ADIA VANHEERENTALS SOLO

ADIA VANHEERENTALS SOLO

A solo album that’s “secretly” a duo album – not with a second artist, but with a location. That was the aim when saxophonist Adia Vanheerentals recorded her second solo outing, to be released in the fall by Relative Pitch Records.

For her first solo record, called ‘Here Are 5 Reasons To Meditate’, Adia recorded five pieces that are intimate, calm, wild and melodic all at once. The album was released as a single sided LP by artist Dennis Tyfus’ label Ultra Eczema in 2024, the same year she was selected as one of De Twintigers (The Twenty-somethings) by Klara Radio, a platform for the most promising young musicians in Belgium.

Now, having been asked to create a second solo album by the New York label Relative Pitch Records, Adia started looking for a creative way to re-invent her solo saxophone music. Her new improvisations are inventive pieces which take advantage of the full range of her instrument and different playing techniques, but also the sounds of her surroundings in the unusual locations where she recorded – the echo of a silo, the clucking of a chicken coop, or passing cars. These sounds inspired the music, creating a dialogue with the environment.

“Being born in a city (Antwerp), the first locations I thought of were places with a lot of traffic, because nothing brings me more at ease than the sound of a tram passing by. Because it was springtime, the sound of birds desperately looking to mate were even audible in the city, so I chose some locations with sounds of nature as well.”