Smalltalk Code by Yannick Peeters | GingerBlackGinger

Yannick Peeters | GingerBlackGinger | Tim Berne

Smalltalk Code

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Records
UPC: 0608917359725
Catnr: CR 73597
Release date: 27 February 2026
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1 CD	€ 19.95	Preorder

Label
Challenge Records

UPC
0608917359725

Catalogue number
CR 73597

Release date
27 February 2026

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

GingerBlackGinger, the daring and authentic project centered around Belgian double bass player Yannick Peeters, has entered a new chapter. They are now joined by American avant-garde alto saxophonist Tim Berne. Their new album, titled 'Smalltalk Code' will be released in February 2026 by Challenge Records (NL).

“Tim is a hero of mine, a great example when it comes to music composition. I didn’t even dare ask him to join at first. This project is going to be unique; I don’t know of many bands with two alto saxophones. I’m excited to see the dynamic form between Tim and Frans Van Isacker. Tim has such a strong personality, he has a great impact on our sound. The fact that Tim and Tom Rainey have played together before, means there was an element of trust there from the beginning.” – Yannick Peeters

GingerBlackGinger is made up of Yannick Peeters (BE) on double bass (Jakob Bro, Frank Vaganée, Chris Joris, Mark Feldman, Jim Black, Joshua Redman, Hank Roberts), Frederik Leroux (BE) on guitar (Flat Earth Society, Ruben Machtelinckx, Joachim Badenhorst, Lander Gyselinck, Steven Delannoye), Frans Van Isacker (BE) on saxophone and clarinet (Tom Malmendier, Quentin Stokart, Ottla, Chantal Acda & The Atlantic Drifters), Tom Rainey (US) on drums (Fred Hersch, Ingrid Laubrock, Mary Halvorson, Mark Helias, Joey Baron, Jim Black) and now Tim Berne (US) on saxophone (Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Hank Roberts, John Zorn, Marc Ducret, Michael Formanek, Craig Taborn). These are personalities with a vision: creative stubborn people who won’t settle for mediocrity; restless spirits who keep looking for new sounds, contexts and like-minded people, and are therefore the ideal partners in crime for Peeters.

In January 2024, the band released their debut album ‘GingerBlackGinger’ This album combines elaborate soundscapes, brief bursts of energy, and mesmerizing grooves. In May of 2025, Yannick Peeters was given carte blanche by Bozar. She took the opportunity to invite her personal musical hero Tim Berne to join the band for the recording of a new album and a live show. The result of this journey into new musical adventures is the album 'Smalltalk Code', to be released in February of 2026 by Challenge Records (NL).

Artist(s)

Tim Berne (alto saxophone)

Tim Berne has been declared “a saxophonist and composer of granite conviction” by The New York Times. Acclaim for the first, eponymous ECM album from Berne’s quartet Snakeoil came from far and wide, with The Guardian calling it “an object lesson in balancing composition, improvisation and the tonal resources of an acoustic band.” With the release of his second ECM album, Shadow Man, All About Jazz affirmed Snakeoil as “Berne’s most impressively cohesive group yet.”). You’ve Been Watching Me, saw Berne leading a quintet version of Snakeoil, adding guitarist Ryan Ferreira to the core group with Matt Mitchell, Oscar Noriega and Ches Smith. Since learning at the elbow of St. Louis master Julius Hemphill in the ’70s, the Syracuse, New York-born Berne has built...

Tim Berne has been declared “a saxophonist and composer of granite conviction” by The New York Times. Acclaim for the first, eponymous ECM album from Berne’s quartet Snakeoil came from far and wide, with The Guardian calling it “an object lesson in balancing composition, improvisation and the tonal resources of an acoustic band.” With the release of his second ECM album, Shadow Man, All About Jazz affirmed Snakeoil as “Berne’s most impressively cohesive group yet.”). You’ve Been Watching Me, saw Berne leading a quintet version of Snakeoil, adding guitarist Ryan Ferreira to the core group with Matt Mitchell, Oscar Noriega and Ches Smith.
Since learning at the elbow of St. Louis master Julius Hemphill in the ’70s, the Syracuse, New York-born Berne has built an expansive discography as a leader. In his pace-setting ensembles over the past few decades, he has worked with a who’s who of improvisers, including Joey Baron, Django Bates, Jim Black, Nels Cline. Mark Dresser, Marc Ducret, Michael Formanek, Drew Gress, Ethan Iverson, Dave King, Herb Robertson, Chris Speed, Steve Swell, Bobby Previte, Hank Roberts, Tom Rainey and Craig Taborn. As a sideman, Berne has made ECM appearances on recent albums by Formanek (The Rub and Spare Change; Small Places) and David Torn (prezens). The New York Times summed him up by saying: “Few musicians working in or around jazz over the last 30 years have developed an idiomatic signature more distinctive than Tim Berne.”

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