Ambrosia II by Rotterdam drummer-composer Ruud Voesten arrives in late 2025 as the next chapter in his Dante-inspired saga. Itโs a leap from the flames of Inferno into the slow, spiraling ascent of Purgatorio. Voesten, who first cut his teeth on punk before finding his home in jazz and improvisation, has spent the past few years carving out his own lane as a bandleader, curator, and restless musical thinker.
His 2023 record Ambrosia, rooted in the emotional violence of the capital sins, was already a daring experiment. This follow-up widens the scope, pulling contemporary jazz, classical tension, and electronic murmurs into a single world. With a crack ensemble, Mo van der Does on alto, Wietse Voermans on tenor, Koen Schalkwijk on piano and synth, Tijs Klaassen on bass, and Voesten himself at the rhythmic helm, the album climbs terrace by terrace, matching Danteโs moral architecture with Voestenโs own knotty rhythmic logic and atmospheric instincts.
The opener, โStrand,โ drifts in like a fog from another realm. A tangy, sharp, ululating rhythm curls and fades, giving way to soft rustling percussion and a slow, reflective piano line. The horns weave through it like wandering spirits, their tones winding and whirling with a patient melancholy. The track feels suspended between stillness and movement, mirroring the first hesitant steps out of the infernoโs darkness.
By the time โThe Best at Marshmallow Testโ arrives, the mood shifts. Slow, moody horns set the stage, only for the music to slip into a quirky, almost quacking groove. Itโs playful, sly, and just a little mischievous. The strings wander in casually, the piano leans back into spacious phrases, and the drums rustle underneath with a loose, conversational energy.
Then โTuinโ closes in with thick, steadily building layers, heavy strings dragging like ghosts pulling their weight uphill. Just when the density threatens to swallow the track whole, glinting piano notes pierce through, bright as cracks of sunlight. The strings melt into them and the piece exhales into a slow, melodic trail, as a gentle, weary step toward transcendence.
Ambrosia II interprets Dante to the point of wrestling with him. Itโs ambitious and textural, as a jazz pilgrimage that crawls, questions, and finally lifts its face toward the light.
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Review by: Naomi Joan