It begins like a meditation, but doesn’t stay that way long. Songshan, the debut duo album from Belgian jazz radicals Jeroen Van Herzeele and Stéphane Galland, is like a summit meeting of sonic explorers. Named after the legendary Chinese mountain said to lie at the center of heaven and earth, Songshan ascends toward that kind of mythic, musical middle ground where groove and transcendence collide.

Van Herzeele, a saxophonist whose past credits stretch from Toots Thielemans to the collective Mâäk’s Spirit, and Galland, the hyper-kinetic drummer known for his work with Aka Moon and Tigran Hamasyan, have crossed creative paths before. Their '90s-era fusion outfit, Greetings From Mercury, mashed jazz with rap and acid-funk long before that cocktail became cool. With Songshan, they push things even further.

Built around modular synths, EWI, multiple saxes, and Galland’s endlessly morphing drum work, the album is a showcase of live improvisation and studio layering. It’s a head trip that hits right in the solar plexus, equal parts intellectual exercise and dancefloor séance. One moment feels like an ancient ritual and the next like a backroom beat cypher conducted on another planet.

Don’t look for straight lines or standard forms. What Van Herzeele and Galland create here is more conversation than composition. Overdubs morph into duets, and rhythmic labyrinths dissolve into melodic whispers. The horn lines hover like mantras, while Galland’s drum kit talks in tongues - polyphonic, polyrhythmic, pure combustion. Songshan isn’t an easy listen, but it’s important listening for anyone curious about where jazz, and music itself, may be going next.

Live, the duo has already electrified stages at Sounds Jazz Club in Brussels and the Ghent Jazz Festival, where crowds swayed between stillness and ecstatic movement. 2025 will take them to major showcases like Jazz à Liège and Jazz Middelheim, where they’ll bring Songshan to life in ever-mutating form.