Pierre Vervloesem

Guitarist Pierre Vervloesem has been described as "Belgium's Frank Zappa," although it might be more appropriate for Vervloesem to share that title with his 1990s-2000s musical partner Peter Vermeersch; together, the two musicians have covered Zappa's stylistic breadth more fully than Vervloesem alone. During the 1990s, the guitarist was a manic presence in an already manic band, Vermeersch's X-Legged Sally, which blasted through a high-energy blend of influences, combining elements of Zappa, the New York downtown scene, and Belgian avant-prog music as practiced by groups like Univers Zero and Present (although largely minus the dark and ominous moods). Vervloesem appeared on all of X-Legged Sally's recordings, including Slow-Up (1991), Killed by Charity (1994), Eggs and Ashes (1995), and The Land of the Giant Dwarfs and the live swan song Fired (both 1996). Alongside Vermeersch, Vervloesem also co-produced Worst Case Scenario, the 1994 debut album by Antwerp-based indie experimentalist outfit dEUS. After X-Legged Sally broke up, Vervloesem continued to perform -- this time on bass -- in Vermeersch's next ensemble, the more pop-oriented A Group, which released two CDs, the oddly sequenced Volume 1 (recorded in 1997) and Volume 3 (2000), the latter of which included the first recorded appearance of Vermeersch's avant big band, the Flat Earth Society (FES).
While partnering with Vermeersch, Vervloesem also began stepping out with his own projects, revealing himself to be a technically proficient and sometimes zany musician with feet in both the avant-prog and heavy metal-influenced guitar shredder camps. His solo outings began in 1994 with Home Made and continued with 1996's Fi as co and 1999's Chef-d'Oeuvre. During the first half of the 21st century, Vervloesem issued Plays John Barry and Grosso Modo in 2002 and Rude in 2005. Fi as co, Grosso Modo, and Rude were all issued by the Belgium-based Carbon 7 label. Vervloesem's next solo outing arrived in 2008, and was a definite change of pace: the first edition of the "P.V. Presents" series on Belgium's Off label, Not Even Close found the guitarist abandoning his usual axe techniques in favor of "knob twiddling" to produce quirky synth-based tracks reminiscent of Zappa's Synclavier experiments. Off's P.V. Presents series (which, it should be noted, is directed by Vervloesem and sometimes includes music he is interested in but does not actually play on) continued in 2009 with Unchained Melodies by the avant improvising power trio Kings of Belgium, featuring guitarist Gil Mortio and drummer Al Battor with Vervloesem on bass.
The following year saw four P.V. Presents releases -- three of which included Vervloesem as a player -- made available individually or in a box set titled The CK Theory. Notable among these CDs was Sketches of Pain by the octet Caca, a reboot of the X-Legged Sally concept with a sound uncannily similar to XLS' 1991 debut, Slow-Up. Sketches of Pain featured Vervloesem back on guitar and Mortio on bass, with other bandmates including keyboardist Peter Vandenberghe (a Belgian jazz-rock and avant-prog mainstay heard with such groups as XLS, FES, Univers Zero, and Vervloesem's own Grosso Modo), FES drummer Teun Verbruggen, and four saxophonists: Benjamin Boutreur (alto) and Bruno Vansina (baritone), both from FES; Roeland Van Hoorne (tenor); and Nicolas Roseeuw (bass), an important contributor to the rather likeminded project Fukkeduk (produced by Nick Didkovsky) way back in the mid-'90s. Also included among the CK Theory discs were SSSHHHTTTT by the Claude Zac Ensemble (a three-guitar/bass/drums instrumental avant rock outing with Vervloesem as guest), Grotesque by Codswallop (an avant pop/rock release featuring Bowie-esque crooner Richard Belgium; three heavy pop/rockers on keyboards, guitar, and drums; and Vervloesem on bass, guitar, and vocals), and John Koenig (a previously unreleased electronic soundtrack, composed in 1999, with Koenig handling synthesizer and drum programming and with no presence of Vervloesem whatsoever).
In 2011 the Kings of Belgium returned with their sophomore outing, Très Fort, which replaced Battor with the decidedly un-Belgian drummer Morgan Ågren from Sweden (and the disc was also recorded in Sweden, so neither Belgian royalty nor territory was exclusively involved). The various diverse P.V. Presents outings -- described as "a series of good music, whatever that means!" -- have demonstrated that Vervloesem's creativity extends well beyond the guitar alone, although he probably remains best known for extending the boundaries of the electric six-string. His CDs as both leader and bandmember are worth the effort to locate for fans of electric guitarists such as Zappa, Didkovsky, Fred Frith, David Torn, Adrian Belew, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, and even Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. ~ Dave Lynch, Rovi