VIA, which recently acquired the rights to distribute BMG's jazz catalog in the Benelux, will transfer saxophonist Yuri Honig and Dutch pianist Michiel Borstlap from its own roster to ESP.
Thanks for looking this up for us. I am quite sure Stollman didn not know about this in 2000. VIA got in big financial troubles by the end of 1999, and some recent unreleased Dutch jazz recordings were hastily dropped into the ESP catalogue. A 1999 live recording by Pierre Courbois was actually put out with ESP-style cover art, and a 1960's photograph (to make it look more like a real ESP album?). I have no idea whether it hit the shops, or that only testpressings and promo's were made. When Stollman listened to a concert tape of these new Courbois recordings at my house, he stated that there was no real connection between his original 'free music' vision, and the 'european chamber improv' of recent. Stollman seemed disturbed about this new release. Remco