FREE MUSIC (1975 - 1988)

Cortizona proudly unveils Cortizona Heritage, a new sublabel created in partnership with the Study Centre for Flemish Music (SVM) to revive and showcase hidden chapters of Flemish music history. This heritage imprint will dig deep into the archives, restoring and reissuing rare, often overlooked recordings with the care and context they deserve. Its mission: to let unheard, thrilling, and underrepresented episodes of Flemish music history resound again, presented in beautifully crafted editions.
The debut release, Free Music (1975-1988) by WIM Fanfare, sets the tone. Founded in 1975 by pianist and improviser Fred Van Hove, tenor saxophonist Cel Overberghe, alto saxophonist André Goudbeek, and percussionist Ivo Vander Borght, WIM Fanfare emerged as the unruly street-arm of the Werkgroep Improviserende Musici (Workshop for Improvising Musicians). The WIM collective itself had been founded in 1973 as an act of protest - after Van Hove and Overberghe refused to play at Jazz Middelheim in 1972 in response to the stark pay gap between European and American musicians on the same bill. Instead, WIM members created their own event: the Free Music Festival, launched in Antwerp that same year.
Blending the exuberance of a marching band with the unpredictability of free improvisation, WIM Fanfare brought raw, joyful musical anarchy to city squares, parades, and unsuspecting audiences-especially during the Free Music Festival, where they became a tradition.
The recordings on Free Music (1975-1988) were first issued in 1990 as a cassette supplement to the art magazine Deus Ex Machina, an edition now virtually impossible to find. For this first-ever vinyl release of WIM Fanfare, these selections from Van Hove's extensive personal live archive have been fully restored and remastered. The album comes with newly designed artwork, an inner sleeve and cover featuring never-before-seen photographs by Gérard Rouy, and an exclusive insert with an original WIM Fanfare drawing, made by founding member Cel Overberghe, mid 70s. Detailed liner notes, assembled from archival press materials, interviews, and Van Hove's own tapes-complete the package, giving rich historical context to the music.
This LP not only captures the untamed spirit of a group that refused to march to anyone else's beat - it also launches an ongoing series dedicated to documenting, completing, and sharing the singular story of Fred Van Hove, WIM and the Free Music movement.

Recommended if you like:
Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Irreversible Entanglements, ICP Orchestra, Shabaka and The Ancestors, Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet, Phil Cohran & The Artistic Heritage Ensemble, Moondog, Colin Stetson Ensemble, Fire Orchestra, Mette Rasmussen Trio North, Sun Ra Arkestra, Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra, BRAHJA, Roscoe Mitchell, Archie Shepp, Max Roach Freedom Now Suite, Global Unity Orchestra & good music
Sounds like:
Proto-street punks tearing into instruments they were never meant to play but delivering splendid tunes.
The Muppet Show Band feeding off each other's madness and vibe on the pulse of the pavement.