Biography
Black Flower operates as a Belgian quintet directed by multi-instrumentalist and composer Nathan Daems. The group’s approach crafts a singular fusion of Ethiopian jazz first shaped by Mulatu Astatke, Mahmoud Ahmed, and Hailu Mergia, then merges those foundations with post-bop jazz, funk, Afrobeat, dub, and both Balkan and East Asian sonorities. Their initial recording, the 2014 album Abyssinia Afterlife, threaded delicate yet weighty rhythms into compact, arpeggiated patterns pierced by baritone sax eruptions and organ filtered through wah-wah pedals. While Artifacts in 2017 foregrounded Ethiopian folk melodies set against restless beats and deeply expressive improvisation, Future Flora three years later introduced a stronger Western orientation laced with Romanian elements. Magma, arriving in 2022, redirected focus onto Karel Cuelenaere’s vintage Farfisa organ by enveloping it in broad electronic shading and layering expansive dub treatments across the remaining arrangements.
Nathan Daems, whose earlier affiliations include Ragini Trio and Echoes of Zoo, launched Black Flower in 2014 after conservatory studies in composition and multiple instruments. In addition to saxophones and flutes drawn from Western, Turkish, and Ethiopian lineages, he contributes electronics and percussion. His colleagues comprise Texas-born cornetist Jon Birdsong, previously heard with Beck, Calexico, and Neurosis; jazz drummer Simon Segers, who has worked with Marc Ribot and Louis Sclavis; bassist Filip Vandebril, known for sessions with Lee Perry and Kocani Orkestar; and keyboardist/guitarist Wouter Haest. After several months of rehearsal, Zephyrus Music and De Werf Records jointly issued Abyssinia Afterlife late that year. Black Flower then entered club circuits and embarked on European tours, securing high-visibility opening slots for international visitors while headlining domestic engagements.
Ghost Radio appeared in 2016 as an “inbetweener” release; the band entered the studio aiming for an impressionistic, abstract, and psychedelic session. Artifacts followed several months later, shaped in part by Daems’ nearly mystical journey to Greece earlier that year. These releases generated extensive touring opportunities and headline festival appearances across Belgium. Although road work took place only in concentrated bursts because each member maintained separate recording and performance commitments, two years passed before Future Flora surfaced in 2019, offering a more Western character interwoven with Turkish, Greek, and Romanian threads. Gilles Peterson championed the album on BBC Radio 6, after which it received rotation on Worldwide FM, Jazz FM, and BBC Radio 3.
Haest exited shortly afterward to concentrate on solo and studio work and was succeeded on Farfisa organ and clavinet by Karel Cuelenaere of the Jamaican Jazz Orchestra. Black Flower’s first single with the new keyboardist, “O Fogo,” surfaced in October 2021, followed by “Morning in the Jungle,” which featured vocals by hitmaking Belgian singer/songwriter Meskerem Mees, winner of the Montreux Jazz Talent Award in 2021. The latter track reached the charts on the strength of her participation. In January the band released Magma, an album that placed Cuelenaere’s keyboard timbres at the center while Daems folded additional electronic textures and dub effects into their hallucinatory strain of brittle, funky jazz.
Nathan Daems, whose earlier affiliations include Ragini Trio and Echoes of Zoo, launched Black Flower in 2014 after conservatory studies in composition and multiple instruments. In addition to saxophones and flutes drawn from Western, Turkish, and Ethiopian lineages, he contributes electronics and percussion. His colleagues comprise Texas-born cornetist Jon Birdsong, previously heard with Beck, Calexico, and Neurosis; jazz drummer Simon Segers, who has worked with Marc Ribot and Louis Sclavis; bassist Filip Vandebril, known for sessions with Lee Perry and Kocani Orkestar; and keyboardist/guitarist Wouter Haest. After several months of rehearsal, Zephyrus Music and De Werf Records jointly issued Abyssinia Afterlife late that year. Black Flower then entered club circuits and embarked on European tours, securing high-visibility opening slots for international visitors while headlining domestic engagements.
Ghost Radio appeared in 2016 as an “inbetweener” release; the band entered the studio aiming for an impressionistic, abstract, and psychedelic session. Artifacts followed several months later, shaped in part by Daems’ nearly mystical journey to Greece earlier that year. These releases generated extensive touring opportunities and headline festival appearances across Belgium. Although road work took place only in concentrated bursts because each member maintained separate recording and performance commitments, two years passed before Future Flora surfaced in 2019, offering a more Western character interwoven with Turkish, Greek, and Romanian threads. Gilles Peterson championed the album on BBC Radio 6, after which it received rotation on Worldwide FM, Jazz FM, and BBC Radio 3.
Haest exited shortly afterward to concentrate on solo and studio work and was succeeded on Farfisa organ and clavinet by Karel Cuelenaere of the Jamaican Jazz Orchestra. Black Flower’s first single with the new keyboardist, “O Fogo,” surfaced in October 2021, followed by “Morning in the Jungle,” which featured vocals by hitmaking Belgian singer/songwriter Meskerem Mees, winner of the Montreux Jazz Talent Award in 2021. The latter track reached the charts on the strength of her participation. In January the band released Magma, an album that placed Cuelenaere’s keyboard timbres at the center while Daems folded additional electronic textures and dub effects into their hallucinatory strain of brittle, funky jazz.
Albums
Singles
