LOOT is a new album under the banner of the Instant Composers Pool, adorned by the characteristic cover art of Han Bennink. Anno 2025 still going strong.

Loot means sprout in Dutch 🙂

Let the piano speak and find out what it has to say. It is this approach to playing the piano that formed the starting point for the compositions Oscar Jan Hoogland wrote especially for LOOT. With Ab Baars, Uldis Vitols and Onno Govaert, Hoogland has brought together the perfect musicians to play this new music. These men stand strong in their own counterpoint, let their instruments’ voices speak, are true masters of heterophonic swing and, most importantly, they are incredible improvisers.

As Ben Tafijn wrote in his review:

“In his new work, Hoogland is in line with the tradition once started by Misha Mengelberg under the name instant composing and later picked up by others, such as Guus Janssen. Just like his illustrious predecessors, Hoogland also chose to compose a skeleton and have it fleshed out by reed player Ab Baars, bassist Uldis Vitols and drummer Onno Govaert. These new pieces by Hoogland have a strikingly structured and melodic core. An important role is reserved for Baars, who we hear in almost all pieces on tenor sax and once on clarinet, but Hoogland would not be Hoogland if he did not regularly derail those same melodies in a big way.”