Jazzfest Berlin 2025 - Part 1

 

By Paul Acquaro and Sarah "Flake" Grosser 

 

Thursday @ Festspiele (Paul) 

 

"Where will you run when the world's on fire?" asked the slogan of the 62nd Berlin Jazz Festival, and while I have not yet come up with a satisfying long-term answer to the question, for four nights in mid-autumn, I at least found some refuge in the expansive Haus der Berliner Festspiele, ground zero of the festival. Ensconced safely enough in the impressive, mid-century modern auditorium, home to theater, dance and modern music, it felt at least temporarily removed from the raging discontent 'out there,' that is, until the Beyond Dragon's trio breathed their musical fire.

 

 

Beyond Dragons. © Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake

Beyond Dragon's saxophonist Angelika Niescier, along with cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Eliza Salem, lit up the stage with a welcome energy. A tough melody, eschewing any frills and niceties, bolted from the leaders horn while an intense pulse eminated from the cello. Along with the drums, the two a driving engine. Focused and ferocious, but not without an ear to melody, the trio burned up the stage for an hour, building up tension, Reid taking friction-full excursions, Niescier oscillating between tough heads and heady solos, and Salem always purposeful. 

 

Deranged Particles.© Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake 

German bassist Felix Henkelhausen's "Deranged Particles" took the stage next, and its seven piece configuration seemed to promise an expansive counter to the focused might of the previous trio. The Deranged Particles began with the hum of Valentin Gerhardus' electronics and a splatter of Philip Dornbusch's percussion. Then as layers of sound began to pile up, Henkelhausen's bass could be heard cutting through the expectant atmosphere. Particles of sound indeed - as the group came together, Percy Pursglove's trumpet and Philipp Gropper's tenor saxophone were front and center, while Evi Filippou's vibraphone and Elias Stemeseder's keyboard work formed the perimeter, the music that emerged was a loose collective of sound with a tinge of orderly chaos. Each tone was an important piece of the picture, each shift of the rhythm adding slight instability to the structure. 

 

Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith © Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake

Closing out the first night was the most intimate of the configurations, the duo of pianist Vijay Iyer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. Touring their latest recording, Defiant Life on ECM, there was already a bit of an answer to the festival's motto: we live in spite of the fire engulfing our worlds, and the music that the two created showed us how to do it. The two began defiantly - sharp chords from the piano and incisive notes from the trumpet - expressive and lined with small melodic statements, punctuated with big intervallic jumps. After a passage of loose tones from the horn, the two found themselves emerging from musical mists into engrossing, emotional pastures. The sounds of Iyer's Fender Rhodes and Smith's soft and wide-ranging trumpet was poignant. Rhythmically strong with cutting melodic lines, the duo was inspired and their music cerebral but passionate. A strong ending to a strong opening night in the main hall.

 

While the main event is happening at the Festpiele, the clubs A-Trane and Quasimodo, both in the vicinity, were serving as outposts of the festival ... other safehouses in this dangerous world ... and both were featuring top-notch groups. For a quick report on these activities, we turn to Free Jazz Blog colleague Sarah "Flake" Grosser, with a panoptic view of the goings on at Quasimodo...

 
Tim Berne’s CAPATOSTA @ Quasimodo (Sarah)

 

CAPATOSTA. © Fabian Schelhorn

There's no line, but the sold-out venue is truly packed. A couple hundred patient and attentive jazz lovers stand to attention as Tim, Tom, and Gregg wail away on stage, commanding the club to take notice. Barely anyone is moving, mesmerized by the frenzy. It's rapid, and busy; crunchy guitar and high tootling sax with Tom's intuitive accompaniment on drums. It goes down a treat and the crowd whoops and cheers once it's over.

From the back, there is still a pretty good unobstructed view, even for shrimps, but the sound quality and mix are well balanced. Even through light conversation, the music is nicely audible. Tim demands attention both musically and literally, asking a few rowdier patrons over at the bar: "What's German for 'Shut the fuck up'? It's really hard to play while you're talking…" Granted, it’s quite late at night, and people have had a few drinks at this point. The crowd is not offended, even laughing along with Tim’s American bluntness. Regardless of his question being rhetorical, in true German tradition, the fans offer practical suggestions back: “Halt die Fresse?”(Shut your face?) ”Schnauze? (muzzle/snout?)." Tim’s musical response is raw and unapologetic; an anarchic breath of fresh air. 

Gregg Belisle-Chi – electric guitar
Tim Berne – alto saxophone
Tom Rainey – drums

***

Friday @ Festspiele (Paul)

 

Friday evening and the Lina Allemano Four were hitting the small stage at A-Trane. This was happening just as the main stage was heating up at the Berliner Festspiele. In an effort to keep things simple, I stuck to the main hall, but really, how unfair this burning world is!  

 

Signe Emmeluth's Banshee © Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake

Saxophonist Signe Emmeluth's Banshee, whose self-titled debut recordiing is out on Motvind Records, is a multi-headed, genre-bending, free-form group that is hard to categorize. Emmeluth's profile has been on the rise in recent years as a fierce, free saxophonist and with Banshee she both doubles down and confounds. Drawing on a a-list roster of Norway's young, burgeoning experimental scene, Banshee features Guoste Tamulynaite on keys, Jennifer Torrence on percussion, Guro Skumsnes Moe on bass, Heiða Karine Jóhannesdóttir Mobeck on electrified tuba, Anne Efternøler on trumpet and the scintillating Maja S. K. Ratkje on voice, electronics and violin. Everyone, in fact, is credited with voice, which proved to be a central piece of the work. The piece began promising with a blend of vocalizations and a progressive groove. Rhythmic ideas interwove as the leader interjected energetic lines. Then, following a noisy-laden musical breakdown, they group began to wander and for a little too long. Eventually, an emerging pulse helped point the way out, which culminated in the arrival of the banshee. Pained wailing at first, then an emergent, folkloric melody formed, giving new shape as a blend of zombie sounds, melodic shapes and diffuse grooves rode the piece out.

 

David Murray © Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake

The contrast with the next group could not have been greater. Woodwindist David Murray, a veteran of the venerated NYC Loft-Scene of the 1970s and a prolific player whose style straddles avant-garde and traditional jazz, appeared with his current quartet and provided a set to soothe unsettled souls. Murray, who plays tenor saxophone and bass clarinet, ripped on both as he presented the music from his latest Impulse! recording Birdly Serenade (2025) with pianist Marta Sánchez, bassist Luke Stewart, and drummer Chris Beck. A more than capable quartet, it was perhaps Sanchez who stood out the most, with an early solo that added a bright energy to the pulsating rhythm. Murray proved spry and versatile throughout, shifting effortlessly between bopping melody and outside lines. The penultimate piece featured artist Francesca Cinelli, who also happens to be Murray's wife, dramatically reciting her lyrics to the song 'Oiseau Du Paradis' (Bird of Paradise), ending with saxophonist and poet trading-eights. 

 

Makaya McCraven © Berliner Festspiele Photo Camille Blake

The final act at the main stage was a more recent ascendant to in the modern jazz scene, drummer Makaya McCraven. Another contrast to the evening, the quartet of McCraven on drums, Junius Paul on electric bass, Matt Gold on guitar and Marquis Hill on trumpet, played a CTI-reminiscent set that offered glimmers of inspiration. Stand out was Gold, whose guitar work offered interesting melodic twists and rousing solo turns. Generally groove oriented, Paul did a wonderful job interjecting unexpected rhythmic accents and impulses. Coming back for a rare festival encore, they were a crowd favorite.

However, while it is over at the main hall, the youngsters are still keeping it going at Quasimodo. We turn again to our intrepid reporter in the field, Sarah "Flake" Grosser for an update from the fringes...

 

The Young Mothers @ Quasimodo (Sarah) 

 

The Young Mothers  © Fabian Schelhorn

Back at the club across town, away from the packed Festspiele, a different kind of packed show was taking place. The atmosphere here was entirely different - adventurous, playful, and free-spirited. I’m not sure what gave The Young Mothers their special sheen. Perhaps it was the combination of instruments or the colourful combination of characters onstage. Maybe it was the uplifting, catchy melodies. When everyone sings along in chorus: “It is better if you let it,” it’s such a happy sound and I can’t get the smile off my face. The crowd is immersed in the bright aura of the beautiful music, far from the mainstream, and wonderfully creative. Jonathan F. Horne whips out a violin bow and starts going to town with it on his guitar, giving a double meaning to the term “shredding.” It’s most entertaining keeping an eye on Stefan González the percussionist, pivoting from pretty vibraphone articulations to intense black metal blast beats on the drum kit, and throaty growling. It sounds almost schizophrenic on paper, but the transitions between the metal segments were seamless and fit the mood, which also shifted via a fusion of genres from jazz, to hip-hop to rock and beyond. It felt like a party - one I never wanted to end.

Jawwaad Taylor – trumpet, rhymes, electronics, programming 
Jason Jackson – tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone 
Stefan González – vibraphone, drums, percussion, voice 
Jonathan F. Horne – guitar 
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – double bass, electric bass 
Frank Rosaly – drums, electronics, programming

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Kai Fagaschinski - Aerodynamics (2025)

By Charlie Watkins 

Aerodynamics is the newest release from ‘psychoacoustic clarinettist’ Kai Fagaschinski. This record contains two tracks: the first, ‘Welcome to the 20 ^th Century’, is a 30-minute piece performed by The Paranormal Clarinet Society, although recorded in two sessions in June 2023 and January 2024; the second, ‘Surrounded by Idiots’, is a nine-part improvisation, each improvisation recorded separately by Fagaschinski. ‘Psychoacoustics’ is the best way to understand the music: it is about the sound and how it is perceived by the listener, perhaps more than the music as such.

Unlike Fagaschinski’s duo The International Nothing, ‘Welcome to the 20 ^th Century’ largely eschews extended techniques, instead focusing on the possibilities of simply putting eight clarinets in a room together – as Fagaschinski writes, to use ‘simple language’ only. But by no means does that make this a conventional recording, especially as the clarinets creep perilously close to one other, causing the frequencies to beat together furiously, before moving apart again. The music certainly requires a good set of headphones to properly appreciate: the sound of breath or clacking of keys is as much a part of the music as the notes, making you feel like you’ve walked right into the middle of a clarinet coven – which I expect is exactly the effect Fagaschinski wishes to create.

The track was recorded in two sessions, and I found the change quite jarring when it occurs (it isn’t subtle). I would have preferred to separate the two sessions, rather than suggest they form a cohesive whole, which doesn’t seem the case here. Nonetheless, the slow pace of change and intricacy of sonic detail make this an interesting listen.

The second track, ‘Surrounded by Idiots’, is an improvisational experiment. Fagaschinski recorded nine improvisations, each 35 minutes and 19 seconds long exactly, whilst imagining that he is improvising with the other eight incarnations of himself, and reacting as such to these imagined sounds. Again, it is a very intimate recording, the microphones picking up every intake of breath, the transformations taking place measuredly. The experiment itself is an exercise I have tried on occasion – although never in nine parts! – and it demonstrates how improvised music has its own recognised structures and expectations. On the whole, it works: there are moments of surprising synchronicity and textures that are unique because of their independence. But when Fagaschinski’s whole approach is so subtle, it was never likely that it would produce much incongruity, and it did make me question whether as a whole this achieves something that couldn’t be done to greater effect by actually improvising with eight other musicians.

This record is a fascinating listen for clarinet players like myself, who will want to listen closely to how Fagaschinski uses the instrument so creatively. But it is best as a psychoacoustic document, absorbing in its precision and its intimacy, that will reward any listener willing to give it their attention.

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Teen Prime - Let's Just Werewolf Them

By Richard Blute 

How could I pass on this album? It has a wildly enigmatic title with a horror movie vibe. (I’ll bet you didn’t know “werewolf” could be used as a verb.) And it has Jörg A. Schneider on drums.

I first discovered Jörg Schneider through the band Roji, a duo with bassist Gonçalo Almeida. Their first album The Hundred Headed Women is a favorite of mine, as is the follow-up Oni. Their music lives somewhere in the intersection of harsh noise, thumping metal and improvised music. It’s a pretty great intersection.

Schneider seems to especially enjoy duos with guitarists. There’s his 2025 album This Ain’t My First Rodeo, Pal! with Michel Kristof, the project The Nude Spur with Thomas Kranefeld and his pair of albums with Dirk Serries, Schneider-Serries I & II. The Schneider-Serries albums in particular are year-end list calibre good.

But perhaps his most significant drum-guitar duo is his ongoing project with Sebastian Fäth, called Teen Prime. They have 10 releases, helpfully numbered 1 through 10. Listening to some random tracks off their bandcamp page, I hear fine examples of the great variety of music that can be made with this simple combination of instruments. At times, I hear Derek Bailey in one of his many duos with drummers. Then maybe a Gang Of Four riff. Then maybe a bit of Steve Reich’s Electric Guitar Phase.

That brings us to Let’s Just Werewolf Them. Jörg and Sebastian had recorded what was intended to be a Teen Prime album. But they realized that what they had produced was a “more intimate, low-key gathering” than a typical Teen Prime recording. So they invited Yvonne Nussbaum, who had previously worked with Jörg on the projects Skim and Wolfskull, to overdub her piano playing. It was a great decision.

The track “a single life in a single body” is beautiful. Schneider’s drumming skitters in the background while Fäth’s guitar style is almost ambient. Nussbaum’s pensive and plaintive piano feels like the completion of a thought. On the final track “as for parameter”, Fäth’s guitar starts off repeating a simple, minimalist riff which he then builds up in complexity and intensity, with Schneider matching him along the way. Nussbaum’s peaceful piano is keeping the listener grounded, until eventually the album ends on her playing a final few quiet notes.

The whole album contains depths I am still finding. Highly recommended.

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Sei Miguel (1961—2025)

Sei Miguel. Photo by Nuno Martins

By Nuno Catarino, courtesy of jazz.pt 

Sei Miguel passed away on November 11 in Lisbon, aged 64. A trumpeter, composer, and bandleader, he was one of the foremost figures of the Portuguese musical avant-garde and the author of highly original music. 

Born in Paris in 1961, he lived in Brazil before returning to Paris, and later moved to Portugal, where he began developing musical ensembles from 1986 onwards. He started with the group Moeda Noise, which already included Fala Mariam (trombone), his lifelong collaborator. He became known for his use of the pocket trumpet, and his discography began in 1988 with the album Breaker, where he lead a septet that included a young Rodrigo Amado on saxophone. In the following two years, he released Songs Against Love and Terrorism and The Blue Record — these first three albums were issued by the Ama Romanta label. 

Throughout a career that never made compromises, he collaborated with musicians such as Rafael Toral, Manuel Mota, César Burago, Bruno Silva, among others, in different formations. In the orchestrations for his groups, he worked with systems of graphic notation, preparing a general score for each piece and a specific score for each musician, complete with detailed instructions. He described himself as a “jazzman”, although his relationship with the genre was not straightforward. As he said in an interview: “The ever more institutionalized jazz, the pseudo-global jazz of the European Union Rule-Spewers, doesn’t want me. And I, given what it has become, don’t want it either. What matters to me is true jazz.” 

From 2010 onwards, he established a connection with Pedro Costa’s Clean Feed label, which gave new momentum to his recording career, releasing albums such as Esfíngico — Suite for a Jazz Combo (2010), Salvation Modes (2014), (Five) Stories Untold (2016), and The Original Drum (2023). One of his most unusual albums is Turbina Anthem (No Business), a sparse and melancholic jazz/folk duo with Pedro Gomes. An important project in recent years was O Carro de Fogo de Sei Miguel, a “small orchestra of all fusions,” as he called it. They released a self-titled album in 2019 (Clean Feed), followed in 2023 by their second record, Um Um Um E Não Há Forma De Morrer (Shhpuma). His final release was Panorama (ezz-thetics), recorded in a trio with Fala Mariam and cellist Daniel Levin. 

Beyond being a profoundly original musician, Sei Miguel was also a fascinating personality — marked by deep intelligence — who left a lasting impression on all who knew him.

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Damianidis/Dikeman/Damianidis/Skoric – Live in the Balkans (noise-below, 2025)

By Fotis Nikolakopoulos

This recording coming from a tour of the Balkans (Greece, Northern Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria) is treat to all of us that still believe in the transcending nature of the volume that free jazz incorporates. Five tracks, the first two from the gig in Thessaloniki (I was there!) and the next three from Kragujevac in Serbia.

This powerhouse quartet consisting of (order of appearance is irrelevant dear reader) Giotis Damianidis on electric guitar, Petros Damianidis on double bass, John Dikeman on tenor saxophone and Aleksandar Skoric on the drums is on top form. But what that means exactly? Obviously musicians love to play their music, especially with like minded players. But here on this CD, but also on the actual live experience, the listener can certainly find and enjoy the rapport between the players.

There’s a certain interaction going on, one that appears when the musicians are there firstly to enjoy. When you are there, confronting the music, even as a listener of a recording, you can almost always tell when the artists are really enjoying their presence in the here and now of the music in contrary to “the another day at work” feeling.

Don’t get me wrong, musicians are also workers who need to make money on a day to day basis too, but the difference lies in the Greek word pathos, meaning passion. Add energy, collectiveness, togetherness even and you have recordings like this that can easily defy the time distance and transport (transcend maybe?) you, me, the listener to that certain moment of time and space they were created.

I tend to write less and less about the individual players when it comes to collective ways of playing. This is, certainly, not a way to avoid anything. The biggest compliment coming from me, the power that, still thankfully, makes me enthusiastic about this music, is when the artists try and succeed, and that is hard work really, to play in unison.

Live in the Balkans is one of those rare occasions.

Listen here:

@koultouranafigo

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Anna Webber, Matt Mitchell & John Hollenbeck - Simple Trio2000 (Intakt, 2024)

By Stef Gijssels

This brilliant trio of Anna Webber on saxes and flutes, Matt Mitchell on piano and John Hollenbeck on drums treat us to a fantastic rhythm fest, full of complexities, surprises and well-arranged twists and turns. It’s been ten years since the trio dropped their debut album Simple, and their long-awaited follow-up is finally here. This is not free jazz, yet it's hard to call it mainstream too. It's actually hard to put it into any musical category, and at times classical avant-garde comes even to mind, with long repetitive phrases, or even some jazz fusion with its unison lines at lightning speed. 

All three musicians rank among the finest on their instruments—fully at ease with the technical demands of Webber’s compositions, and bringing even more to the table: inventive creativity, joyful expression, and an infectious energy. The music itself is anything but simple, yet the trio delivers it with such natural ease that it almost feels effortless. More impressively, the music truly shines in their hands—radiant and alive—without ever drawing undue attention to its underlying virtuosity.

The music is so meticulously crafted that it leaves little space for improvisation, which in turn slightly diminishes its emotional depth. Even so, listening to it evokes a sense of wonder and admiration—perhaps even joy and delight at its sheer precision and wild inventiveness. It's less about deep emotional expression and more about the playful exuberance of making music itself. And of course, those are meaningful emotions too.

Anna Webber is in a category of her own, and that's a great place to be. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Watch a video from a recent performance at the Bop Stop

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Camila Nebbia and Ryan Sawyer @ Downtown Music Gallery 9-30-25

It's always fun for us to drop in on the Downtown Music Gallery in New York City to check the pulse of the ever changing avant-garde scene there. The DMG is located in a basement space in lower Manhattan and offers a refuge from the world above, where people attracted to adventurous music can meet. Every week, the one-of-a-kind record store offers free gigs that attract both well known and up and coming musicians. Here, we check out saxophonist Camila Nebbia and drummer Ryan Sawyer, two musicians who have already made more than a splash on the international avant-garde music scene. 

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Das B - Love (hanatosis / Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2025)

By Ferruccio Martinotti

An ideal Mt. Rushmore of jazz should certainly show “A love supreme” as one of the figureheads carved in the rock: not even a primate (no disregard towards our ancestors…) would raise an eyebrow about and here is the last spot on earth to explain why. Along the decades, some mavericks took up the gauntlet, deciding to climb the Nanga Parbat on heels, or, in other words, to cover such a monster milestone: Alice Coltrane on World Galaxy (1971) and Live at Jazz Jamboree (1987), surely the most meaningful for obvious reasons, then, as come to mind, Ganavya, Wynton Marsalis, Turtle Island Quartet, Santana/McLaughlin, Toshiyuki Miyama. Different backgrounds, different feelings, different results. The pretty recent (2021) A Love Supreme. Live in Seattle is the last and ultimate evidence of what a hellish task it is to handle with that record. Someone else drew on the map a wholly peculiar route, subverting the didascalic notion of the tribute or songbook, but rather taking structural and dynamic cues from the original record, utilizing free improv in their own way. We’re talking of Das B and its second album, recorded and mixed at Brief Sand Studios, Berlin, in 2022, jointly released by the Swedish Thanatosis Records and Corbett vs. Dempsey. 

The lineup is deployed as follows: 

Magda Mayas, piano. Living in Berlin, she developed a vocabulary utilizing both the inside as well as the exterior parts of the piano. Using preparations and objects, she explores textural, linear and fast moving sound collage. She has recently been performing on a clavinet/pianet, an electric piano from the 60s with strings and metal chimes, where she engages with noise and more visceral sound material, equally extending the instrumental sound palette using extended techniques and devices. She has collaborated with the likes of John Butcher, Andy Moor, Zeena Perkins, Joelle Leandre, Paul Lovens, Ikue Mori, Phill Niblock, Peter Evans, Andrea Neumann, Burkhard Stangl, Christine Abdelnour and Axel Doerner. 

Mazen Kerbaj, trumpet. Born in Beirut in 1975, Berlin based now, is a musician, comics author and visual artist, widely considered as one of the initiators and key players of the Lebanese free improv and experimental music scene. He played his trumpet with Alan Bishop, Nate Wooley, Joe McPhee, Peter Evans, Pauline Oliveros, The Necks, Michael Zerang, The Ex, among others, “pushing the boundaries of the instrument and continues to develop a personal sound and an innovative language, following in the footsteps of pioneers like Bill Dixon, Axel Doerner and Franz Hautzinger”, as per his bio notes. 

Mike Majkowski, bass. Born in Australia, based in Berlin, active across a wide range of contemporary, improv and experimental music since the early 2000s, he developed a highly innovative playing style, extending and refining technical possibilities for the double bass. His musical work ranges from purely acoustic to electro-acoustic to electronic and explores relationships between stillness and pulse, spectral qualities of resonance, duration and perception of listening. He lent his fat strings to Oren Ambarchi, Marshall Allen, Tim Barnes, Han Bennink, Peter Brötzmann, Mats Gustafsson, Silke Eberhard, Satoko Fuji, Evan Parker, Sven-Ake Johansson, Alexander von Schlippenbach. 

Tony Buck, drums. From The Necks’ fame, he certainly doesn’t need to be introduced. 

As a rule, it’s always fruitful to get the primary source, and that's what they say about this project: “We are not attempting to recreate the album. Rather, we took the original album’s track timing and instrumental structure, as well as some other technical aspects, like balancing and panning, the occurrence of overdubs and timbral relationships within the original, to create our tribute. This was our process and our idea was to link our music-free improv-to its roots in jazz and free jazz”. The final outcome is amazing and puzzling. If, on one hand, we have the philological approach explained above, on the other, we see the raw material, grinded and pulverized until the molecular state, reassembled in urban, daunting, gloomy minimal textures, reminding us the likes of Burial or Kode 9 dealing with a free and improv recipe. The music is surely bringing traces of “A love supreme” but you’d need a DNA profile to track them and this makes “Love” a challenge that needs and deserves to be accepted: Trane would approve it, sure thing.

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Bloomers - Cyclism (Relative Pitch, 2025)

By Hrayr Attarian

The work of the Copenhagen-based trio Bloomers, named after the American women’s rights activist Amelia Bloomer, is a heady melange of chamber music and free improvisation. Consisting of three wind instruments, the collaborative group boasts a captivating inner synergy. This is heard on its Cyclism that comprises 15 short pieces each named after a place and date of historical significance in the fight for gender equality.

The less-than-a-minute “Homer, May 27th, 1818,” named after Bloomer’s birthday and location, is a perfect exercise in brevity, like an instrumental haiku. Trumpeter Anne Efternøler blows soft, muted notes against which the woodwinds of Carolyn Goodwin and Maria Dybbroe undulate gently in a lullaby-like dialogue.

The impressionistic tunes are sometimes melodic and fluid, while at others angular and delightfully dissonant. The “Stockholm, December 10th, 1905”, dedicated to novelist Bertha von Suttner winning the Nobel Peace Prize, starts with an angular repartee. Efternøler contributes clusters of high notes that, together with Goodwin and Dybbroe’s resonant clarinets, build a crystalline sonic structure that, at times, especially with Efternøler’s staccato horn, sounds a bit like a deconstructed march. As the interplay evolves, Goodwin's reverberating bass clarinet creates a pensive rhythmic backdrop. Over it, Efternøler and Dybbroe play a serene and lyrical duet.

The simmering “Cyberspace, October 15th, 2017”, honoring the day the # MeToo movement started to raise awareness of sexual harassment, opens with somber notes from all three musicians. Long, mournful passages overlap and weave a captivating harmonic tapestry. The playful three-way conversation that follows, “Venice, June 5th, 1646”, uses pops, hisses, and squawks together with melodic shards coalescing into a joyful tune. The track’s title refers to Venetian Elena Cornaro Piscopia’s birthday. Cornaro Piscopia was the first Western woman to earn a university degree.

Another highlight of this uniformly superb album is the two-part “Tehran, September 16th, 2022” inspired by the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. Efternøler lays down a melancholic and solemn melody with long, wistful lines, while Goodwin and Dybbroe woody resonant phrases add an expectant mood. The result is quite dramatic and poignant.

Cyclism is a demanding yet immensely satisfying listening experience. It is a timely release that has impeccable artistry and an urgently relevant social message. Because of this it will surely stand the test of time. 

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Stay Off Limits - Stay Off Limits I (self-released, 2025)

By Martin Schray

Recently, based on the release of Lampen’s Würgeengel, I confessed my soft spot for guitar/drum duos. And what could be better than that? Right: two guitars and drums. Stay Off Limits are Zafer Habasch (electric guitar, effects), Cornelius Veit (electric guitar, effects), and Klaus Wallmeier (drums, percussion). As is often the case, we don’t always notice the gems right on our doorstep and instead look out into the wider world. Cornelius Veit has been part of the free improv scene in Karlsruhe for years and often uses extended playing techniques and is interested in sound experiments. I haven’t seen him much in rock music so far, but he himself is quite open to it and describes his music as “somewhere caught between all stools”. Stay Off Limits is indeed a mixture of dreamy ambient sounds, psychedelic world music moments, and hard jazz rock.

“SOL 3”, for example, is an almost eleven-minute prog rock killer based on a monotonous riff that inevitably carries you high into the air. Wah-wah effects, variable drums, tempo changes, the layerings of the second guitar, and the subtle tectonic shifts in general create incredible tension. In fact, it’s the rock tracks that make the album so appealing. In “SOL 10” the guitars strum relentlessly against the rimshot storm of the drums; it’s like sitting next to an airplane taking off. In “SOL 7” the rock riff even develops a groove that you could easily headbang to - the melody sprinkled in toward the end of the piece then carries you away. To keep things from getting too catchy, however, the drums like to change the beat and provide the necessary roughness. All of this is more reminiscent of King Crimson, Nels Cline Singers, Bushman’s Revenge, or the Hedvig Molestad Trio. But that’s only one side of this album. “SOL 9”, also almost ten minutes long, thrives on the finely chiseled interplay of the two guitars and offers space for beautiful, psychedelic, rambling moments. Almost classically, the guitars share rhythmic support and solo elements, while the drums linger darkly on the toms. Folk elements are also incorporated. Again and again, sound waves are built up and then broken off again. Only towards the end of the piece is a climax reached through clever chord changes, and then they ride the riffs into the sunset.

Stay Off Limits I is the surprise of the year for me. I came across the album rather by chance. It’s better to keep an eye on the scene right in front of you. Check it out and play it loud.

Stay Off Limits I is available as a download. You can listen to it and buy it here: https://stay-off-limits.bandcamp.com/album/stay-off-limits-i

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