Sean Trane The first improvised adventures of Domenico Solazzo’s Panopticon happened in some punk joint in central Brussels (the DNA on April 28th, 07), but its usual crowd happens also to be relatively opened-minded. It might be indeed a bit surprising that a jazz-rock formation such Panopticon would want to play in such a joint in the first place, but then again those who know Domenico Solazzo, the chief architect of the group, will also know that’s precisely the type of challenge he likes to take on.

Dom is the man that organizes the concert by contacting from a panel of musicians a certain combination and draws some very loose lines of the improv that will take a whole set. And he’s also the one recording it, producing it and putting it on disc (so far anyway), all at his own costs. Tonight’s line-up is an 11-man (sorry Catherine) formation including three electric guitarist, a DJ and a second drummer, ex-Globalys Daniel Cohen

This first session veered mostly a sort of spacey fusion with a slight ethnic taste, and hints sometimes at Mwandishi.

If you’re looking for virtuosity or histrionics, you’d better look elsewhere, even if all musicians master their instruments impeccably. Such is not the goal of these improvisations, and everyone knows it well, they are there at the music’s service. One of the things that is missing is the film projections that were shown during the sets.