Blink and you might miss it, but every second April something remarkable takes place in Dublin for fans of jazz and experimental music. It’s a far cry from the country’s other jazz events, like the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival that pulls in the big names, with wizened professionals churning out standards from the Great American Songbook year after year. 12 Points is a very different type of festival, and sitting in the unassuming city centre office that is the Improvised Music Company’s HQ, there’s an air of calm as I sit down to talk to the festival’s director, Kenneth Killeen.
It’s Kenneth’s first year as Festival Director at 12 Points, but he has been with them right from the beginning, working as production manager since 2007 and before that as general manager with IMC since 2005. Now in its ninth year, he begins to explain what sets 12 Points apart from the country’s larger scale jazz events.
‘If you juxtapose it against something like the Cork Jazz Festival, you’re essentially looking at a completely different festival model,’ he says. ‘Cork Jazz if a very traditional model where you have some big international names and they’re the attractors to the festival, but 12 Points has no headline act, 12 Points is very much a level platform.’
‘We saw the opportunity,’ says Killeen. ‘We saw that it was needed. We sit here in Dublin on the periphery of Europe geographically: we’re an island and we’re looking into what’s happening in Europe. In the beginning we asked ourselves questions like, “Are other European countries in the same situation with regard to audiences, and trying to get audiences for this contemporary and progressive music? Are they the same as we are?” So through the Europe Jazz Network and other inter-European bodies we conceived 12 Points, to put out a call and to get back twelve of what we could find. We started a submission process and we were overwhelmed with the amount of material that we got back. So 12 Points was born. The criteria was very simple, we could only pick one band per country and that was the model and it has grown year on year since then.’
That means only one Irish act per year is lucky enough to make the cut, something that is getting harder each year according to Kenneth. ‘The scene in Ireland is really healthy, so it is difficult to pick just one band from Ireland every year. The scene is healthy, and diverse as well, so what we have at 12 Points is a very progressive festival, it’s very much jazz of 2015. It’s always difficult to pick one band each year because we usually have five or six.’
This year, the Irish act to receive the honour is five-piece ensemble Umbra, led by Dublin native Chris Guilfoyle. Instrumentally perhaps one of the more traditional set-ups among this year’s offerings, Guilfoyle’s compositions are coloured by a rich palette of influences, ranging from jazz greats like John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner to the intricate electronic compositions of Squarepusher and Aphex Twin.
When I caught up with Chris he explained why he feels 12 Points is such an important festival. ‘I think it’s a really great and important festival in numerous ways. I think it really showcases European jazz and what is going on currently within the scene as a whole, and it shows that jazz is still a relevant music despite the negative criticism that comes its way so often. It is incredibly important in the way it opens up networking opportunities for European jazz musicians and, in some ways, I feel that it is even more important for the Irish bands who have performed, my band included, due to geography. We’re a little bit isolated from the mainland which makes it a little harder for us to integrate than those who live in France, Germany and so on. So it really provides an ideal platform for Irish jazz to stand up and be noticed.’
It seems that everyone I spoke to who had been involved in 12 Points echoed this sentiment. Like Lander Gyselinck, the drummer of Stuff, who also played with LAB Trio last year when 12 Points visited Umeå in Sweden. Hailing from Ghent, Lander reminisces about his experience at 12 Points with a heartfelt nostalgia. ‘I have really good memories of this period because the atmosphere was so warm and I remember when I came back from these four days hanging with the Irish crew – we were finishing up the Stuff album at the time – I was saying to the guys in the band, “Ah! We have to play at this festival because they have a great selection of really good new music that is all jazz-influenced, but it’s all just progressive, nice music!” I was really happy to hear the news that we could play with Stuff this year in Dublin. When we go to Dublin, we really have to make sure we stay there for a few days and not just play the gig, because then we won’t feel the vibe or we won’t taste the 12 Points thing.’
So 12 Points really does come across as a festival with a completely different model compared to what we have come to expect in this country. It’s a success on many levels: it’s culturally enriching for the Irish audience, while simultaneously creating a much-needed communicative infrastructure for Irish and European musicians, to expand and collaborate on an international level.
‘We encourage the bands to stay across the duration of the festival’ says Killeen. ‘It’s very much about networking, it’s very much about peer level relationships between Irish musicians and their European counterparts, and it’s about building networks with the delegates we invite as well. So it’s a completely different festival model.’
And it’s a model that has proven itself over eight years, with 2015 being 12 Points’ fifth instalment in Ireland. During that time it has become ‘a benchmark for new emerging talent’ Killeen continues. ‘We got an award from the Europe Jazz Network for adventurous programming, so you have large festival bookers coming to 12 Points because they recognise that they need something new and edgy in their programme, and they don’t have time to wade through potentially hundreds of submissions. So we’re the distillation point for them, and thankfully if an artist then says that they have played the festival, it usually results in them getting an engagement at a club show or a festival show in Europe, and that, for us, is a win.’
With a staggering range of music on offer, this year’s festival promises not to disappoint. The best thing about 12 Points is that you can catch everything on offer over the four nights if you so wish, as the twelve acts each play on the one stage, three per night. As ever, there is a strong emphasis on the experimental, and Killeen explains how this reflects what’s happening in modern European jazz.
‘The festival is like a prism that distills what’s happening. In terms of curation, it’s very much a reflection of what young people are doing with the idiom today. A lot of this music comes from essentially a pedagogical background, conservatories around Europe, all these locations of musical creativity. What we find listening to these bands is that it’s like a new dawn for them because they don’t feel they have to reflect what they’ve learned directly. They’re taking cues from their local ethnic music, their pop music, so it’s a very interesting process of reflecting back what musicians are doing [today].’
Acts like Stuff are prime examples of this. Lander mentioned how electronic artists like Hudson Mohawke, Flying Lotus and Mike Slott have worked to influence his compositional style on their new album. ‘When you listen to the album it should be like a trip with this puzzle of references, like Afrika Bambaataa mixed with Radiohead, or Terry Riley mixed with Anthony Braxton. Maybe it’s a sign of the times, how we mash up the music because, culturally speaking, it’s all so mangled in a very interesting way now.’
Similarly Elias Stemeseder describes how his creative process is inspired by a range of experimental artists that might initially seem to be a far stretch away from the traditional perception of jazz. ‘I’ve been working on some rhythmic things that are new to me and difficult to pull off, transcribing vamps from Meshuggah and Autechre and trying to incorporate or interpret them in a solo piano setting… Aphex Twin’s drukqs is really inspiring as far as prepared piano [goes].’
As Killeen neatly puts it, ‘They’re not relying on the Real Book *[a traditional source of jazz standards]* or the Great American Song Book for their primary motivation [any more], they’re actually unshackled from that, and that’s very liberating.’ That unshackled liberation is sure to come across over the four nights of the festival.
And if twelve acts wasn’t enough there are a number of ancillary events on offer, including an amazing triple bill featuring three 12 Points alumni in collaboration with Dublin City Council’s MusicTown festival. The brilliant Alarmist take the stage alongside OKO and Redivider at Smock Alley on Friday 17th April. Also not to be missed are the late night showcase gigs at Sweeney’s featuring The CEO Experiment, Bunk and Leo Drezden, that run Thursday through Saturday of the festival.
Twelve Points takes place Wednesday 15th through Saturday 18th April in Project Arts Centre in Temple Bar.
12 acts:
Wednesday 15th April
Auditive Connection: Punkish vocal led jazz from Strasbourg with an avant-garde tinge.
Moskus: Norwegian piano trio, blending melodic passages with disjointed reverie.
Stuff: Brilliant modern fusion band from Ghent, deftly mixing electronics with funky hip-hop grooves. Not to be missed.
Thursday 16th April
A.M.P.: Frenetic free jazz from Hungarian piano trio.
Elias Stemeseder: Thoughtful and mature solo piano improvisation from Berlin.
Virta: Haunting melodic soundscapes from atmospheric Finnish trio.
Friday 17th April
Laura Jurd Quartet: Playfully effected trumpet quartet from London based act.
SVIN: Hypnotic and beautiful drone based compositions from Copenhagen
BRUUT!: Swinging hammond jazz with a touch of swinging ’60s funk from Amsterdam.
Saturday 18th April
Black Dough: Vocal led expansive sounds with a dark aesthetic from Sweden.
Umbra: Irish jazz quintet with intricate guitar led compositions.
Hildegard Lernt Fliegen: Mesmerising vocal acrobatics and uptempo jazz with a Balkan twist.
Words: Dave Desmond
Images: BRUUT! Maarten van der Kamp, , UMBRA, Hildegard Lernt Flieden, STUFF Alexander Popelier, & Laura Jurd Quartet
