Out on 26.01.2024 via Trauton Recording
With his distinctive, personal sound, Karl Ivar Refseth delights fans of jazz and Neo-Classical, minimal and groove music – whether as soloist, bandleader or sideman with The Notwist, Gisbert zu Knyphausen, and Tied & Tickled Trio.
release date: 27.01.2023 on Traumton
Frederik Köster‘s band Die Verwandlung [The Transformation] has been playing together for ten years, and with each album the award-winning musicians (various Jazz Echos, New German Jazz Prize, WDR Jazz Prize) surprise with new sound variation. In 2018 the quartet amazed listeners with their spectacular orchestra production Homeward Bound Suite and in 2020 on Golden Age they presented unique fusions of acoustic virtuosity and clever electronica aesthetics. The album was longlisted for the German Record Critics’ Award and received a lot of media response.
release date: 20.05.2022 on Traumton
Whoever expects only calm, dreamy music because of the album title, Somnambule, will be surprised. Olga Reznichenko does not take the name of the album so literally, but rather in an associative way. “It’s not directly about sleepwalking, but about different nocturnal states. These also included semi-conscious phases in which my thoughts don’t come to rest or melodies that I played before still reverberate.”
release date: 08.10.2021 via Traumton Records
Around three years ago Fabiana Striffler amazed audiences and media with her album Sweet And So Solitary. The magazine Jazzpodium devoted a double page to the violinist and composer from Berlin, calling her music ” a fascinating cosmos of sound “while Deutschlandfunk concluded: ” Fabiana Striffler’s entire album is unconventional, sometimes even demanding and stubborn “
Concerto magazine found that “Gustav Mahler might compose such songs if a time machine had catapulted him into the early 21st century: mysteriously radiant, touching and full of unheard “.
And even in England Striffler received great resonance, for example in Hifi Critic: ” It takes great skill to make something sound so profound and so grotesque at the same time“.
Now she is back with her latest Archiotic project, out on 8th of October via Traumton, and it all clearly shows that all the trusted fans are going top be well rewarded for those three years of silence.
release date: 24.09.2021 via Traumton Records
“Their music is performed with such overwhelming vehemence that the listener is swept away and moved to tears.” (Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten)
To many, Istanbul represents a place of longing, a place surrounded by myths and traditions, while others consider it a symbol for economic progress. Since the Gezi Park protests in 2013, Western Europe sees more in the picturesque metropolis by the Bosporus than just the Hagia Sofia and other cultural monuments. Social developments are also noticed. Guitarist Erkin Cavus spent many years of his life in the gigantic, crowded and often hectic city. He made his career there and played alongside famous artists before he moved to Germany about four years ago.
release date: 15.01.2021 via Traumton
“Mario Rom plays solos that are unparalleled in Europe – calm, persistent, full of ideas, virtuoso ”- ZEIT
“Rome plays the trumpet as if its life depended on it. ” – Süddeutsche Zeitung
It took two years for B&S to come back with their second recording together but God Almighty! It was so worth the wait for an Austrian Star Trio. If their first already stormed my sensitivity and all senses the second came with a sense of challenge. One could feel that the way it was set, the relaxation factor of the session, the methodology of developing compositions together, it all went into another stratosphere.
The first what strikes me is the amount of air in this music. Is almost floating like a fog. Levitating like a ghost with its feet swinging a foot over the mother Earth. I only read later that in fact the session took 3 days to record and it happened in isolated rural area in French Burgundy inside of the village barn. That would explain to me the phenomenally spacious sound of the percussion instruments in space as well is a nice, long and floaty reverb of the trumpet, as it is heard on Pferdekopfnebel, the second track.
Secondly, what follows is an incredible pace that music has. On the same track above, the dialogue between the hung and trumpet, which moves further into the hurdy – gurdy slow opening motive decorated with shimmering percusionallia glittery, opens in space with almost sacral unction and adoration. With nothing being pushed. All interaction comes in such a relaxed way and the dynamic opens up with incredibly way and gentle touch.
The KSF coming after is a Meisterstück. Gentle Hurdy – Gurdy opening slow-burns the melody sounding almost like the Oud accompanied by sensitive percussional plankton. Straight, long trumpet notes are sketching the structure for this tissue, with hang carrying on the harmony, which imperceptibly and smoothly moves into the rhythmic pattern, before one has time to get out of its spell. Dancy and folkloristic theme which carries the melody, now handled by the trumpet, it has irresistible sense of gentleness.
Whichever track one likes to listen to, it brings it to the same sense of intimacy and incredible submerge in each other’s voice. This is the session which came from the moment of the immaculate privacy and simplicity. From the reduction of the entire world to sensational “here & now” feeling. Something which happens so rarely now, in our overloaded with technology reality, where we are passing each other without noticing craving for company at the same time.
Here, the company is fully appreciated and welcomed with arms wide open. More than that it is a company which respects each other, gives space and opens its ears, eyes and souls to embrace the process of creation. And for that alone all the ego fuel gets burned to feed the sacrum. This is more than Music, this is the Act of Giving. Pure Offertory which only the music coming from opened minds and hearts can bring. Draw from it as much as you can. It doesn’t get better than that.
To Buy:
CDs: Traumton Recordstore
Downloads: Traumton Downloadshop
The second recording from Swiss unusual Escape Argot Trio, sporting Piano, Drums and Saxophones, comes out with an even more dynamic approach which already impressed me when I got their debut album to play. Leader and drummer Christoph Steiner teams up with his conservatory colleague, pianist Florian Favre, who’s own Piano Trio belongs to my favourites. The line-up is completed with multi-reeds player Christoph Grab, a mature musician with three decades of long probation and impressive lists of collaborators behind him, from both mainstream and improvising stables.
From their first recording I still do remember an incredible bond and vital interplay which resulted in developing such a complex composition, there is no difference here.
The opening Remains of Lightness marked with rhythmically chopped chords, in a typical for Favre manner, builds the frame on which Steiner can wave his lyrical canvas. The piano then leads in hymnal, nicely decayed notes into shimmery corners of the picture, where composer adds just a little rhythmic counterpoint giving saxophonist all the space he likes. Grab’s way of articulating here reminds me a lot another great sax master, German Heinz Sauer, with his fragile lyricism and airy approach.
Allowing shows phenomenal interplay when the melody is built on a shift of rhythm and counterpoint. Such a piece could not be executed so brilliantly as it is without amazing skills in the band and careful listening to each other. All the nuances which are laying on the border of the piano and drums conversation. On that structure rough and pretty hardcore saxophone blows with stepping up figurative patterns are coming to almost sculptural visualisation. This is honestly my favourite track on that recording and it possesses an enormous drive.
Plutimikation, dandy folk tune starts with imaginative, almost cinematique sense of picture from Ennio Morricone’s visions. But it has in it some childlike defiance, especially in Florian’s Act, which stays bound with the musical flow but in the same time runs into some dissonant swirls. At the climax the score goes through the complex transformation from the melody to the rhythm, to gently fade into swinging saxophone outro.
Another favourite of mine on that session is a short piece titled Part Of the Solution. It is again very theatrical miniature with imaginative, intellectual twist. Starts with Tango steps, nicely counted by the piano chops to move to quick and furtive rhythm changing patterns, which continue dancing with piano.
Never Enough Not Enough begins with synthetized chords like from the synth-pop arrangement to move into heavy piano chops, supported by meaty drumming to build the platform on which Grab can again carry both, the melody and pace with his sax. Prepared piano adds to the drama and creates intriguing unisons. This is another super torpedo piece ending with massive dynamic crescendo.
This session shows the trio at its excellence and leaves you hungry for more. It is very modern language building on classical piano modernism tradition but also appealing to post rock fans thanks to their versatility and ability to dialogue with surrounding energy.
Such a debut comes rarely, It is innovative on many fields too, as well as brave and mature. The band and vocalists are interpreting here the poetry of the Irish writer Dylan Thomas who used to broadcast his works in its days as an open series, entitled Under the Milk Wood, to which the recording title directly refers. As one who is not familiar with his outcome, I found the recording to be very touching and imprinting strong images into listeners imagination. That confirms both, the value of the poetry itself and depths of the interpretations which Boguth develops in the front of the listeners ears like a skilled merchant trading precious fabric.
Of course, it is all the band who cares that delicate tissue with an incredible sensitivity and deep emotional understanding, but that comes without saying. All of them despite the young age have a lot behind already. Frischkorn, the pianist in Eva Klesse Quartett as well, is especially important here as a co-builder of the mood, with his unique romanticism and ability to lay the notes like a stair for the words walking out of the vocalist’s month. Deller, another youngster evolving from the Leipzig jazz movement also left his marks on many projects and has already well-established reputation of the versatile and imaginative sideman. Drummer Phillip Scholz, originating from Dresden but polishing his skills in the same Leipzig pot, I remember from collaboration with an eccentric clarinetists Rudi Mahall as well as congenial pianist Pablo Held.
What touches in this tastefully played back and arranged spectacle most is an incredibly wide range of feelings. Every text comes as an interesting challenge, touching universal truths about life, love and hanging around. Despite of lyrics being declaimed poems written in 50’s, they didn’t sound out of fashion for even a single moment. The emotional makeover that band and the singer brought to it gave them entirely new life, shining, glowing and sparkling all the time.
An opening Intro sets the mood and introduces the drama with Boguth’s rich and sonorous baritone. It brings the image of the coastal sleepy town waking from a moonless night.
Following The Draper blossoms with a sublimely sung lines accompanied by impressionistic piano like straight from the Cabinet of the Dr. Calligari. The theme floats nicely on the thick texture weaved under the piano lines by bassist sensitive bowing.
Whose name was Tom coming next grows into regular jazz ballad with nice chord progression counterpointing complicated figurative phrasing which Matthias employed into his interpretation. Here the skills span from scatt to mono-declamation and the rhythm of the poem keeps flirting with the one that the section brings.
What seas did you see strikes like The Bad Plus with massive energy culminated into the piano chops riding on the solid drum framework. Vocals brings contradictory moods which ones are sliding on the racing on runaway trio’s rave, other times during impressionistic piano interludes such as Satie, this comes to the hallucinogenic and introvert figures shaped with the words in a almost architectural sketch-esque precision.
Each of them brings a challenge, therefore there are still eight undiscovered territories left untouched by myself, waiting for your imaginative power to be conquered. Enjoy every step and be sure that you walk barefoot.
You can BUY this music here:
release date: 14th of February 2020
“The music has an incredible flow, a sophisticated dramaturgy, is emotionally very intense and always impresses with a trumpet and flugelhorn sound that is hard to beat in terms of proximity and warmth,” stated NDR Info
“[…] each individual shows their personal touch, together they become music that unites loud and quiet, thoughtful and intense tones, Orient and Occident in an extraordinary way.” – Süddeutsche.de
Almost three years have passed since the release of the CD Outspoken and a lot has happened since then. The quartet’s tour of their release took them to Tunisia, Azerbaijan and Izmir, and from Spain to England all across Western Europe. Enthusiastic reactions from audience and media indicated that Masaa would successfully continue on their path. Here the Irade is coming then.
