12 Points Plus - Artists announced for 2012/2013

The chosen bands are Actuum (Paris), WorldService Project (London) and Big Blue (Helsinki)! Big shout out and thanks again to all the wonderful artists who performed to an amazing standard at 12 Points and congratulations to our new Plus artists. More info on them below

Watch live videos from 12 Points in Porto

ACTUUM

More than any other festival, 12 Points has benefitted from the surge of collective activity among young European musicians over the last decade. Coax Collective in Paris are a case in point, and Actuum pick up where fellow Coax members MeTaL-O-PHoNe memorably left off at last year’s edition. Actuum are not afraid to express an ambitious manifesto with implications of dystopia, chaos and instability, and they’re well equipped to give it a very convincing musical representation. Trumpeter Louis Laurain, saxophonist Benjamin Dousteyssier, bassist Ronan Courty and drummer Julien Loutelier go about their business with fiercesome purpose, with brilliantly controlled violence that smashes the musical elements like particles in the large hadron collider. Then every so often, a subliminal message in the writing that evokes the spirit of Charles Mingus or George Russell, reminding you that despite everything, this is still a jazz band.
Read more on about Actuum on the 12 Points website with links to music and video.

BIG BLUE

The Finns have been present at every edition of 12 Points, always offering something stylish, and Porto 2012 is no exception. Big Blue might be a new name on their domestic scene, but the four musicians involved have already amassed a considerable collective resume. Trumpeter Kalevi Louhivori came to prominence with Sun Trio in the mid noughties, and is signed to Blue Note Finland. Pianist Antti Kujanpää is a member of cinematically indebted Auteur Jazz, bassist Jori Huhtala is a regular with leading artists like Raoul Björkenheim and drummer Joonas Leppänen features in a plethora of eye catching Finnish groups. The sum of these collective parts is very convincing, with beautiful use of space and dynamics over taut rhythmic structures, with an unforced dialogue that builds to big finishes. Their debut CD Big Blue is just off the presses from forward looking Italian label Cam Jazz.
Read more about Big Blue on the 12 Points website with links to music and video.

WORLDSERVICE PROJECT

Interesting noises continue to flow from the UK jazz scene, and latest to take up the creative baton are the exhilarating WorldService Project (WSP). Pianist Dave Morecroft leads this distorted quintet with a missionary zeal, and his Match & Fuse side project will link WSP with similarly minded young bands across Europe in the coming year. Raucous, muscular and groovy, there is a playful aesthetic at work here that oscillates between the conventions of formal composition and outright grunginess. Saxophonist Tim Ower, trombonist Ralph Clarkson, bassist Conor Chapman and drummer Neil Blandford are the co-passengers on this wild, punchy ride. Volatile substance, handle with care.
Read more about WorldService Project on the 12 Points website with links to music and video.