Originally from Antwerp, Matthias Van den Brande now lives in Amsterdam (NL) where he was a student at the Conservatory up till recently. As the title clearly suggests, this is his debut album, with an ambitious project combining a (mainly) acoustic jazz quartet with a classical wind quintet. He arranged a repertoire of originals and some famous jazz tunes by Monk and Gershwin, with a strong sense of colour, balance and space. His warm and lyrical sound on both tenor and soprano, the overall beautiful, inspired and well-informed playing of himself and his band mates and a varied mix of influences from jazz, classical and Brazilian music make for a highly fascinating debut.'