Frank Gratkowski's In Cahoots - Feat. Ingrid Laubrock (Klanggalerie, 2025)
German, Berlin-based woodwind player and composer Frank Gratkowski’s In Cahoots began working in 2016 as an untitled, free improvised, and non-hierarchical quartet featuring Cologne-based pianist-synth player Philip Zoubek, double bass player Robert Landfermann, and drummer Dominik Mahnig. This quartet released the live album Torbid Daylight (impakt Köln, 2020).
Soon this quartet expanded into a quintet with German-born, New York-based tenor and soprano sax player Ingrid Laubrock. This quintet had its first performance in Darmstadt in September 2023. It continued performing in 2024, when it recorded its live debut album at LOFT in Cologne in April 2024 (on its second performance), and plans more performances in 2026. Soon this quartet expanded into a quintet with German-born, New York-based tenor and soprano sax player Ingrid Laubrock, and this quintet had its first performance in Darmstadt in September 2023. It continued to perform in 2024, when it recorded its live debut album at LOFT in Cologne in April 2024 (on its second performance), and plans more performances in 2026.
Gratkowski describes In Cahoots’ raison d'être with a quote of American producer-guitarist-singer-songwriter T-Bone Burnett, relating to string theory and music: “Beneath the subatomic particle level, there are fibers that vibrate at different intensities. Different frequencies. Like violin strings. The physicists say that the particles we are able to see are the notes of the strings vibrating beneath them. If string theory is correct, then music is not only the way our brains work, as the neuroscientists have shown, but also, it is what we are made of, what everything is made of. These are the stakes musicians are playing for".
This quote makes perfect sense when you listen to the debut album of In Cahoots. The opening piece, “OKTF”, suggests In Cahoots connected by strong, emphatic fibers and almost telepathic dynamics, relying on tight rhythmic interplay and collective theme development, immediately solidifying the camaraderie between Gratkowski (on alto sax, clarinets, and flute) and Laubrock. But Gratkowski is also an ambitious composer and wise bandleader who seeks to explore free tonal ideas, enhanced by unorthodox playing techniques and microtonal concepts. The following pieces juggle with this elusive, thoughtful play with elements taken from free jazz, free improvisation, and contemporary music, enjoying the great experience of Zoubek, Landfermann, Mahnig, Laubrock, their mutual trust, and their in cahoots-like willingness for risk-taking. Their vibrations may work in different intensities and frequencies, but together they move the music into inspiring, thought-provoking territories.
Frank Gratkowski & Kazuhisa Uchihashi - Live in Japan (Innocence, 2025)
Frank Gratkowski and Japanese guitarist, daxophone player, producer, and Innocence label owner Kazuhisa Uchihashi have been working closely in recent years. Uchihashi guested on Gratkowski and pianist Achim Kaufmann’s SKEIN band, and both played in Kaufmann’s Trokaan project; Uchihashi plays in Gratkowski’s new Entertainment quartet. and Gratkowski joined the performances of Uchihashi’s Altered States trio, and Gratkowski and Uchihashi performed as a duo in Europe and in Japan. Live in Japan was recorded during the duo's second tour in Japan in October 2023.
Gratkowski plays the alto sax, bass clarinet, and flute, and Uchihasi plays the electric guitar and daxophones. The nine pieces, taken from six performances, are spontaneous, powerful, and intense conversations between close friends who enjoy experimenting and challenging each other’s sonic palette, often with unpredictable yet highly playful ideas. These conversations often become a free associative exchange of eccentric gestures when Uchihashi produces vocal-like sounds from the daxophones, and Gratkowski answers with colourful bird calls, and both Uchihashi and Gratkowski enhance their vocabularies with extended breathing, bowing, and percussive techniques. Each piece suggests a distinct atmosphere and deepens the immediate, imaginative interplay of these resourceful, great shamans of sound.
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