Gallery tickets will be available on the spot even if the online ticketing system tells you that the show is sold out. Please order your drinks downstairs at the bar if you are seated on the gallery.

The Teis Semey Quintet is not really only about Semey. In fact, all of the five musicians in the quintet lead their own groups and are not only skilled musicians, but also impressive composers. There is a strong personality behind every instrument, and that is what makes the band such an impressive experience.

The band was formed in 2017 in Amsterdam, and has performed regularly in the Netherlands and Belgium. The initial vision was a punky DIY attitude to music making – and this vision carries through into their most recent work on Mean Mean Machine. As Semey said: “I kind of wanted to show that I could do everything myself, that good content is more important than fancy wrapping”.

The explosive and radically lyrical music that the quintet embodies is thus a product of this mindset. While all music is written by Semey, the band takes the music into its own hands, and there is never any guarantee of where it will lead. Only that it will be magical.

Amsterdam-based Danish guitarist Teis Semey returns this November with Mean Mean Machine, his third album in just three years. Lauded and awarded for his experimental approach, the album is an attempt to fuse the punk and free jazz that he buried himself in during lockdown, with the Scandinavian songs of his childhood, found in a book his grandmother left him when she passed away. The result is guitar-fuelled, nearly-danceable jazz with a finger on the pulse and a fist in the air. A flaming response to the critical state of the world and an homage to the extreme beauty that still exists.

It’s no surprise that Semey often refers to the quintet as his family: whilst hailing from 5 different countries, they have forged a close relationship together on the hotly-tipped Dutch jazz scene over the last years. Interestingly, all five are bandleaders in their own right, bringing a deep understanding of what it takes to turn melodies and chords into a unique and happening set of music.

This concert is made possible thanks to Footprints, a project funded by the European Union within the framework of the Creative Europe program.