Matthias Müller - Acud/Bunker (mamü, 2020) ****

By Keith Prosk

Trombonist Matthias Müller showcases the growth of his expansive, distinctive style on two freely-played solos lasting 52 minutes on Acud/Bunker. Müller recorded “Bunker” in 2016 just a few months after his first solo recording, solo trombone , and recorded “Acud” in 2018. Müller’s reputation seems to place him as a team player, adapting as much to near-silent soundscapes of extended technique as to energetic, fiery free jazz (demonstrated well by the contrast between the recently reissued Super Earth and Live im Künstlerhaus ). solo trombone provided a vital document of his style and a catalog of his technique in a vacuum; Acud/Bunker seems to provide a document of the development of his style and technique with the time between recording dates.

“Bunker” is a 28-minute set with a small break and some applause kept in the middle of the recording. It’s a timbral collage featuring a breathy static modulated with pressure play, air notes like flickering flames, deep throaty oms punctuated with tinny muted swells, foghorn blows, balloons deflating, muted wah wah morse code, and a kind of metallic tapping like a typewriter, among a menagerie of other sounds. Sometimes the sounds are just sound; sometimes they play to the carnivalesque, jocular, suspenseful, or noirish moods the instrument is so often called upon to personify. And Müller is just as comfortable injecting more traditional tones - including the teacher from Peanuts - into the mix with his more exploratory timbres.

The foundation of “Acud” contains many of the same elements as “Bunker,” though with additional timbres like his valve release air notes, air notes like sand across a snarehead, draining or sucking incorporated in the breathy static with more saliva and new embouchures, horse snorts, and machine gun staccato. It might be partly due to better mic’ing, but the increased dynamism in breath- and mouth-play that can be heard here is significant. Whereas “Bunker” is a relatively rapid-fire barrage, “Acud” takes it a step further, containing a lot of continuous play achieved through circular breathing. And the moods mentioned previously are here too, with a particularly suspenseful dyad recalling Grachan Moncur III’s efficacy in simplicity (e.g. “The Twins”) and building from a kind of alarm to a buzzing swarm. This is a really solid set that shouldn’t be missed.

So, for those that have been following Müller, what’s here won’t necessarily surprise but provide an affirmation of the reasons why they started to follow him. For those that haven’t, this is a great introduction to a top notch trombonist that’s always expanding the vocabulary of the instrument and themselves. It serves as an excellent companion piece to solo trombone, demonstrating the instrumentalist’s growth from that point. Like his debut solo, it again provides vital documentation of his distinctive style outside of a band. Recommended.

Acud/Bunker is a digital-only release.

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Matthias Müller - Solo Trombone (Mamü, 2017) ****

By Martin Schray

In his book Into the Maelstrom David Toop claims that there is no solo. "Every sound meets the flaring acoustic space, encounters its own shadow in the higher-pitched resonation of electronic feedback, communes with ensembles of the multiple self, doubles back into its own maker even in the moment of its emergence, cries out to the listener who is performer and the hypothetical listener, the invisible ear which will at some point absorb and decipher the mystery, the arresting physicality, of these concise but strange communications."

In spite of Toop’s statement, Matthias Müller calls Solo Trombone his first official solo album. Like many solo albums Müller’s performance is an oscillation between his band efforts (e.g. with Foils Quartet) and the evolution of his very own introspective vocabulary. Here he crosses different borders than with his groups and tries to map territories he hasn’t been before in these environments. Particularly with his use of extended playing techniques he has developed a spare yet eloquent language.

Müller transforms the fragility and vulnerability of the solo situation into excitement. "Bell", the first piece, is an exposure of pure trombone sound in all its varieties, there is no electronic manipulation. However, Müller does alienate his lines, he delves in hissing, spitting, agonizing, squeaking and he implements the sound explorations he’s developed with his trios Trigger and their performances in show-caves and their surroundings. No traditional trombone sound is audible, only in the last four minutes of the 17-minute track Müller switches to circular breathing and throws in a funky riff he playfully dances around.

Moreover, Solo Trombone is also Müller’s way back to the roots. The album was recorded at St. Lambertus Church in the small village of Kirchtimke, located between Bremen and Hamburg, where Müller comes from and where he learned to play the trombone. "Valve" the second piece, symbolizes this way back, he pays tribute to Johannes Bauer (with whom he played in the Posaunenglanzterzett). Recorded only three months after his death Müller uses lines Bauer could have played, as if it was a last sad reference to the great German trombonist.

In the closing track, "Slide", Müller combines the two different approaches from the aforementioned pieces, sound in all possible varieties disperses in the church. Short shots ricochet through the room, answered by mournful groans. Listening to this piece, David Toop has a point. Müller is in a permanent dialogue with his instrument, he absorbs the atmosphere and vice versa, he listens and responds.

Is this a solo album? Who cares if the music is that good.

You can listen to an excerpt of“Valve“ and buy the album here:

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The Lonely Improviser: a Week of Solo Albums

By Martin Schray
 
Playing alone might be the most difficult option in improvisation. Even Derek Bailey, one of the great solo improvisors, said that though there were advantages, it lacked the more essential and magical side to improvisation: an intuitive and telepathic exchange, which can only be enjoyed in a group context.

At their worst, a solo performance can amount to not much more than a catalogue of personal clichés and crowd pleasing moments. A soloist can also lose any proper critical distance, missing the point to finish, or move on, sounding tedious and self-indulgent. On the other hand, playing alone can be a useful means of analysing and assessing style and vocabulary, putting them under the microscope. Another important feature is that good solo improvisations often have a plan, a notion of where things should go. Some good examples of the genre produced recently are Pascal Niggenkemper’s Look With Thine Ears, Peter Brötzmann’s Münster Bern, Eve Risser’s Des Pas Sur La Neige, Nate Wooley’s (9) Syllables, Matana Robert's Always,  and Paal Nilssen-Love’s Cut and Bleed.

This week we‘ll be reviewing a bunch of recent solo albums, some by well-known artists, others lesser known but equally deserving of attention.

Yorgos Dimitriadis - Kopfkino (Creative Sources, 2016) ***

Thessaloniki-born percussionist Yorgos Dimitriadis is one of the most prolific members of Berlin’s Echtzeit network, where he has played with Frank Paul Schubert and Mike Majkowski (in the excellent Fabric Trio), Miles Perkin and Tom Arthurs (as Glue). Kopfkino (a German expression for “film in your head“) is his first solo effort. Listening to it, you might be surprised this is a live recording with barely any electronics. Dimitriadis plays a very ordinary, small drum kit, in a conventional way, using sticks, mallets and brushes, but only with his right hand. In his left is a microphone which he uses to generate sounds reminiscent of large singing bowls - aural landscapes that rustle, fizzle and hiss. Dimitriadis alternates between introspective passages, in which his music displays wide spaces, and hectic video game sounds, where the music pants and moves forward in a jerky and twitchy manner. An unusual approach, he keeps his performance short and tense.

Black Pus, Brian Chippendale’s drum project (but with the addition of electronics and voice) came to mind when I first listened to Kopfkino, In comparison, this album is more subtle and relaxed, less energetic.

Some listeners might be skeptical when it comes to drum solos. This album could prove them wrong. Kopfkino is available on CD.

Watch three minutes of the performance here:

Steve Swell - The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Improviser (Swell Records, 2015) ****

While Yorgos Dimitriadis is a new name to many, Steve Swell needs no introduction, one of the leading trombonists in free jazz today (along with George Lewis and Jeb Bishop). His trio with Paal Nilssen-Love and Peter Brötzmann is superb, as is his quintet on Soul Travellers (with Jemeel Moondoc, Dave Burrell, Gerald Cleaver and William Parker). Interestingly, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Improviser is the first solo album in the long career of the 61-year-old. (The title, taken from Alan Sillitoe‘ book The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, might be a nod to trombonist Paul Rutherford’s solo classic The Gentle Harm of the Bourgeoisie, whose title references Luis Buñuel’s film, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.)

In brief: a very good album. Over the fifteen pieces you can hear intermingling voices from the long history of jazz: musicians like Roswell Rudd and Rutherford. Swell’s playing is wide-ranging and articulate, an effortless blend of timbres, techniques and means of construction.

As befits the trombone, there are blues roots together with more modern work. Jumping from circular breathing (“Bubbling Quantum Novas“) to staccato salvos (“Sequences“), alienated sounds (“Cogitation“) to beautiful lines (“For Kenneth Patchen“), Swell murmurs, pants, sneezes and grumbles. My favorites are the more conventional “Tongue Memory“ and “Blue Spirit“, the last two tracks on the album, swinging numbers, as if Swell wants to give good old New Orleans a more contemporary feel. Feel free to click your fingers.

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Improviser is available on CD.

You can get it from downtownmusicgallery.com.

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Christian Meaas Svendsen & Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø: Solo Explorations

By Eyal Hareuveni

Norwegian double bass player Christian Meaas Svendsen and trombone player Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø recent solo albums feature both musicians as uncompromising explorers. Both have a clear, committed vision that strive to keep expanding their instruments sonic possibilities, in a highly impressive and original manner.

Christian Meaas Svendsen - Forms & Poses (Nakama Records, 2016) ****

Forms & Poses is the second solo double bass album of the prolific Svendsen, after W/M (Va Fongool, 2013). He plays in the free and modern jazz outfits - Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit, Mopti, Ayumi Tanaka Trio and the duo Duplex (with sax player Harald Lassen) and heads the new musicians-collective label Nakama Records.

As the title of this album suggests, it is focused on exploring the physical connection between the musician and the massive double bass, as well as the obligatory constant practice of a musician, as of any human being, who attempts to reach an open and profound awareness. For Svendsen this kind of practice is not only intellectual or physical one, but  a true spiritual work, as in Zen Buddhism meditation or Yoga practice.  "Practice every day, in every moment, always. Practice, practice, practice - and all is coming," he writes in his liner notes.

The first, 20-minutes “Vita” was recorded at the vibrant Vigeland Mausoleum in Oslo, a favorite recording place for some of the most adventurous local musicians, due to the 15 to 20 second natural reverb (double bass player Michael Francis Duch recorded there Tomba Emmanuelle, Sofa Music, 2015, and guitarist Stian Westerhus recorded The Matriarch And The Wrong Kind Of Flowers, Rune Grammofon, 2012). Svendsen describes this composition-improvisation as a “life-to-death journey through the very depths and heights of his instrument”. It is a ceremonial piece, that sticks to a basic repetitive and resonant pulse that Svendsen keeps expanding, coloring and manipulating it with great reserve and total command. Then the sonic outcome, with the dark, deep tones that keep multiplying into more and more overtones, offers a new realization of the double bass range and its hypnotic power.

The other three short pieces were recorded in the Rinzai Zen Center in Oslo. Each stresses a different aspect of Svendsen extended techniques.  “Aria prefix M-” is a gentle piece, developed with an eccentric harmonic abstraction. The title piece is a full body exploration - hands, feet, the whole body, and obviously the bows - of the double bass, divided into short excerpts, all highlight the rich range of the instrument. The final piece, “Chidori” turns the double bass into a kind of Hardanger violin, with endless sympathetic strings, that mimics a noisy choir of talkative, hungry birds.  

Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø - Melting Into Foreground (Sofa Music, 2015) ***½

Melting into Foreground is the second solo album of the experimental Nørstebø, following his self-titled one from 2011 (released on Creative Sources). Nørstebø plays in the free improvising Norwegian outfits Lana Trio, As Deafness Increases, Whirl and collaborates with Swedish master improvisers, drummer Raymond Strid and double bass player Nina de Heney (on last year acclaimed Oslo Wien, Va Fongool).

The first piece, “Internal Sources of Heat”, features Nørstebø exploring the whole sonic spectrum of the trombone, from abstract pure tones and almost silent microtonal sounds to noisy multiphonic ones, with no effects. He plays with focused control and measured reserve and shows a wise sense of using the resonant acoustics of the Capella Johannea in the Majorstuen church in Oslo, where this album was recorded. Nørstebø manages to transform the trombone in this piece into a unique sound generator, in a similar manner to the most experimental playing of British sax player John Butcher. All while balancing between intuitive following of the fleeting sounds and a linear construction of this piece.

On the second title track Nørstebø adds electronic drone stemming from a pre-recorded piece on at half-clarinet, later multi layered in irregular distances in order to create a natural kind of distortion, then slowed and pitched down many times until it sounded as a monochrome white noise. Nørstebø constructs the sonic palette of this piece carefully, mirroring the background manipulated sounds, sometimes quite noisy feedback ones, with a quiet, fragile play of the trombone ethereal overtones until all sounds blend into an arresting, nuanced texture.     

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Denis Beuret - Alone (Leo Records, 2008) ***½

Solo trombone records are rare things, but a solo bass trombone record must be unique. And the music is too. Swiss trombonist Denis Beuret not only masters the full five octave range of the instrument, he uses double sounds and sordines, he uses all sorts of different embouchures - for clarinet, sax, tuba, flute, and last but not least, he uses a wide array of live electronics to make loops of the sounds he creates. When listening to the record for the first time, I thought it had been dubbed, and over-dubbed, in several layers, with some sounds created to add percussive background, with repetitive themes to create a lyrical backbone, and then several improvisations over this. Surprisingly, these are all live improvisations. Invented on the spot, yet sounding as if careful preparation went into it beforehand and long polishing in the studio afterwards. That's the astonishing fact. This feat, and the quite coherent musical vision that Beuret creates with his perfect one-man marriage of human virtuosity and electronic effects, is really admirable. This isn't entirely jazz, this is more related to new music. Some pieces are quite hypnotic in their repetitive melodic drone, such as "Nouvloop03". On others, like "Nouvloop02", some of the sounds are gut-wrenching, leading to a quite wonderful listening experience. Other tracks are fun, like "MaxLoop03", yet not all tracks are of that same high level, or at least not all of them have the same direct appeal to me. A must for trombonists, a more than interesting albums for the rest of us.

Buy from Leo Records, or download from Lulu.com.

© stef

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