Mike Reed’s The Separatist Party amazed the audience at the Summer Bummer Festival in 2023 with an extraordinary performance and topped it with some scorching sets at Het Bos and AB club in 2024. Now Reed returns for a short European run with a stop in Brussels at Pilar to close the spring season with this all star ensemble featuring, next to reed on drums, percussion and electronics, poet/vocalist Marvin Tate, Ben LaMar Gay on cornet and the minimalist-psych trio of Bitchin Bajas (Cooper Crain, Dan Quinlivan and Rob Frye).

The music of Mike Reed’s The Separatist Party draws upon a raft of influences, weaving together varied traditions and practices within a groove-oriented attack to forge something entirely new. One can glean wisps of Don Cherry’s Organic Music conception, the ecstatic fire of Pharoah Sanders, the cycling minimalism of Terry Riley, the motoric rhythms of Krautrock, the exploratory tones of Sun Ra, and clipped soul of vintage Ethiopian music within the Separatist Party’s music, but no single element arrives wholesale. Rather, the musicians have melded and transformed ideas from around the globe and across decades into a propulsive brew that says plenty about the turbulent era we find ourselves in, turning to the healing power of music to unite us, if only for a short while.

Their self-titled debut album was released in October on We Jazz Records and was quickly recognized as one of the jazz highlights of 2023, from The New York Times and the Chicago Reader to London Jazz News. The singles ‘Your Soul’ and ‘Floating With An Intimate Stranger’ were featured by Gilles Peterson’s on his Worldwide FM radio show. A new release is set for October 2026 on Thrill Jockey.