Terp Records
Terp Records is a Dutch independent record label founded in 1998 by Terrie Hessels (aka Terrie Ex), guitarist of the legendary Dutch punk band The Ex. The label emerged from The Ex’s musical encounters during their travels, particularly following the trio Mandingue Djibril Diabate, Fassery Diabate, and Mahamadou Kamissoko after their meeting with The Ex in 1997.
The label specializes in two primary musical directions: free improvisation and African music, especially from Ethiopia. Its catalog is organized with distinct series prefixes: AS for the African Series, IS for the Improv Series, and OS for the Other Series.
Key artists on the label include Ethiopian saxophone legend Getatchew Mekurya, Congolese likembe band Konono N°1, Ethiopian vocalist Mohammed “Jimmy” Mohammed, and zerfu (Ethiopian flute) player Zerfu Demissie, alongside Terrie Hessels’ own experimental projects and The Ex-related recordings.
Notable releases include the 2019 duo album Scaffolding with Ken Vandermark (tenor sax, clarinet) and Terrie Ex (guitar), recorded in Wormer, Netherlands, and their 2024 follow-up This Is Not a Holiday, recorded live in Poznan, Poland. The label has produced over 30 releases to date and continues to document the intersection of punk energy, free improvisation, and African musical traditions.
Y’Anbessaw Tezeta
Y’Anbessaw Tezeta
“The sound is full, warm, accessible and guaranteed to suck you in and keep you captivated till the last note has died out.” -Stef, Free Jazz Blog
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Recorded December 6/7 2011, February 24/28 2012, April 5/23 2012 in Jottum, Wormerveer, Holland, and May 3 2012 in Fendika, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia.
Engineer Jottem: Maarten Tap. Co-engineered: Andy + Arnold. Engineer Addis: Arnold. Mixed by Arnold + Andy at Andy’s home and in Jottum. Mastered by Frank van der Weij.
Artwork: Emma Fischer. Photos by Matias Corral, Emma Fischer, Andy Moor, Pavel Stráẑay, Nanni Angeli, Barbora Fabianova, Christina Halstrom, Nick Helderman, Leul Mekonnen, Paul Till. The Getatchew archival photos come from his own private photo-albums.
Produced by The Ex.
credits
released January 19, 2017
Tracks 1-10:
Getatchew Mekuria – tenor saxophone
Arnold de Boer – trumpet
Terrie Hessels – guitar
Andy Moor – guitar
Katherina Bornefeld – drums
Xavier Charles – clarinet
Ken Vandermark – baritone saxophone, bass clarinet
Brodie West – alto saxophone
Joost Buis – trombone
Wolter Wierbos – trombone
Colin McLean – bass
Tracks 11-20
Getachew Mekuria & the ICP Orchestra, Haile Selassie 1 Theatre Orchestra and live with the Ex
This Is Not A Holiday!
This Is Not A Holiday!
“It’s a game of hopscotch while drunk on sleep deprivation. It’s a dance based on inaudible, but irrepressible rhythms. It’s interaction dressed up like a call & response game wrapped up in a sparring match full of agitation and confusion. It’s a manic pursuit over wobbly scaffolding, broken roof tiles or a creaking suspension bridge. It’s an irregular movement that snaps, roars, drips, defies, tumbles, slithers, cajoles, interrupts, sizzles, triples, dodges, throws curveballs, causes panic, restores order, well kinda, and stutters and mutters. It’s like Jaap Blonk’s invented Onderlands: a language that sounds familiar, but that ultimately defies comprehension. It’s part application and part imagination, it’s a mystery and a trap. It’s a system, perhaps, and an attempt at something, probably, but it’s not, definitely not, a holiday. The idea!“ – Guy Peters
Ken Vandermark (US) and Terrie ‘Ex’ Hessels (NL) have been playing together for years. For example, the Chicago reed player has been a guest with The Ex almost 100 times and the two are also part of Lean Left, an explosive improvising quartet with Andy Moor and Paal Nilssen-Love. It took them until 2014 before they went on stage for the first time as a duo. A dozen concerts followed on various international stages and resulted in their first LP ‘Scaffolding’ recorded upstairs in the Witte Villa, Wormer.
This new release is the result of an blasting tour in Poland, 2021. Recorded live in the SARP Social Club in Poznan. ‘This is not a holiday!’ Eight improvisations; eight musical adventures!
side 1:
1. How Maps Work
2. Second Piano
3. Perpetual Underground
side 2:
4. Hook & Sinker
5. Wrong Pocket
6. Odd Numbers
7. Short Circuits
KEN VANDERMARK – tenor & baritone saxophone, clarinet
TERRIE EX – guitar
Live at SARP Social Club, Poznan, Poland.
Recorded by Bartek Olsze- wski.
Mastered by Arnold de Boer.
Cut by Lex van Coeverden at The Vinyl Room.
Pressed at DiscoMat, Herk-de-Stad (B).
Cover painting & Layout: Emma Fischer.
Photos: Geert Vandepoele.
Thanks: Ola Trzaska, the SARP crew, Catalytic Sound.
All music by Ken Vandermark (Twenty First Mobile Music Publishing/ASCAP, AUME/Published by Cien Fuegos) and Terrie Hessels (Buma)
The Swim
The Swim
“Scrape meets sigh, jagged fish-hook pluck meets sparse wire-damped drizzle, instinct meets intuition, and when the disc is done, it’ll seem quite sensible to dive back in and swim the whole length in reverse. – Bill Meyer, Dusted”
Even though both Kaja Draksler and Terrie Ex are experienced improvisers, their methods and characters are so different that a sensible merger of their considerable forces seems out of the question. But then you realize that entire scenes and band catalogs were built on nonsensical premises. Don’t they say that opposites attract? Extremes can also cancel each other out and lead to something entirely new and thrilling. That’s exactly what happens here.
Far from a trip full of explosive power, this performance is a celebration of textural possibilities. Sounds flail around, are thrown around to be disregarded, dismantled and reassembled again, turned into a shower of musical drops, with a minimalist sparseness that can switch to quick runs and jumpy intervals in the blink of an eye. Everything becomes malleable.
There’s an unmistakable alchemy at work here – spiky and subversive – that is as refreshing as a piano sonata, as thrilling as the repetitive punk that Ex started playing before Draksler was even born. In the hands of born improvisers like these two, concepts such as age, nationality and background become irrelevant. Above all, it is about connection and its amazing, intoxicating potential. The Swim has a story to tell.
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Kaja Draksler – piano & toys
Terrie Ex – guitar & tools
Recorded by Shaun Crook (Cafe Oto, London, June 7, 2018).
Mixed & mastered by Arnold de Boer at Arnold’s Upstairs, Amsterdam.
Artwork & design: Emma Fischer.
Liner notes: Guy Peters.
All music by Terrie Hessels and Kaja Draksler.
Shifting Sands
Shifting Sands
“Both Baars – and Ex are resourceful, highly inventive improvisers and apparently eccentric and quite stubborn characters. Even though both know each other quite well they still manage to surprise. The ten studio pieces, recorded on September 2015, sound as playful, witty dialogues, where both Baars and Ex attempt to outsmart the other’s thread of thought with playful and urgent ideas, sometimes even tease the other with an outrageous and totally provocative gesture.” -Eyal Hareuveni, Free Jazz Blog
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Terrie Ex: Electric Guitar
Ab Baars: Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Clarinet, Shakuhachi
Recorded at Electric Monkey, Amsterdam. September 17, 2015.
Layout – Emma Fischer
Liner Notes – Guy Peters
Mixed – Arnold de Boer
Photography – Werner Krepper, Willy Schuyten
Recorded – Kasper Frenkel
Artwork – Emma Fischer
Scaffolding
Scaffolding
“these good friends somehow manage to find “seemingly incompatible tactics that somehow fit together.” The tactics, as the titles often suggest, are quite chaotic, and opt for muscular head-on collisions and jumpy cat-and-mouse games with a raw, in-your-face sound.” -Eyal Hareuveni, Free Jazz Blog
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“…Terrie was already bouncing towards Vandermark with a drumstick and too much energy that he needed to get rid of urgently. It was only a matter of seconds before the two gave their all, in that strange combination of seemingly incompatible tactics that somehow fit together. The rhythmic accents of Vandermark were razor-sharp and turbulent, and were executed with the same crackling energy that Hessels treated the strings with. The interaction was jumpy, constantly on the move, with a strong dash of humor (especially by an unleashed Hessels, who treated his guitar and the stage with a hammer (!)), but also an instinctive one; interaction that, despite enormous freedom, also led to a set that was as short as it was consistent.” (Guy Peters).
Ken Vandermark (US) and Terrie Hessels (NL) have been playing together for years. For example, the Chicago reed player has been a guest with The Ex almost 100 times and the two are also part of Lean Left, an explosive improvising quartet with Andy Moor and Paal Nilssen-Love. It took them until 2014 before they went on stage for the first time as a duo. A dozen concerts followed on various international stages and now they present their first duo album, ‘Scaffolding’ (Terp).
Terrie Hessels: Guitar
Ken Vandermark: Tenor saxophone & clarinet
Recorded at Kamer 3, Witte Villa, Wormer, by Lena Hessels. December 2-3, 2017.
Mixed & mastered at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, by Alex Inglizian. August 28, 2018.
All music by Ken Vandermark and Terrie Hessels.
Artwork and design: Emma Fischer. Photos: Geert Vandepoele.
Moa Anbessa
Moa Anbessa
Getatchew Mekuria – Saxophone
Katherina – Drums
Terrie – Guitar
Andy – Guitar
G.W.Sok – Vocals
Colin McLean – Bass
Xavier Charles – Clarinet
Brodie West – Alto Saxophone
Joost Buis – Trombone
Cor Fuhler – Organ (6,9,10)
Recorded April 3-4, 2006 at Jottem, Wormerveer, Holland, by Jeroen ‘Ato Asa’ Visser & Dolf Planteijd. Engineer: Maarten Tap.
Mixed & mastered by Jeroen Visser & The Ex at Fishing Bakery Labs in Zurich, Switzerland.
Tracks 3, 5, 6, 8, and 11 recorded live April 8, 2006 in the Grand Mix, Tourcoing, France, by Jeroen Visser.
All melodies by Getatchew Mekuria based on traditional tunes. All arrangements by Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex & Guests. English lyrics by The Ex.
- Based on a song by Frew Hailu.
- Based on a song known from Tilahoun Gessesse, written by Gezahegn Desta.
- Based on a Sudanese traditional song.
- Based on a traditional horseman’s war-chant.
- Based on a traditional song from Gondar.
- Aynotche Terabu based on a traditional tune by Nuru Wondafrash of the Imperial Bodyguard Band. Shemonmwanaye is a traditional song from Wollo.
- Based on a piece by the Wallias band, written by Girma Beyene.
- Based on a traditional Ethiopian scale, the ultimate blues.
- Based on a traditional folksong about Harar.
- Based on a song by Tilahoun Gessesse, written by the Police and Ayalew Mesfin.
Let’s Go
Let’s Go
In the winter of 2008 Han, Brodie and Terrie met at Jottem studio in the small Dutch village of Wormerveer to finally realize an idea which had for a while been on their minds. It was good timing – Terrie and Brodie had just returned from a tour of France with Getatchew Mekuria and The Ex. Han – a neighbor of Terrie’s was enjoying a brief moment at home, a rare moment – since he’s been touring constantly for the past several years.
The night began with a great feast at “the villa” – the residence of Terrie and family which was once home to The Ex as well as several other unusual suspects. It was Getatchew’s last evening in Holland before returning home to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Home cooked Ethiopian food, grappa, then ice-cream before they headed off to the studio – the same studio where a couple years before Han and Terrie had twice recorded their duo and Brodie with Terrie as a guest with The Ex and Getatchew Mekuria. None knowing what exactly would happen – in a way, this is an unlikely combination – three greatly accomplished musicians – but not uncommon to improvised music – this was still an experiment. Brodie and Han had toured together and recorded a duo back in 2005, Han had recorded twice as a duo with Terrie, but what would happen when these histories collided? What would be the common language? While Bennink can be heard on hundreds of recordings, this may be the only record where you will hear him on a “rock drum-kit”, and for Terrie, the closest example of a foray into jazz, and while Brodie has been well recorded on releases from Drumheller, and The Lina Allemano 4, you will hear him here with all his cards laid on the table.
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Han Bennink: drums
Brodie West: alto saxophone
Terrie Ex: guitar
Recorded in Jottem Studio, Wormerveer, The Netherlands.
Engineered by Maarten Tap.
Mastered by Jean Martin.
Cover art by Han Bennink.
Photo by Pieter Boersma.
Terp graphics by Emma Fischer.
Produced by Terrie Ex, Brodie West and Han Bennink.
Hef
Hef
“In English there’s a related idiom: Dutch courage. That’s when intoxication makes you fearless. Perhaps a fitting image for Ab Baars and Terrie Ex on their first record of duets, “Hef”. I’m not referring to literal drunkenness, of course, but a figurative image of being tanked, a thoroughly internalized sense of dizzy, giddy musical interaction, bravery to try things you’d know you wouldn’t/ shouldn’t when sober. Ab is creative music’s official drunken master (past masters: Ben Webster, Archie Shepp), and the marvelous Mr. Ex is a very worthy drunkboxing partner. In Ab’s tenor especially, I hear this approach (keep in mind, Chan only turns to drunken boxing when pushed to do so!) – a loopy, wild, off-kilter phraseology that’s precise and imprecise in the right balance, or rather in the right relation. In the twosome’s opener, “Oud Over”, Ab lurches and sways like a sot. But beware, ’cause just when you think he’ll topple over, he turns into a bloodthirsty silver machine, attacking the jugular and slicing in tandem with Terrie’s electric chicken-scratch scrapple of strings. Listen on “Stokdutter” as the guitarist’s metallic shards combust behind Baars’ slow-motion clarinet, unfazed by sudden motion – two temporalities superimposed, the unreality of unitary chronological time for a buzzed man. The drunken master works at his own pace. What’s it take to make music like “Hef”? A liter and a half of Dutch courage.” –John Corbett, Chicago, January 2000
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Ab Baars – saxophone, clarinet
Terrie Ex – guitar
Recorded during two sessions at the Jottem studio space in Wormerveer, Holland, by Colin McLean.
Mixed + mastered by Zlaya and Terrie.
Gored Gored
Gored Gored
It’s powerful, speedy, chaotic, but with a high degree of interplay and charm. Improvised, yes, but never out of focus. Although the two slow it down at times, they soon build up to the energies described, uncompromising, vibrant, hard, sonic, exploring their noisy palette of sound.” (FREQ)
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Paal Nilssen-Love: Drums
Terrie Ex: Guitar
![Flaps [CAA-065]](https://stream.catalyticsound.com/wp-content/uploads/flaps-caa-065.jpg)
Flaps [CAA-065]
Flaps [CAA-065]
“An almost 48 minute long solo guitar improvisation. In one piece. Terrie goes to many edges and corners. A fascinating travel through soundscapes and moods. Like an abstract film in his head. Recorded in the Electric Monkey Studio in Amsterdam and never released before.”
Terrie Hessels: Electric Guitar
Recorded at the Electric Monkey Studio in Amsterdam. 29-10-2018 by Kasper Frenkel.
Cover by Emma Fischer