Tones only slightly lighter but still also dark and mysterious." - Frans deWaard - Vital Weekly

Dirk Serries : accordeon, soprano melodica
Martina Verhoeven : concertina, cello
Colin Webster : clarinet, alto sax
Performed, recorded, mixed and mastered at the Sunny Side Inc. Studio, Anderlecht (Belgium) on November 24th 2018.