Matthijs van Wijhe - Peter-Jan Wagemans: Cycles (2023)

‘Cycles was written between October 2020 and February 2022. There was no demand or commission for the work; I took advantage of the social calm caused by the Corona epidemic to realise an old dream. The dream of a music situated between “modern” and “jazz”. At the Rotterdam conservatory (Codarts) where I had worked for many years, I had listened to small jazz ensembles, just piano, drums and a melody instrument, formed by jazz students who had developed an intelligent, almost Bach-like idiom, the music was far removed from all jazz clichés. They could develop this music in peace, within the walls of the conservatory they did not yet have to deal with the harsh laws of the commercial jazz scene.

‘Another source of inspiration was the music of Cecil Taylor, the record Silent Tongues and the group Weather Report, the record Mysterious Traveller, records I have had on my shelf for decades. And the music videos of jazz drummer Dave Weckl on YouTube.

‘These influences mixed with the notion that I am starting to get old and that I would like to write a great cycle, a bit like the great final variation works by Bach and Beethoven.

‘I tried to know as little as possible about jazz, so that, what I composed is a memory of heard jazz, an echo, not the thing itself. This is how Cycles was created.’
– Peter-Jan Wagemans