REFLEX Yanna Pelser

Yanna Pelser

This article focuses on the REFLEX commission given to Dutch violinist Yanna Pelser for the Amsterdam Bimhuis. REFLEX is a series of long-term series of commissions by the Bimhuis and Ammodo Art that aim to give selected musicians the opportunity to reflect musically and create a work with their desired musical partners. Articles on previous REFLEX editions can be found HERE: Bimhuis, Ammodo Art, BIMHUIS REFLEX series: FARIDA AMADOU Kaleidoscope Ensemble, Sanem Kalfa RefleX at Bimhuis – Sanem Kalfa | In Pictures | All About Jazz, Sanem Kalfa RefleX CamP 🇳🇱 - sur Citizen Jazz, Farida Amadou, un monde en ébullition - sur Citizen Jazz.

Many songs are haunting through the vibrations and vastness of space. In what way, what shape are they lingering or finding their way in moving our spirits and souls? We know that they can manifest in various ways and you can discover, recognise, hear and shape them yourself in (quite) different way and form - even though we guess there will be a common core to discover in the existing and future variety. A nice example are the countless versions of “Summertime” (G. Gershwin) or “Caravan” (J. Tizol).

Yanna Pelser

Viola player Yanna Pelser chose ‘song-form’ as core and focus of her Bimhuis REFLEX commission (May 2026) entitled “Songbirds”. Yanna Pelser is no typical jazz musician but more of a wanderer between worlds and a border crosser. She is a.o. a member of the renowned North Sea String Quartet and the Brainteaser Orchestra. She realised “Songbirds” with an ensemble of five singing instrumentalists of five different cultural backgrounds (Greek, Norwegian, Hungarian, Swedish, Dutch). The line-up's instrumentation was also arousing curiosity of the shape and impact that these songbirds’ music would take/get:

Yanna Pelser viola/vocals
Evi Filippou vibraphone/drums/percussion/vocals
Veslemøy Narvesen drums/percussion/vocals
Dodó Kis recorder/voice/EWI
Jordi Carrasco Hjelm double bass/vocals
Jelle Roozenburg guitars/modular synthesizer/vocals

Filippou and Narvesen are from abroad. All other musicians are residents of the Netherlands. You can find a live-video of the performance on BIMhuis TV on Youtube HERE

What emerged and manifested itself in this undertaking, was a remarkable quality of ‘singing songs’ - in a twofold sense: it brought a special feeling of togetherness in singing special songs and by that, it felt that the songs were singing themselves from their inside (not to confuse with intro-version). There were songs coming in from all cultures and it happened without much fuss, straightforward based on some crucial elements allowing vital unfolding interaction.

      
Dodó Kis

The musicians worked extensively from skeletal structures and rhythmic dramaturgy, which gave the music a high degree of receptiveness, dynamism, verve, vibrancy and directness. In the realisation the musicians also used spoken word in pointed collage-techniques.

The music was less cramped, underlined, less `made up’ and `presented’ than usual for songs. It was sufficient with just a few essential elements fully trusting their expressive force. It stayed close to the audience too. It can be indicated as a special art of sketching/hatching leading to an authentic, unadorned and completely collective sound quality of captivating power. Sometimes it also had the quality of a magical murmur in a predestined zone of mysticality.

It was astonishing which range of wonderful possibilities across different cultures, languages and personalities Pelser’s songbird-undertaking with these musicians generated and accomplished at the Bimhuis, and, as most important side of the whole, with how much clearly visible and feasible joy it was all carried out by all musicians. Plenty of smiling faces between deep concentration. And, even though the song-lines were sharply drawn, there was an elusive side too. Both sides were in permanent dialectical interplay keeping imagination awake and running. It was more than a colourful round dance. It was a deeper shared experience of making music together.

Evi Filippou

Singing once reserved for a few vocal stars in jazz, it now has gained considerable ground and space among younger generations that have taken the stage presently.

constellations of singing in jazz

1. The classical Jazz singer: model Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald
2. The singing instrumentalist: model Louis Armstrong, Chet Baker, collective ?
3. Vocals as instrument: model Betty Carter, Bobby McFerrin, Sidsel Endresen
4. Vocal groups : model Swingle Singers, Tenores. of Sardinia, Trondheim Voices
5. Choirs
6. Groups with several vocalists/instrumentalists
7. Groups where all instrumentalists are also vocalists singing together

In the last two months alone, two vocal groups have formed in the Dutch scene:

Hera with 9 vocalists, led by saxophonist Kika Sprangers.

Nameless group of 5 vocalists : Marta Arpini, Liva Dumpe, Sanem Kalf, Annelie Koning, Laura Polence and another one on the scene, Eupnea, a vocal-flute quintet of vocalist Vera Morais (with Liva Dumpe, Sara van Eijck, Teresa Costa and Ketija Ringa-Karahona) has released its first album. And to continue along that line North Sea Round Town Festival in Rotterdam in June/July opened with a 3 and half hour vocally steered event “Runa Becomes Sun”, shaped by Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and performed by her ensemble Awichas with three vocals (Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti (voc, synth., per, comp), Jochem van Tol (synth, comp), Lida Bouskari (voc, synth), Julia Werner (voc, perc), Frank Rosaly (dr, perc, electr), Jacob Maskell-Key (dr, perc.).

The REFLEX-commission is meant as a mirroring of the times’ phenomena and a call to reflect on the Zeitgeist. Maybe that REFLEX is not so much always a reflection of social reality but serves more as a magnifying glass for the processing of musical realities and virtualities from the musician’s perspective realised with a great potential of means. As such it can then also open up the view on social realities. The next edition of REFLEX will be on October 1 a creation by percussionist Frank Rosaly (see my article on Minimal Music Festival Amsterdam 2026) in a line-up with Jeff Parker, Rob Frye and Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti. The REFLEX creations are released on BIMHUIS Records.

© Henning Bolte, 2026

https://bimhuis.bandcamp.com

    
Dodó Kis

Evi Felippou

Jordi Carraso

         
Veslemøy Narvesen

Jelle Roozenburg

Yanna Pelser

Six Songbirds

Yanna Pelser, Dodó Kis