ODYSSEY

HUMMELSUMMEN

THIS SIDE UP

The New York-based pianist and composer Marta Sanchez is on her way to the top of the international jazz world. With Perpetual Void, she presents her first trio album on Intakt Records. Sanchez, currently a member of the David Murray Quartet, pens captivating compositions for this impressive trio, where all three personalities shine. Savannah Harris and Chris Tordini are in top form, both as eloquent soloists and as ensemble partners, as they negotiate the polyphonic and cross-rhythmic currents and dynamic contrasts that inform Sanchez's writing. As Lauren du Graf writes in the liner notes, the trio setting allows "Sanchez's voice to cut through with cinematic clarity, with ample room for her to interact with her rhythm section, which she does with both freedom and sensitivity." And she adds: "Perpetual Void is a testament to Sanchez's singular greatness, establishing her pianistic voice more vividly than ever." This album is sure to stand as one of the most compelling piano trio recordings of this year.

RED ZONE 7

After the album "Togetherness Music", British pianist and composer Alexander Hawkins presents another musical panorama: An ensemble in which his trio with bassist Neil Charles and drummer Stephen Davis meets saxophonist and clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings, guitarist Otto Fischer, and drummer Richard Ol�t�nd� Baker. For anybody who has followed Hawkins's work since his emergence on the British improvised music scene in the mid 2000's this is a fresh band full of familiar musicians with whom Hawkins has played in a wide variety of formations. The new pieces "Break a Vase" presents emerge from Hawkins' own imagination, but they also capture the thrust of energy in collaborating with these outstanding musicians. "Hawkins gives one of his most complete performances to date," writes Kevin Le Gendre in the liner notes. "Nothing is perhaps more majestic than the title track, which comes from Derek Walcott's acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize. 'Break a Vase, and the love that re - assembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took it's symmetry for granted when it was whole.' Enjoy then all these wily bits and pieces that come together in the kind of daring, courageous construction that is made to last."

3 PIECES FOR ORCHESTRA

PASSAGGIO

With his extensive artistic biography, Tim Berne is one of the most outstanding figures in American jazz. Rising star Gregg Belisle Chi, a connoisseur of Berne's music, has this year released the acclaimed album Koi, featuring interpretations of Tim Berne's compositions on solo acoustic guitar. With his extensive skills and immense sonic potential, he is earning a central place in the landscape of contemporary acoustic guitar. With Mars, these two exceptional musicians present their first duo album. All songs are penned by Tim Berne and enchant the listener with an intense interplay that is playful, poetic and sonically stunning. David Torn, who is responsible for the grandiose sound, writes in the liner notes: "Space Music? no, nope: Earth Music? well, yeah. Folk Music? well... i dunno, could be, but these songs on Mars are written by Tim & reimagined in-real-time by he & Gregg: them 2 being edified by, appreciative & respectful of those who've come before, & especially those ones who stayed lit and busted their own asses & spirits in order to continue initiating the kinds of flames that push us all to strive to express & to feel things of life & lives that may otherwise be functionally inexplicable, and may even be ineffable, somehow."

WILLISAU & BERLIN

The Schlippenbach Trio has worked together as a unit for around forty-five (!) years. Their magic chemistry is founded on intuitive listening and interaction - the ability to respond in an instant - and on the match between their characters, each adding to the whole as well as challenging each other - a stroke of fortune. The spectrum of performances on "Features" covers a range from furor to elegy. It extends from energetic, forward-thrusting pieces via cool, calm, ambling passages and ballad moods to submersion in sound, in silence. (Excerpt from Bert Noglik's liner notes)

The concert of the Stefan Aeby Trio at the Intakt Festival at Vortex Jazz Club in London 2017 was a highlight of live music in the capital that year. It made an emphatic statement on how improvisation transcends borders and underlined the strength of a new generation of players. London journalist Kevin Le Genre writes: "Aeby drummer Michi Stulz and double bassist Andr� Pousaz make for an inherently contemporary proposition insofar as they are by no means restricted to the standard tropes of the piano trio. This is a group comprising three instruments and three open minds. Hence the performance sees the players organically shift the ensemble towards many stylistic areas, whether it is a suggestion of wistful ambient soundscapes, breezy, percussive African folk, or modern pop that retains the blues to varying degrees. The music is multi-faceted. Throughout the concert there is a palpable sense of breathing space as well as controlled intensity. A quiet fire. The lasting impression of this concert is precisely the cohesion and dynamics of the trio, with it's skillful straddling of natural and digital tones, and it's deft negotiation of sounds past, present and future."

OVAL

SONGS

The project 'Hotel Zauberberg' arose out of Aki Takase's and Yumi Paul's shared admiration for the writer Thomas Mann. It mostly consists of notated compositions, with some improvised parts as well. Eleven of the eighteen pieces were penned by Aki Takase, another five are collaborations with Ayumi Paul. Additionally, there are adaptations of a Mozart Minuet and a Bach Partita. Aki Takase reacts to the polyphony of the novel with a variety of stylistic elements. She has never been a purist anyway; she's never been shy of contact. She is an avant-gardist drawing on tradition. She's got both claws and finesse. And, most of all, she's got a sense of humor. Aki Takase and Ayumi Paul's first collaboration stands out through it's light-footed intelligence as well as a sense of the abysses of the 'Magic Mountain', which turns into a world-theatre of love, illness and death. Thomas Mann, whose work includes music as a subject in itself as well as a language, would have enjoyed it.