AN PIERLE QUARTET

AN PIERLE QUARTET

Do you know what a person needs in 2024? Less regret. Less fake. Less fear. And the courage to live in the now. An Pierlé sings about it all with the wisdom of a woman who no longer needs to be a girl. Four years after Wiga Waga, the An Pierlé Quartet (APQ) is back with a second album on the prestigious W.E.R.F. label: Ultimate Survival.

Compared to the APQ’s debut, the grooves are deeper, the lyrics even more confrontational. This is partly due to the turn the singer-pianist’s life took. She overcame the big C, and the realization that it’s best to enjoy each day has since become all the more urgent. But Pierlé doesn’t allow such darkness to dominate the new album: the title does not refer to that period; it was given to her as a gift by artist Patrick Van Caeckenbergh, who designed the cover. Pierlé: “At first, it made me think of a game like Mortal Kombat, but he drew his inspiration from an old book about animals caring for other species. That’s something we all need today.”

The first single, The Sting, sets the tone—a song about accepting the foolish mistakes we all make, even when we know better. Daybreak celebrates the liberation of starting anew with a clean slate, while Make Believe peels away the filters of social media. Sometimes delivered with husky warmth, sometimes with the virtuosic outbursts of a voice that refuses to dwell in the past—and avoids dreaminess like the plague. Ultimate Survival is an experiential album that carries you along the waves of a story. “Save your own skin” sums up both the lyrics and the concerts of the An Pierlé Quartet. While this album may not be classic jazz, it is undeniably the work of a bona fide jazz band—the link to David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, is never far away. With keyboardist Hendrik Lasure and drummer Casper Van de Velde (together known as Schntzl), APQ holds at its core the essence of The New Wave of Belgian Jazz.

The godfather of this jazz wave is producer and reed player Koen Gisen. “Casper and Hendrik are world-class,” says Gisen. “The beauty of it is that they never play the same thing twice, not even in the studio. That makes Ultimate Survival a pure snapshot in time. Live, this will be a wonderful derailment, with the certainty that those two will always land on their feet.” Pierlé: “Our boys have old souls. And precisely because of that, they are our mentors, rather than the other way around. To choose adventure. And to live in the now.”