Perch Hen Brock & Rain is an improvising quartet drawing on myriad experiences and backgrounds; a unique combination of two long-time duos; Ingrid Laubrock and Tom Rainey represent the best of the New York scene while Ab Baars and Ig Henneman are key members of the idiosyncratic Dutch improvised music community. In this ensemble four improvisational artists form a musical collaboration that seems to take on an almost telepathic quality, pulsing with passion, dedication, and versatility.
The quartet came together for a first extensive European tour in November 2014, played o.a. at the North Sea Jazz Festival, did s Canadian tour in 2017, the Groninger Jazz Fiets tour, and the Bimhuis Amsterdam.

CD Perch Hen Brock & Rain Live @ The Tampere Jazz Happening RPR 1051, Relative Pitch Records -NY, release July 2016 in collaboration with the Wig label
CD Perch Hen Brock & Rain Elegiacal Baars Henneman Laubrock Rainey (Wig 33, 2023)

Video - YouTube:
Wels Unlimited Festival 2014
Live@A38 Budapest
improvisation IV 3:18
improvisation V 7:51
improvisation VI excerpt 4:36
Tivoli Vredenburg

Ab Baars (NL) - tenorsax clarinet shakuhachi
Ig Henneman (NL) - viola
Ingrid Laubrock (DE/USA) - tenor- and sopranosax
Tom Rainey (USA) - drums

(…) "Perch Hen Brock & Rain creates a wide textural palette due to the
clever deployment of resources, with the tough little string instrument
often playing a strikingly aggressive role as a percussive engine that fires
away tirelessly while the horns engage in intricate dialogue. True to its
name, the group also produces a spectrum of sounds that vividly evokes
nature and the animal kingdom, above all in the shrill, stark bird calls of
the tenor saxophones and clarinet and the undergrowth rustlings of the drum
kit, which Rainey works with consummate dexterity.”
--Kevin Le Gendre Jazzwise

Wels Music Unlimited 2014
"4 master improvisers … in a set full of passion, wisdom, imagination and
elegance, the third and last night of Wels Music Unlimited 2014"
--Eyal Hareuveni Nov 9 2014

CD 'Live & The Jazz Happening Tampere'
(...) Reedist and shakuhachi player Ab Baars known from the ICP Orchestra
and violist Ig Henneman released the album 'Live @ The Jazz Happening
Tampere together with the American label RPR, by which they proof to be at
the top of the international impro-scene.
--Jan Jasper Tamboer, Parool

(...) The communication between the musicians is almost perfect, they are
not treading on each other's toes. The entire album works beautifully as a
whole.
--Jan Granli,e saltpeanuts paanuts.eu

(...) We can hear the way they converse in a most engaging way, exchanging
ideas, lines flowing back and forth throughout. (...)This is a most
extraordinary quartet, one of the finest improvising units of the year. We
can only hope that this fine quartet will find their way here in the near
future. In the meantime, check this dynamite disc!
-- Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG New York

It has become a very beautiful album.
--Ben Taffijn, draaiomjeoren.be

(..) The recently released cd 'Live @ The Jazz Happening Tampere’ proofs
that stunning music can be created without making any appointments. The
interplay between timbre and dynamics is so well balanced that the listener
however suspects a composers hand in the whole form. (..) You hear the
musicians on the top of their focus. What happens next is a real miracle.
--Mischa Andriessen, Trouw

(...) This intersection of the newer Dutch swing and post- Downtown New York
sound evidences a newly refreshed improvised music. Not free jazz, nor
exactly free improvisation, the five pieces make mannerly and urbane connections.
It's difficult to define a leader for this quartet, maybe because so much is shared.
"Brock" opens with Laubrock and Baars trading saxophone notes from the
upper and lower registers until Rainey pushes the "go" button with his drumming.
After a pause at the midway point, Henneman's viola signals a slower tempo
and an abandonment of all aggression. She opens "Rain" with a high-wire
performance that calls for the dancing sticks of Rainey, Baars' clarinet, and
the bird-like calls of Laubrock's soprano saxophone. The music develops as a
piece of chamber music albeit never abandoning the heated flames of improvisation.
Baars' shakuhachi playing is mystical on "Tampere" and "Hen," both pieces
that gather momentum as improvised music, but coalesce as seemingly
composed music. Such prestidigitation is evidence of music making at the highest levels.
--Mark Corroto **** allaboutjazz.com