Elements and Derivations
It must have been early 2023 when double bassist and composer Ignacio Pintó was leafing through Concerning the Spiritual in Art by Wassily Kandinsky. He still vividly remembers how he was swept away by “the visionary energy of the book, by its utopian view of what art can be.” But also by Kandinsky’s idea of an “innerly felt necessity.” A few months later, when Pintó formed a quartet with three musical friends from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, that term turned out to express exactly what he felt: an inner necessity. The name INNEC was born.

Three years have passed since then. During Dag in de Branding, INNEC will present a set in Amare based on material from their debut album, released this past February on Honolulu Records. Elements and Derivations is the title of the record on which the quartet explores the open space between experimental jazz, free improvisation, and contemporary composed music.

Pintó: “We feel most at home at the intersection of those practices. Experimental jazz musicians like Christian Lillinger, Robert Landfermann, and Elias Stemeseder are a major source of inspiration for us, as is Amsterdam’s improvisation scene. At the same time, we also draw from the work of modern avant‑garde composers such as Boulez and Stockhausen, Messiaen and Webern.”

The tension between composition and improvisation also formed the conceptual basis for Elements and Derivations. Each piece appears twice on the album, as an “element” and as a “derivation.” The Elements are essentially compositions—full of vigorous improvisation, certainly, but grounded in written material. Think: high‑energy drive, angular melodies, and layered polyrhythms. The Derivations are collectively improvised variations: afterimages focused on sound formation, marked by a chamber‑music‑like intimacy.