This is the title track called "Dark Horse". Just as in the album version it features sax and piano solos. It's a pretty wild performance, matching today's start of the Chinese New Year: THE YEAR OF THE FIRE HORSE!
Live at Bimhuis, we added a drum solo. Afterwards, I decided to seperate it from the song and post it as an extra video below. Why not in one video? Because the video would become very very long and experience shows that people will not stick around for longer that 6-7 minutes. Yoràn's free drum solo is actually really great and in this seperate video, the true drum lovers can watch and learn from his drum story telling.
Sometimes people ask me; What are drummers doing in their solos? To give you an idea of what Yoràn is doing in his solo: He starts with a pattern, an idea. He keeps the pattern going and plays variations over it. Then he combines it with soloing over it with call and reponse phrases and slides in new patterns. Technically it's interesting because he demonstrates a lot of independence and speed, as well as dynamics and sound colours, while telling a story, which means in musical context that the solo has certain elements which can be recognized by the (trained) listener.
Many people in the Western part of the world miss the melodic and harmonic context during a free drum solo. It's fair to say a free drum solo without any accompaniment is like an abstract painting. Within the given context you can hear and see what you can manage, depending on your own frame of reference and expectations. In the end, it's about: does it resonate with you? Because both, the painting and the free drum solo, they lack a clear "subject" (no lyrics, no recognizable image), both forms are highly subjective and open to the interpretation of the audience. They function as a "conversation" between the artist's feeling and the viewer's/listener's perception. But you also can listen to it with a pure analytical drum ear and try to follow the patterns and phrases. As a musician and human I (try to) do both :-) Enjoy!
More info: Susanne Alt: sax, Matthijs Geerts and Ike van Bergen: keys, Thomas Pol: bass, Yoràn Vroom: drums, Helene Jank: percussion Performed at 16th of January 2026 at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Recorded by Onno Prillwitz Filmed by Robert Glass and Albert Nooij.
Proudly I present to you the first of a couple of live videos, coming up during the next weeks. The first one is the a little bit fusionesque tune "Altitudes of Freedom" with not only a saxophone solo, but also a piano solo bij Matthijs Geerts and a synth solo by Ike van Bergen!
More info: Susanne Alt: sax, Matthijs Geerts and Ike van Bergen: keys, Thomas Pol: bass, Yoràn Vroom: drums, Helene Jank: percussion Performed at 16th of January 2026 at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Recorded by Onno Prillwitz Filmed by Robert Glass and Albert Nooij.
Today is the official release of my latest album Dark Horse!
Pictured here: Susanne Alt and Dark Horse drummer Willie Jones III in The Hague a few weeks ago.
Dark Horse, along with all other previous albums, is available in my shop. If you want to support me, this is the best way, apart from buying the items after a concert. If you order your CD or LP here you will get a handwritten card from me and I will post it personally :-) 100% of the revenue will go to the artist and her label.
"But Susanne, I thought Dark Horse was already released 2 weeks ago at your concert at Bimhuis?" That was a sort of pre-release concert. I chose this moment to sell physical merchandise there because once there's a digital release, for some people it will lead to less physical sales. On the other hand, digital platforms are a chance to let people listen and let them decide how they want to listen. I get it, it's convenient, and I also use a lot of streaming media for learning music and teaching. Personally, I choose to buy an album when I really love the music and/or want to support the artist, especially if it's self-released. Did you know that it takes more than 2000 Spotify streams to equal a revenue of €10?
Sometimes, at concerts I get into discussions, why I sell my cd's and vinyls so cheap? People tell me I should be charging €15 or even €20 per cd and €30 or €35 for an album. I feel I don't have to make more profit on top. I rather want to encourage you to buy some of my previous albums... and carry it the brand new tote bag :-)
Also, we used the concert at Bimhuis for shooting video material. In about 2 weeks I will send a newsletter with an overall update, also including brand new footage of this new music, so stay tuned. Subscribe here (Subscribe form on the website).
Other ways to buy Dark Horse:
If you happen to have a gift voucher from bol.com, order it from there.
There's distribution in Germany for the people that like to order it via WOM, HHV and other shops. Super happy to make this happen, also extra shout out to German distributor Plattenfirma to go. I wish there was a service like that in Benelux and other countries as well! I definitely can recommend their services. And, how convenient, since today Dark Horse is out on all digital platforms.
Reviews and radio airplay are coming in one by one, mostly involved, interesting and positive responses. Sometimes I read that the expectations of the writer was different, or sometimes things are misunderstood, but you know, what really counts is that people take the effort to write about it!!! Writing about culture is important, wherefore thank you everyone who makes it happen. I really appreciate it and feel humbled. Thank you Jazzfuel once more again for the outstanding service and communication. From time to time, Incoming press will be added to the press section, so if you come back sometimes, you can see that it will be filling up. Also, if you want you can read around in our archives with all the articles about previous albums.
This is the title track called Dark Horse. Just as in the album version it features sax and piano solos. It's a pretty wild performance, matching today's start of the Chinese New Year: THE YEAR OF THE FIRE HORSE!Live at Bimhuis, we added a drum solo. Afterwards, I decided to seperate it from the song and post it as an extra video below. Why not in one video?Because the video would become very very long and experience shows that people will not stick around for longer that 6-7 minutes. Yoràn's free drum solo is actually really great and in this seperate video, the true drum lovers can watch and learn from his drum story telling. Sometimes people ask me; What are drummers doing in their solos? To give you an idea of what Yoràn is doing in his solo: He starts with a pattern, an idea. He keeps the pattern going and plays variations over it. Then he combines it with soloing over it with call and reponse phrases and slides in new patterns. Technically it's interesting because he demonstrates a lot of independence and speed, as well as dynamics and sound colours, while telling a story, which means in musical context that the solo has certain elements which can be recognized by the (trained) listener. Many people in the Western part of the world miss the melodic and harmonic context during a free drum solo. It's fair to say a free drum solo without any accompaniment is like an abstract painting. Within the given context you can hear and see what you can manage, depending on your own frame of reference and expectations. In the end, it's about: does it resonate with you? Because both, the painting and the free drum solo, they lack a clear subject (no lyrics, no recognizable image), both forms are highly subjective and open to the interpretation of the audience. They function as a conversation between the artist's feeling and the viewer's/listener's perception.But you also can listen to it with a pure analytical drum ear and try to follow the patterns and phrases. As a musician and human I (try to) do both :-) Enjoy!More info:Susanne Alt: sax, Matthijs Geerts and Ike van Bergen: keys, Thomas Pol: bass, Yoràn Vroom: drums, Helene Jank: percussion Performed at 16th of January 2026 at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Recorded by Onno Prillwitz Filmed by Robert Glass and Albert Nooij.
