Label: Challenge Records
Format: Download Album
Barcode: 0608917381320
Catalog number: CR 73813
Releasedate:
Format: Download Album
Barcode: 0608917381320
Releasedate:
tba
"Some recordings are built carefully, layer by layer, piece by piece, in the controlled environment of a studio. This is generally not the case for improvised music, and especially not for Homestead: everything on this album was performed live and remains completely unedited, capturing a fleeting moment of shared attention between four musicians, unfolding as they play. What you hear is exactly what happened in the room: the intimate sound of listening closely and responding to each other, that allows music to evolve organically and unexpectedly. The accompanying film captures the focus and interaction that shape the quartet’s rapport. Recorded on November 13th, 2025, this album documents Epoxy Quartet, with no attempt to smooth out the edges.
This album was recorded in the small studio where pianist and composer Koen Gijsman works and composes. This is where ideas are tested, where new pieces are born, and where the ensemble’s sound continues to evolve. In many ways, it has become a second home. Homestead captures the quartet in a place where they feel most at ease: a room that encourages risk, curiosity, and conversation.
The music on this album revisits compositions from the quartet’s debut album Recollection. The intro, an unplanned improvised piece, sets the tone for what follows. From there, the ensemble continues to approach previous repertoire not as fixed works, but rather as open forms—structures that invite exploration. The pieces serve as points of departure rather than destinations. Melodies reappear in unexpected places, harmonies change and dissolve, and improvisation moves freely through the written material. The result is music that feels both familiar and newly discovered. Improvised passages grow naturally out of written material, until it becomes difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. In this way, the recording reflects the ensemble’s central musical philosophy: composition and improvisation are not separate domains, but parts of the same continuum.
Ultimately, Homestead is less a polished studio production than a document of a moment. Four musicians gathered in a familiar room, revisiting music they already know and discovering it again in the act of playing. What emerges is not a definitive version of these pieces, but a snapshot of where the quartet found itself on that particular day—at home in the music."
This album was recorded in the small studio where pianist and composer Koen Gijsman works and composes. This is where ideas are tested, where new pieces are born, and where the ensemble’s sound continues to evolve. In many ways, it has become a second home. Homestead captures the quartet in a place where they feel most at ease: a room that encourages risk, curiosity, and conversation.
The music on this album revisits compositions from the quartet’s debut album Recollection. The intro, an unplanned improvised piece, sets the tone for what follows. From there, the ensemble continues to approach previous repertoire not as fixed works, but rather as open forms—structures that invite exploration. The pieces serve as points of departure rather than destinations. Melodies reappear in unexpected places, harmonies change and dissolve, and improvisation moves freely through the written material. The result is music that feels both familiar and newly discovered. Improvised passages grow naturally out of written material, until it becomes difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. In this way, the recording reflects the ensemble’s central musical philosophy: composition and improvisation are not separate domains, but parts of the same continuum.
Ultimately, Homestead is less a polished studio production than a document of a moment. Four musicians gathered in a familiar room, revisiting music they already know and discovering it again in the act of playing. What emerges is not a definitive version of these pieces, but a snapshot of where the quartet found itself on that particular day—at home in the music."