This is quite special! Four musicians from the Amsterdam avant-garde improv scene who come up with their very own noisy take on popular styles like cumbia, tango, jazz, championing the playfulness and sardonic humour of the Instant Composers practice made famous by Han Bennink and Misha Mengelberg and their comrades.

Here they are:
Natalio Sued – tenor sax, clarinet, voice
Harald Austbø – cello, voice
Oscar Jan Hoogland – piano, voice
Marcos Baggiani – drums, voice

See also their LP from 2025: Weer Een Dag Voorbij, with their interpretations of several Misha Mengelberg compositions..

Tracks:

1. Pollera Amarilla 02:59
2. La Cumbiancha 06:03
3. Cuchi Canaca 05:03
4. Yekatit _ Raise Four 06:21
5. Tabaco y Ron 04:06
6. Caribbean Fire Dance 03:59
7. Ik wil nog niet dood 07:54
8. Cumbia for Ambush 05:51
9. La Colorada 06:49

Some tracks are their own compositions, some by others, like tr.1 (D.S. Espinoza), tr.4 (M. Astatke/T.Monk), tr.5 (M.J.R. Dominguez), tr.6 (J. Henderson) and tr.9 (Salinas/Kirovsky/ Magenta)

Here is a nice review from Laurence Mackin for the Irish Times:

“Amsterdam-based outfit the Ambush Party play improvised music that is impossible to predict, and impossible to resist. Oscar Jan Hoogland’s prepared piano lines are brilliant and unhinged; who knew a milk frother could be used to make a piano rumble with such emotion? The band sketch out the merest of musical lines, and than duck, jab and weave their way around them, little punches of percussion and sudden stabs of cymbals from Marcos Baggiani circling and irritating the piano, while Harald Austbø drags groans and moans from his cello and himself, before bursting into a voice that could rouse Wagner from a slumber. Meanwhile tenor saxophonist Natalio Sued wears the pained expression, and has the desultory brassy honks and howls of a man who believes he is the only sane one in the asylum. For every moment of chaos, though, there is clockwork efficiency beneath the melee that keeps the whole, swaggering bandwagon whirling onwards and upwards into unified bursts of sound that break like a storm. There is rigorous, meticulous magic at work here. This is music as theatre, and as exciting, engaging and humorous a band as you are likely to see. Seek them out, and leave any preconceived notions at the door because they will be of no use to you.”

Released in 2023.