Birgit Ulher and Leonel Kaplan - Stereo Trumpets (Relative Pitch, 2015) ***½

By Paul Acquaro

A few weeks back when writing about a group from Hamburg, Germany called Piho Hupo, I confessed that I knew little of the free jazz scene in that lovely city. Well, the picture is filling in just a little bit more with Birgit Ulher (left channel) and Leonel Kaplan’s (right channel) aptly titled recording Stereo Trumpet.

Ulher is from Hamburg and she expands upon the traditional approach to the trumpet by incorporating extended techniques and various electronics into her player. She also curates the Real Time Music Meeting series in the city. Kaplan, from Argentina, has been active in the avant-garde scene, recently recording with John Butcher and Christof Kurzmann, among other. On Stereo Trumpet the duo delivers an unusual collaboration that stretches the ears and provides an alternate view of the trumpet.

Ulher is credited with the trumpet as well as "radio, speaker, objects” and Kaplan simply with the trumpet, and together they concentrate on the fringes of tonality and traffic in textures. The sounds of air, spittle, clacking valves and half realized notes come together to fill their musical space. The sound they make is something to lose yourself in, to let wash over you like flowing water, to be a sensation rather than something to hold on to. A track-by-track description would be futile. The music, it seems, is something that both does and doesn't exist - you may just be hearing a throbbing undertone until you forget what you were listening at all, and then a splash of sound redirects your attention.

Stereo Trumpets is a fascinating trip into another world of sound - though it's not an action packed album, it contains a hypnotic motion created by subtle details and changes. Like last year's Bogan Ghost, Relative Pitch continues to showcase experimental music that pushes at the boundaries and leaves your appetite for musical adventure whetted.

Available at Instantjazz.

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Peter Evans & Nate Wooley - High Society (Carrier Records, 2011) *****

By Joe Higham

Being a musician and playing a wide variety of music means that my family (kids and wife) are used to hearing wild sounds emanating from the hi-fi from time to time. But in certain cases I realise that maybe some music is not for wholesale consumption, and this .... is one of them! It's almost like a dream come true for a horn player (in this case trumpets) to be able to sound like Jimi Hendrix playing with feedback, however, it's more difficult to set fire to your trumpet, even with lighter fuel, you can hear Wooley and Evans had great fun making this recording. 'High Society' is as fascinating as it is unforgiving, there's no way out and no reference points to the trumpet as we know it. If you've heard Nate Wooley's Trumpet/Amplifier record then you'll already know how Wooley's starting to develop his style using this set up, here we have both Peter Evans and Nate Wooley blowing hot and cold through their trumpet/amplifier set ups.

It's almost impossible to give musical images for these tracks. Tracks such as I (track 3) make you wonder if the microphone is inside a turbine in a rocket engine, or is that the sound of something out in the desert somewhere? The two horn players use flutter tonguing, blowing, sucking, singing, spitting, banging the pistons, hitting the trumpet, it's all there. The fourth track LXVII starts like two wild animals in a fight, there are growls and screams, rattling, industrial crashes and explosions, music that's not for the faint hearted. However each track is so fascinating that you find yourself absorbed by the sounds as they change throughout each piece, each idea worked on and pushed to it's extreme and obvious conclusion. The sixth track XC is a fascinating piece as .. shock horror .. you get to hear a real muted trumpet sound as it's starting point. The track develops over 13 plus minutes into a real tour de force of sounds, feedback, screams, singing and real trumpet sounds, never dull moment.

Finally I should say I was surprised at how much I enjoyed listening to this one, and for something that is rather abstract. The music which although very intense is (I found) always interesting to come back to and I'm intrigued to see how they'll develop and follow up wonderful recording. I can only finish with a often used phrase from our chief critic and editor Stef ......... Highly Recommended.

Tags for this music could be - the wind, the sea, the washing machine, car engines, radio interference, food blenders, vacuum cleaners and the list goes on!

Buy from Instantjazz.


Live at The Zebulon in August 2011.

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Axel Dörner & Diego Chamy - Super Axel Dörner (Absinth Records, 2010) ****½

By Stanley Zappa

To quote Nate Doward in the December 2002 issue of Cadence magazine:

"...his abilities as a trumpeter have dwindled to almost nothing. His entire sonic palette is now little more than flatulent releases of air, fed through a reverb device which is kept in the “on” position for the entire performance. At best the results are innocuously atmospheric – rather like the echoey sounds one might hear in a documentary on whales...it’s hard not to find the trumpeter’s playing solipsistic, even weirdly infantile, in its regression to the sounds of gurgling, breathing and farting, its indifference to line, shape or direction, and its inability to enter into meaningful dialogue."

Though talking about Bill Dixon, Doward may as well be talking about the state of the trumpet in Improvised music/Art music. In talking about Dixon, particularly Dixon's abilities as a “trumpeter” Doward forever gives us a litmus test with which to place improvised music created on the trumpet. Super Axel Dörner by Axel Dörner and Diego Chamy passes (or fails, depending on how you see things) for the simple reason that without Bill Dixon, there would be no Axel Dörner. Indeed, without Bill Dixon, there would be no “modern” trumpet as we understand it today. Without Dixon, not only would there be no Axel Dorner, but there would be no Franz Hautzinger, no Nate Wooley, no Rob Mazurek, no Stephen Haynes, no Taylor Ho Bynum, no Birgit Ulher nor any of the future generations of trumpet players influenced by the above mentioned. Excessive? Then how about none of the above mentioned—or the trumpet as we know it—would be the same. That Dörner, like all of the above mentioned, has taken Dixon's developments with the instrument and incorporated them into a compelling sonic strategy all his own is only to say that Dörner has good taste; in the words of Kierkegaard "He who is willing to work gives birth to his own father".

If I had to guess those "flatulent releases of air" will simply come to be known as "the way the trumpet is played" while the carressed, thoughtful birthings of perfect little sine waves will enjoy the same relevance the flintlock musket enjoys today. That is the inescapable feeling when Dörner juxtaposes the one against the other—Dörner's fluency with the “weirdly infantile...gurgling breathing and farting” spectrum of the trumpet is that convincing.

As for “flatulent releases of air, fed through a reverb device which is kept in the “on” position for the entire performance” unless he is circular breathing, Dörner employs electronics towards the ends of super human durations of sound. At no point does this come off as gimmick, so no need to call the Guinness book of World Records. Dörner's use of electronics is thoughtful, deepening and prolonging occasions for tonal introspection; deepened without succumbing to garish 16th note cookie-cutter “sophistication,” prolonged without look-at-me-I'm-circular-breathing-repeated triplets.

Diego Chamy can be heard on “vocals” and “percussion.” Imagine Diana Krall and Dave Weckl. Then imagine the exact opposite and rejoice in Super Axel Dörner's “indifference to line, shape or direction,” delight in the absence of so-called “meaningful dialogue” in their interaction. Everybody knows indifference to line shape and form x absence of meaning = infinite creative possibilities (Art, if you will)—just as everybody knows that “caring” about line shape and engaging in “meaningful dialog” is where glittery puffs of Grammy award winning commodity twaddle come from.

In the future, corporate boppers will reference Super Axel Dörner when looking for clues on how to value add their latest release with a track or two of outre-exotica. Why not treat yourself to the real thing?

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Polish trumpets ....

Following the great example of Tomasz Stanko, the trumpet is an instrument in full appreciation in Poland, and there is also Andrzej "Major" Przybielski, who is quite a phenomenon in Poland and insufficiently known outside the country. Recently, he played alongside Wojtek Jachna, a young Polish trumpeter in "Sing, Sing, Penelope", who just released a new duet with drummer Jacek Buhl. And then you have Kamil Szuszkiewicz, another young trumpeter who's played in quite a number of Polish bands. Some of his recent material is featured here.The great thing about the two musicians is that they develop their own style and voice, without making too many concessions to popular expectations.

Jachna Buhl - Pan Jabu (Monotype, 2009)***

On "Pan Jabu", Wojtek Jachna plays trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn and electronics, and Jacek Buhl plays drums and percussion. Although Jachna is a guitarist and punk rocker "by education", his trumpet-playing is mainly self-taught and refined by studying with other players. Both musicians add rock and electronic elements in every track, resulting in an atmospheric meditations combined with a sometimes powerful drive. "Nu jazz" if you want. To it's credit, the album does not have the pretense of Nils Petter Molvaer (although his influence is obvious, yet without the Swede's power), nor does it fall into the abyss of commercial sentimentalism like some of the more recent work of Markus Stockhausen or Matthias Eick. It's a pleasant, sometimes even joyful and promising album, although one would have expected more power, anger and creative attack from two musicians who have been active in the alternative, punk and noise scene.

Kamil Szuszkiewicz & Hubert Zemler - Detrytus (Self published, 2009) ****

Another trumpet-drums duet comes from Kamil Szuszkiewicz on trumpet and Hubert Zemler on drums. It's just an EP, with only three tracks, but it's quite powerful in its simplicity. It is creative, fresh, joyful, intimate and pure. Even the somewhat darker second track demonstrates - despite its more avant-garde leanings - a total lack of artificiality, and even fun when the sound of sports shoes rubbing the floor is used as a rhythmic gimmick. And the last piece is a great open-ended meditative improvisation. It's just twenty minutes long. It's free, and I love it.

The EP can be downloaded for free from "Internet Archives".

 Kapacitron (Self Published, 2009)****

 So I looked further, and I found Szuszkiewicz and Zemler back in this quartet, with Wojtek Traczyk on double bass, and Wojtek Sobura also on drums and "objects". With two drummers, the rhythmic elements are much more prominent than on the duet, but the fun is as great. Again, no need for special effects, no need for elaborate compositions, just plain melodic improvisations over a great rhythmic foundation. It is light-footed, open, creative and crisp. Fun and deeply sensitive at the same time. It's again only an EP, a little over twenty minutes long, but again twenty minutes of pure musical listening joy!

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

© stef

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Thomas Heberer - Five By Five (Self Published, 2009) ****

Germany quarter-tone trumpeter Thomas Heberer is not only part of the ICP Orchestra or several other bands, he also creates his own material, although much remains unreleased. On "Five By Five", which is entirely available for download on his website, he plays five duets with Okkyung Lee on cello, with Harris Eisenstadt on percussion, Achil Kaufmann on piano, Joachim Badenhorst on clarinet, with the latter playing two compositions, which makes five pieces by five musicians.

The duo setting is ideal for intimate and intense dialogues, all quite left of center, but with sufficient discipline and maturity to make this a highly enjoyable and relatively accessible listen. Heberer's technique on the quarter-tone trumpet is nothing short of stunning. Listen for instance to his long circular breathing part on "345 Grand Street", with Okkyung Lee on cello, matching the continuous tone of the bowed instrument. The most extended techniques are used by Kaufmann on the beatiful first track. The duet with Eisenstadt is more fractured and power-driven with sudden changes of pitch, and with a clear blues-based tone, whereas his duets with the clarinet and the piano show a more lyrical side. On the last track, Heberer and Badenhorst exchange timbral explorations with playful interchange, while falling back on a quite solemn compositional backbone.

Enjoy! ... and download here.

© stef

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