This year, Dutch Focus, a festival presented in cooperation between Budapest Music Center and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Hungary, will take place between 26 and 28 November, bringing the vibrant colours of Dutch jazz to Opus Jazz Club.

Futuro Ancestrale was born from the idea to combine contemporary improvisation and non-western music traditions. Thus, in their concert on 26 November, electronics will play a central role along with ancestral instruments borrowed from Chinese, Albanian or Chadian traditions. Doronzo's concept of convoking those sounds and cultures in the same musical space is a way to celebrate, and to create a vibrant dialogue between histories. A recurring sense of duality runs through their latest album, Elsewhen, expressed in both its musical language and its instrumentation. The project continues to unfold in the spirit of collective instant composition, leaving room for spontaneous creation and opening a space to honor the present.

On 27 November, we can hear a recently founded trio which brings together three original improvisers from Amsterdam and Lisbon's creative music communities: Ziv Taubenfeld, Helena Espvall and João Sousa. The unique instrumentation of the bass clarinet, cello and drums presents unique timbral possibilities for the trio to explore; and while the music of the group is mainly meditative and melodic, it can become wild and exploratory when the spirit calls for it. The debut album by the group, You, Full of Sources and Night, was recently released on NoBusiness Records. Members of the trio are associated with artists such as Tony Malaby, Hamid Drake, Carlos Zingaro, Marta Warelis, and Steve Swell to name a few.

The programme of the festival’s closing concert is the result of a unique encounter between four figures from European contemporary improvisation and avant-garde. Ada Rave is one of the most powerful and active voices on the Amsterdam improvisation scene. Jasper Stadhouders is one of the leading figures in contemporary Dutch guitar playing, and is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of Dutch creative music. Péter Ajtai and Szilveszter Miklós are key creators in Central European free improvisation, having been active in the Hungarian and international avant-garde music scene for many years. Their music blends the region’s distinctive improvisational heritage with the open and ever-evolving forms of contemporary experimental music.

Tickets for the concerts of Dutch Focus are available on the spot, online at bmc.jegy.hu, and at InterTicket Jegypont partners across Hungary.