NOVA is an international quintet led by Belgian bassist Félix Zurstrassen. He is, in many ways, an artist apart. His rare virtuosity combines the extreme demands that his music requires and the way in which he offers it to the public: like a clear, collective and generous adventure.

His demanding approach can mostly be seen in the way he gathers around him exceptional musicians who, without him, might never have crossed paths. Alongside him, we find:

• the Franco-Brazilian Nelson Veras, undoubtedly one of the great inventors of the guitar today. He radically redefined its foundations and pushed the limits very far.
• Ben van Gelder, a Dutch saxophonist and long-term NYC resident, whose grounded discourse in tradition is elaborated with an extraordinary sense of the moment, so drawing the contours of a bright future. 
• Antoine Pierre is a Belgian drummer-composer who embraces styles with ease. His playing is imbued with a very particular concentration and an indisputable sincerity. He has been one of Zurstrassen's long-standing partners.
• the British pianist and organist Kit Downes - which places Jazz, classical music and improvised music at the same level of excellence - makes him an essential catalyst for this music in perpetual motion. 

As the leader of the group NOVA, Zurstrassen stands nobly in the right place to showcase compositions full of surprises and detours, specially designed for his brilliant companions through subtle bass playing. Here, he acts like a stage director that chooses and reveals talents, without necessarily choosing to say much; his music speaks for itself. Immersed in music since childhood, Félix was exposed to the complexities of rhythm and harmony at an early age. Nourished by these elements, he has created a world whose melodic force offers listeners the perfect sesame. They are then swept away by a music made up of surprises, like so many decors to be discovered, flabbergasted by so much invention, carried away by the masterful cohesion of an ideal European group of staggering maturity. 

Elusive, NOVA's new album was released on February 09th, 2024 [Igloo Records]. In May 2024, NOVA headlined at the international Jazz A Like Machine festival (Luxembourg) for an exceptional concert featuring two prestigious guests: Aaron Parks and Jeff Ballard, replacing Kit Downes and Antoine Pierre in their absence.