Australian improvisers have always been able to weave a new path through the expectations, traditions and shared cultures of Europe and US creative music. As listeners from afar, they have created new ways to collect and reflect the power of American free jazz, the spontaneity of European free improvisation, while adding a new approach to space, time and place that is strictly Australian. 

BELIEVE’s debut album ‘Spirits of the Dead are Watching’ is a potent statement from four of the country’s most experienced and dedicated improvisers. 

Laurence Pike (PVT, Szun Waves, Triosk and LIARS) and Clayton Thomas (Splitter Orchestra, The Ames Room / TRIO AUS) have been playing internationally for more than 20 years. In combination with Novak Manojlovic and Peter Farrar, two remarkable composer/improvisers who are making their recording debut with this release, the quartet capture a potent moment in time, informed by a chaotic one. 

A powerhouse unit of rare intimacy, flexibility and passion, BELIEVE connects the spectrum of contemporary creative sound making with the fluid, anything is possible momentum of free jazz. 

When your benchmarks are Albert Ayler and The Necks, and you play for the universe, not the algorithm, the remarkable is possible. 

This music isn’t simply the result of four musicians improvising. It is the result of generations of storytellers, instrument builders, singers, dancers, players and prophets sharing their art – and being heard. 

The first of a two-volume album release, in collaboration with Ramble Records and Relative Pitch (CD), Spirits of the Dead are Watching is a debut album that puts Australian improvisation in the global view, and warrants deep listening.