Jazzwerkstatt Peitz 50th Anniversary (April 27th - 30th, 2023)

By Paul Acquaro

The story of the Peitz jazz festival, a festival that was founded in 1973 in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) town of Peitz, is for good reason, easy to mythologize. Festival founders, Ulli Blobel and Peter "Jimi" Metag, both from the region, got their career start with the festival, and while they took different paths after the festival was shut down by the authorities in the early 1980s, the festival found its way back to the town in 2011.

When one pulls into the small village located on the shores of the Karpfenteich (which happen to be the largest artificial ponds in Europe), it is hard to believe that one upon a time, when this area, located on the northern end of the brown coal mining area that stretches to the city of Cottbus and beyond, was both another country and host to a festival that drew thousands of young people to listen to free jazz.

Affectionately called Woodstock am Karpfenteich, the nickname of the Peitz festival captures the spirit of the time. In the GDR, it was a moment for the younger generation to get together and express themselves in a closely watched political system. Going back to the programs from the festival's start from 1973 until 1982, when it was shut down by the authorities, is pretty mouthwatering. Names like Peter Brötzmann, Johannes Bauer, Conny Bauer, Leo Smith, Peter Kowald, Günter “Baby” Sommer, Harry Beckett, Harry Miller, Louis Moholo, John Surman, Barre Phillips, Barry Guy, and so many more, ring a Pavolvian bell for the the free jazz fan. Fortunately, much of the music was recorded and has been - and still is being - released by Blobel on his Jazzwerkstatt label. Starting in 2011, the festival started up again in Peitz, with a just as rich line ups - if not more so - of musicians. For a quick overview of the Peitz festival in its fist incarnation, check out Martin Schray's review of the Jazzwerkstatt Boxset from 2014.

I had first caught wind of the Peitz festival while at another Jazzwerkstatt event in 2014 on a  visit. It was a historic line up at the Haus der Brandenburgisch-Preußischen Geschichte in Potsdam, a city half hour by the city train (S-Bahn) from the main station in Berlin. The event was a multi-day concert celebrating the release of the first Woodstock am Karpfenteich book and featuring concerts by Alexander von Schlippenbach, Manfred Schoof, the Globe Unity Orchestra, Aki Takase and Rudi Mahall and more. I was in 'deep learning' mode and cleaned up the merchandise table pretty well. After learning about the Peitz festival, I made plans to visit again in June of 2015 to attend. It turned out to be the first of all the rest of the festivals for me, having missed only 2016 due to a scheduling conflict.

So, yes, I bought into the mythology. I have a copy of Woodstock am Karpfenteich, the aforementioned boxset, a DVD about the festival, and many of the CD releases that were made from the festival, the latest being German jazz woodwind legend Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky with the equally revered pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach and renowned drummer Christian Lillinger entitled Luten at Jazzwerkstatt Peitz, taken from their 2011 appearance at the then newly reinstated festival. A few weekends ago, my wife and I attended Jazzwerkstatt's "50 Jahre Woodstock am Karpfenteich" event, which was a long weekend of concerts beginning at Institut Français Berlin in the Charlottenberg area with the launch of the newest Woodstock am Karpfenteich II book  - an enjoyable, and surprisingly quickly assembled account of the festival since its 2011 reboot. The quickness of the books creation is no criticism, just a fact, as one of the contributors, Uwe Wernke, recalled at the event, that he received a call around Christmas 2022 from Blobel who said let's put out a follow-up to the first Karpfenteich book. Four months later, the book, crisp and shiny from the publisher was for sale.

So far, I have read only the first chapter, which is Blobel's engaging recounting of his experiences since leaving the GDR and landing in Wuppertal in the West in the mid 1980s. There are also chapters from long-term concert attendees and supporters (Uwe Warnke, Thomas Krüger), critics and journalists (Bert Noglik, Christoph Dieckmann) and musicians (Friedrich Schoenfeld, Peter Ehwald, Walter Küssner, Gunter "Baby" Sommer, Wolfgang Schmidtke). The second half of the volume is an archive of all the concerts held since 2006, when Blobel began the Jazzwerkstatt record label and making his way back into promoting and supporting jazz. 

 

Marc Schmolling

 

 

Wolfgang Schmidtke Orchestra

The weekend's series of events was interesting for its both its locations as well as its breadth of music. Leading up to the weekend, it celebrated the locations of the Jazzwerkstatt events, first at the Institut Français, then at the Berliner Philharmonic's small hall (which is just as spectacular as its bigger brother, next door), and over the weekend, the concerts were held in the town of Peitz. At the opening, a pianist new to Jazzwerkstatt world, Marc Schmolling, performed an energetic and focused solo set. He began with a dramatic wave of his hand and for the next forty minutes kept the energy flowing. After a very brief book talk (I had expected a full-on reading) which was mostly giving thanks to everyone who helped with the book, Wolfgang Schmidtke, long acquainted with Jazzwerkstatt, took the stage with his big band. The group, full of notables from the Berlin jazz scene and beyond, worked though a carefully arranged set of music from the Kurt Weill song book ("you know, Kurt Weill, the German Real Book" joked a musician in the audience to me). The arrangements kept true to the original feels of the songs, though with some updates to keep the modern ear attuned. My attention picked up when the group dug into 'Pirate Jenny' from the Three Penny Opera, and somehow I nearly missed 'Mack the Knife' as the famous melody was deconstructed into wispy quotes. 

 

Inside Colours: Julie Sassoon, Lothar Ohlmeier, Mia Ohlmeier. Photo (c) Cristina Marx/Photomusix. 

The next night at the Berlin Philharmonic's Kammermusiksaal, pianist Julie Sassoon, along with her partner Lothar Ohlmeier on saxophone and bass clarinet along with their daughter Mia on drums, delivered a wonderful set that had the reflective qualities of an ECM recording but with an extra jolt of energy. Sassoon's melodies are somewhat spare but effective and the trio was able to generate an infectious concentrated energy around them. Their set was followed by guitarist Marc Ribot with his Jazz Bins groups, namely Joe Dyson on drums and Greg Lewis on Hammond B3 organ, who together explored the nexus of groove, soul and rock. They began with a quickly escalating rendition of James Brown's  "Ain't it Funky Now," and while it's the guitarist's band by name, the performance was owned by Lewis' knowing touch at the B3 and Dyson's otherworldly drumming. Ribot saved some his most ripping moments for the closing songs, especially the penultimate one, which brought out the guitar hero that - at least - I was waiting for.

Saturday, the celebration moved eastward to the church and the restored ruins of the 17th century Malzhausbastei in Peitz. We did not make it until the following day however, missing concerts like ones from pianist Cecila Voccia, trumpeter Ryan Carniaux, and the singer Uschi Brüning.

Jiří Stivín and Joe Sachse

The first concert we attended on Sunday afternoon in Peitz was in the Stueler Kirche, a nicely renovated space with a great pipe organ. The show was the duo of guitarist Joe Sachse and woodwindist Jiří Stivín. Sachse's playing was delightfully supportive of Stivin's jazz inflected playing, which could be both cutting and whimsical on the flute and saxophone. The end of the concert included the Kirchenmusikdirektor Wilfred Wilke, for one of the most abstract and freely improvised pieces of the show.

Uwe Kropinski

The next concert followed a quick change of venue over to the much smaller and intimate Malzhausbastei, where a second book talk was to be followed by guitar wonder Uwe Kropinski. There was, however, an unexpected twist: Kropinski's unique custom made acoustic guitar had just fallen onto the concrete floor and the head stock had broken off. So, after a quick reintroduction of the Woodstock am Karpfenteich II book, the audience's attention shifted to Kropinski who proceeded with a replacement guitar provided by a local concert goer. With less frets and features than he is accustomed to, he quickly reconfigured his approach and played a beautiful set of classically tinged compositions, along with one he introduced as a 'proper' jazz tune. Kropinski ended with a flourish of unusual tones created with use of his custom "super pick" and anyone unaware of his last minute guitar switch would be none the wiser.

 

Bruno Angeloni, Steffan Roth, Stephan Deller

There was a break before the next show, which was set to also happen at the Malzhausbastei, which though cozy, was really too small of a venue for the crowd that had shown up. Not wanting to miss out on the fiery free jazz trio of MOTUSNEU - saxophonist Bruno Angeloni, drummer Steffan Roth, and bassist Stephan Deller - we made sure to be back at the venue early. We became alarmed though when 10 minutes before the show people were showing up but not the musicians. A recon mission revealed that the concert had been moved to the impressive, cavernous Festungsturm, the 16th century medieval fortress in the middle of the town. We ran and snapped up the last two seats, a bit frazzled. Quickly however, the blazing melodic shards from Angeloni and telepathic reciprocation from Roth and Deller re-oriented us. The trio's persistent sound rose and fell as Roth seamlessly switched between roiling pulse and energetic thrust. 

 

Gundra Gottschalk, Gunter "Baby" Sommer, Friedhelm Schoenfeld, Xu Fengxia

Sylvia Courvoisier, Drew Gress, Kenny Wollensen

Helge Leiberg's evolving imagery

A short pause gave everyone some time to enjoy the sunny and mild evening weather, before the concerts moved back to the church. The set kicked off with a multi-generational quartet featuring percussionist Gunter "Baby" Sommer, woodwindist Friedhelm Schoenfeld, violinist Gundra Gottschalk and guzheng player Xu Fengxia. The musical encounter was full of playful free jazz pathos and an energetic appeal, a duet between Gundra and Fengxia that covered an impressive range tones and styles, complete with vocalizations and unexpected twists. A duet between Sommer and Schoenfeld was equally engaging, though following a more expected path. Next, New York's Sylvia Courvoisier Trio, featuring the pianst along with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollensen, entranced the audience for an hour. Big open chords, galloping rhythms and tightly interlocking melodic tunes were supported by expressive improvisations from all three musicians. Following a short reconfiguration of the stage, a free improvising group with Almut Kühne on vocals, Ulrich Gumpert on piano, Lothar Fiedler on guitar, Heiner Reinhard on bass clarinet and tenor saxophone, and Willi Kellers on drums, complimented Helge Leiberg's live paintings, which he applied to glass and manually manipulated on two overhead projectors. The effect was delightful, playful, and sometimes quite jarring as the "primitive" musical imagery mixed with the smeary and sometimes surprisingly precise sounds of the band. 

 

Stefan Schultze, Peter Ehwald, Tomasz Dąbrowski, Robert Landfermann, Mortiz Baumgärtner

 

It was getting late and just as we thought our musical intake levels were about maxed out, the scene shifted back to the fortress with saxophonist Peter Ehwald leading an impressive group featuring the trumpeter Tomasz Dąbrowski, pianist Stefan Schultze , bassist Robert Landfermann and drummer Mortiz Baumgärtner. Proceeding with a gentle toughness, Ehwald led the band through an exciting, cinematic set of music, closing the 50th anniversary weekend on a high note.

This coming September, Jazzwerkstatt Peitz number 60 will be an "end is the beginning" sort of deal. Ulli Blobel is hanging up his organizer hat and passing the torch to the next generation. His daughter Marie, who has already begun organizing concerts in Berlin, is taking the reigns. Meanwhile, we'll be eager to see what the future brings.

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Henry Threadgill and Brent Hayes Edwards - Easily Slip Into Another World: A Life in Music (Alfred A. Knopf, 2023)

By Gary Chapin

About two-thirds of the way into his memoir, Easily Slip Into Another World: A Life in Music, Henry Threadgill let’s us know:

There is an expectation that an artist’s autobiography will function as a primer, providing “explanations” of the art. But this book is not a listening guide. If anything, it is an extended defiance of that expectation. If it’s meant to teach you anything about my music, it starts with the lesson that you need to relinquish that desire for transparency. Music is about listening. Nothing I can say can mean anything once you start to listen. (p 259)

And I thought, “Dang!” Because, while I wasn’t expecting a primer or “explanations,” the experience of reading the book did not mean “nothing” to me when I listened to the music. Threadgill’s life and stories were helping me get closer to the music, providing a new perspective or context for the music, or a new entry point. I’ve been listening to Threadgill since 1988, maybe I needed a new entry point to remind me how much joy is there. (I notice, as I get older, I need that reminder about a lot of things.) Still, Threadgill’s questioning (or denial) of the relationship between his words and his music fascinated me.

Regardless, it’s important to say, in and of itself Easily Slip Into Another World, is a wonder of a book. I have read far more than my fair share of music biographies and memoirs, especially of avant musicians, and this is easily the best. Yes. I’ll repeat. The best. Easily.

The most important reason for this is that Threadgill (with Edwards) is an amazingly good storyteller—the type of storyteller who could tell a story about anything and have you in the palm of their hand. Every music bio has that section at the beginning about ancestors and childhood. I suppose it’s necessary, but it almost always leaves me impatient. (“Okay, okay, Bach’s dad was a bagpiper. Can we get to the Cantatas?”) Threadgill, from the first sentence, draws you in with stories of Peyton Robinson, his great-grandfather. Each story has that urgency of “So there I was …” (even if Threadgill wasn’t actually there). It’s a superpower, this kind of storytelling, to use words to leave you desperate to know, “What happens next? How’s it going to end?”

Incidents of neighborhood racism in Threadgill’s late ‘50s/early ‘60s Chicago leave us angry and uneasy. Brief encounters with Sun Ra and his band leave us envious. The section on his time in Vietnam is genuinely harrowing, edge-of-your-seat stuff. I can imagine the movie made from just that chapter. When he returns to Chicago afterwards, Threadgill pursues different relationships, educational opportunities, friendships, and musical experiments.

He is of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), but, because of his time away, not enmeshed in it. He takes us through the formation and story of Air, the Sextett, Zooid, etc. Certain relationships stuck out to me, I’m not always sure why—such as that with guitarist Brandon Ross. It’s not prominent in terms of the word count given to it, but it feels meaningful.

As we watch him assemble and disassemble different ensembles over time, looking for his sound (not THE ONE sound, but the sound he needs at that moment), you can see his fascination with the mixture of timbres (something I heard Threadgill comment on in the ‘90s). Whether it’s a phalanx of basses, or the stringreedbrass mixture of the Sextet, or the accordion on Song Out of My Trees, you can see his fascination with the sounds of instruments and their players, and their place in his writing. For example, he’s had a bunch of cellists and a bunch of tuba players over the years, but I can always tell when it’s a Threadgill cello or a Threadgill tuba.

In the way of great storytellers, the language here is nonviolent, never engaging in the gossip of so much music-oriented writing. It also never seems to gloss over things that someone like Ellington would in his autobiography. He talks about the drugs, racism, and divorces because they happened. They were part of the context. But I never feel as if I’m a voyeur. It’s an extraordinary balance he achieves.

Easily Slip Into Another World doesn’t bring us up to the minute, but it gets pretty darn close. He talks of his relationship with Pi Recordings and its blessings. It wasn’t his Pulitzer that made Threadgill into an elder statesman of “this kind of music,” but it helped. The story of his relationship with the Indian state of Goa—first missing a chance to play there, then playing there, then getting lost in the jungle and … nevermind, I won’t spoil it—is one of the most beautiful and endearing of the book.

I suppose Threadgill is right, and the book doesn’t provide transparency in the sense of answers about his music—although his explanation of the Zooid approach to harmony is wonderful “inside baseball”—but it does help you approach the music with good questions. My experience of this book (as important as my evaluation or analysis) was one of rapt enjoyment, and also fascination. I know it’s the second time I’ve used that word, but it’s genuinely true that one quality of great music to me is that it is fascinating. Among all its other qualities, Henry Threadgill’s music is fascinating to me. This book is fascinating. The two fascinations amplify each other.

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Trumpet Trios

By Stef Gijssels

Trumpet trios are less rare than we assume. Here's an update, a completist's list, because these are the albums that we received/bought in the past months that comply with the broad definition of a trumpet trio: a horn with rhythm section, usually a double bass and a drums. 

We do not go into much detail, but just try to point the reader in the right direction in terms of musical taste. Not all albums would be high on my list, but I will rank them in order of my personal preference. 

Earlier this year we already reviewed Gabriele Miteli's "Three Tsuru Origami" and also "Dishwasher". 


Thomas Heberer, Ken Filiano & Phil Haynes - Spontaneous Composition (Self-Released, 2022) & Thomas Heberer's Garden, Max Johnson, Lou Grassi – Push Play (CIMP, 2022) 

The best of the list are two trios with Thomas Heberer on the horn. Two very different albums in nature yet both easy to recommend. The first one is called "Spontaneous Composition" with Ken Filiano on double bass and Phil Haynes on drums. The music was recorded in September last year and released a month later. As its title suggest, the five tracks of the album are entirely improvised. All three musicians play equal roles, and sometimes with a strong lead from Filiano on bass, who comes with the drive and the ideas for the improvisations. Heberer's improvisations are so strong and lyrical that you wonder why he ever wants to compose. It all comes naturally to him, especially in the company of this extraordinary creative rhythm section. The precision and skills of the three musicians are in stark contrast to the music's direct and unpolished authenticity, a wonderful paradox that makes the overall result even stronger. 

The second album - "Push Play" - has a more composed nature with Heberer clearly holding the pen to some of the tracks, and with Max Johnson and Lou Grassi on bass and drums respectively. The recording already dates from 2013, performed in the famous "spirit room" of the CIMP label. The music is intense, and the themes often nothing more than scene setters. The sound quality is excellent, with a great balance between the instruments. One of the tracks is a tribute to Mongezi Feza, the great South African trumpeter. 

It is hard to say which of both albums I would prefer, so I recommend that you look for both of them, even if the CIMP one may be a little more difficult to find. 

Listen to "Spontaneous Composition" and download from Bandcamp. 

Vance Provey, Whit Dickey & Spin Dunbar - Motifs 1983 (New Haven Improvisers Collective, 2023)

Trumpeter Vance Provey appears on just a few albums, in the Leap Of Faith Ensemble", in "Turbulence" and the "Gunther Hampel New York Ochestra". On this recording from 1983, we find him in the presence of With Dickey on drums, and Spin Dunbar on bass, whose musical output is limited to this album, and who is now a stained glass artist in New Mexico. Both Provey and Dunbar worked with Bill Dixon at Bennington College. 

I am not sure where this album suddenly appears from, or why this studio recording from 40 years ago was suddenly dug up, yet it's a great album, straightforward free jazz improvisation, with great band dynamics and Provey constantly taking the lead voice, a voice which is full, warm and lyrical, somehow wonderfully contrasting with the nervous bass of Dunbar. Dickey's drumkit is somehow a little bit lost in the overall sound, somewhere a little too much in the background. 

Interesting album and really worth checking out. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Toshinori Kondo, Massimo Pupillo & Tony Buck - Eternal Triangle (IDA 052 - 2022)

The late Japanese trumpeter Toshinori Kondo fits in a musical space all his own, performing on his electric instrument, creating atmospheric soundscapes that mix new age slow spaciousness and high reverb with raw electronic distortions and elements of free improvisation. Here he is in the company of Massimo Pupillo on electric bass and electronics, and Tony Buck on drums and percussion. His sound is not really my cup of tea, yet fans will appreciate that the label makes this music still available. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Peachfuzz - Peachinguinha (Silent Water, 2022)

Peachfuzz is a Portuguese trio with João Almeida on trumpet, Norberto Lobo on electric guitar and João Lopes Pereira on drums. Their music is a great mixture of styles (a little funk, contemplative moments, a little skronk, and just free jazz), and luckily they don't take themselves too seriously, as the track titles already suggest: "Peaches Brew", "Maria João Peach", "Peachinguinha" and "Peachhiker's Guide To The Galaxy". The trio leave each other lots of space to develop each musician's ideas, and somehow it all gells well. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Zack Lober - NO FILL3R (Zennez Records, 2023)

Zack Lober is a Canadian bassist, here in the presence of Suzan Veneman on trumpet and Sun-Mi Hong on drums. Lober, Veneman and Hong are all based in the Netherlands. 

Their trio performances are more post-boppish modern jazz than free improvisation, yet the quality of their playing is so good that it's worth sharing. All three are not only excellent instrumentalists, but they also share a great sense of lyricism and ensemble playing. The music itself stays too much within its own comfort zone to my liking, and is insufficiently challenging to my ears, but that was also clearly not their intention either. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Quentin Ghomari - Ôtrium (Neuklang, 2022)

The French trio of Quentin Ghomari on trumpet, Yoni Zelnik on double bass, and Antoine Paganotti on drums is easy to recommend for fans of modern jazz. The technical skills are excellent. Ghomari has been the trumpeter in French bands such as Ping Machine and Papanosh. The music of the trio is deeply rooted in the jazz of the sixties, but with a very modern attitude to compositional structure, including the occasional increase of power, even if the boundaries and patterns in the music remain relatively stable throughout. 

You can listen to the entire album on Youtube and other digital channels.

Derby Derby - Macadam (Ormo Records, 2022)

The trio are Alan Regardin on trumpet, Sylvain Didou on bass, and Fabrice Lhoutellier on drums. The beat is more rock than jazz, the starts with one long stretched slightly shifting sonic drone supported by repetitive drum beats, creating a hypnotic psychedelic sound. It lasts eighteen minutes. The second track starts with a basic rock drum beat, again endlessly repeated, over which the now a little more discernable trumpet starts weaving ephemeral sounds. This lasts nine minutes. And that's it. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

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Pascal Niggenkemper - beat the odds (Subran Musiques Aventureuses, 2023)

By Nick Ostrum

Here is the publicity sheet’s description of beat the odds, Pascal Niggenkemper’s project with two cellists (Elisabeth Coudoux and Ricardo Jacinto) and an additional double-bassist (Félicie Bazelaire): “Music for two cellos and two contrabasses whose strings are hit by a lever (sort of propeller). The variable speed motor is controlled by a foot pedal. Pulsating organisms (beats), sustained sounds (drones) and the personal musical language of each of the four musicians create a fascinating world of sound.” In terms of staging: the four musicians sit across from each other, each on the corner of a 3-meter-by-3-meter square. Behind each lies and amplifier. The crowd surrounds the musicians. Speakers sit behind the crowd, similarly on the corner of a larger 13-meter-by-13-meter square.

Those descriptions may make beat the odds sound rigid, but the result is more contingent and human than that. Or, to build off an observation Eyal Hareuveni makes about Niggenkemper’s companion release la vallée de l'étrange, maybe it flirts with that disturbing space between the machine and the human, between free choice and sterile coincidence, between actual intentionality and the listener’s arbitrary assignation of structure onto mechanical outputs. The music is heavy on strings (obviously), especially low tones, which are complemented by incessant thrumming (motors) and a steady almost metronymic pounding (lever) in addition to some pizzicato and arco work. Between the acoustic sounds and the instrumentalized amplifiers, they are also remarkably textured and surprisingly diverse. Musicians pull from extended techniques, EAI clatter, layered drones, gusty and crackly ambient and synthesized/mimicked field sounds (Caldas da Rainha). Tracks are heavy at times, as in the oddly and unevenly rhythmic Découverte or the artfully foreboding St. Helena. Always, they are layered and cumulative. Each piece sounds constructed in real-time, often looping from disparate solitary lines and notes into much denser weavings. Most importantly, the music is unwaveringly entrancing.

beat the odds is available as a CD (single or box-set) or download via Bandcamp:

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Pascal Niggenkemper - have you ever wondered (Subran Musiques Aventureuses, 2023)

By Paul Acquaro

have you ever wondered is an ear-catching set of music that makes use of the sonic environment of the bell tower of the lovely Notre-Dame de la Drèche in France, a Catholic church in the French countryside dating from the 14th century. As composer and bassist Pascal Niggenkemper explains, the album is "chamber music for carillon, trumpet, voice, electronics & double bass," and the recording's 11 tracks take the listener on an unexpected musical journey.

Images in the booklet shows cornetist, electronics manipulator and singer Ben LaMar Gay playing his cornet partially inside a giant bell, surely generating a unique sounding reverb. Indeed, the interplay between the churches bells and the assorted instruments reveal many layers and unexpected combinations of sound. The bells themselves are the carillon, which to borrow from Wikipedia, "is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 bells. The bells are cast in bronze, hung in fixed suspension, and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniously together." The carillon here, which Niggenkemper develops his chamber pieces around, is played by Corinne Salles and made up of 37 bells.

The recording begins with the track entitled ' 44ºC,' referring to the extreme temperature on the day that the recording was created (this is 111 Fahrenheit - I don't think making music would be my main activity in such conditions!), begins with the clear ringing of the bells by Salles. Niggenkemper then provides a low drone from his bass, switching back and forth between a couple of legato notes. Slowly, LaMar Gay's electronics begin creeping in, creating a staticy texture. Then, the recording jumps to the next track, 'juchés,' in which LaMar Gay sings long, wordless tones that seems to cut through the consistent melodic snippets from the bells and the bubbling of electronics. The atmosphere is somewhat creepy, something that is further accentuated by Niggenkemper's droning bass lines. On 'retombées,' LaMar Gay's cornet returns, mirroring the long, floating notes of the other instruments, and on the title track, he sings a short refrain. Niggenkempers extended techniques fills the track 'descente.'

Approximately halfway through the album, on 'sona', a less than two and a half minute piece, that the pulse quickens. A tandem melody by the bells and cornet, over an expressive bass line, offers a near conventional song and provides a nice counter motion to the recording. This is followed by the haunting 'miralh,' where the cornet, bass and electronics move like objects obscured in the fog, while the bells ring out a haunting melody. The texture is thick, the mood suspenseful and a center piece of the album.

have you ever wondered ends with 'torride,' a fitting end to the unusual recordings. The bells, starting off strong are eventually replaced with electronic fuzz and a repetitive bass note. I'm sure, as they wrapped up the recording late on the 44ºC day, the three knew that their sweat was not in vain and that they had created something new and unusual.

 

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Pascal Niggenkemper - la vallée de l'étrange (Subran Musiques Aventureuses, 2023)

By Eyal Hareuveni

la vallée de l'étrange (the valley of strange) is a double bass installation more than a double bass solo album, or as Pascal Niggenkemper calls it, “a face to face between a double bassist and an autonomous augmented double bass in spatialized octophonic setting”. Niggenkemper is playing in a center of a stage, surrounded by a circle of eight loudspeakers. On 3 pieces the double bass is seated on his lap - basso horizontale as he calls it. Next to Niggenkemper, there is an augmented double bass (called, cobonore, a construct between cobot and & sonore) equipped with eight motors in eight time zones, each with a piezo. These zones are animated by the levers of the motors and projected to one or several loudspeakers. The audience is seated in circles between Niggenkemper and the loudspeakers to introduce and share with the audience the sonic experience of being inside the augmented double bass. The album was recorded at la Grange de Floyrac in France in July and October 2022.

Niggenkemper calls this sound installation “a game of opposition and an encounter between the human and the imaginary”. Obviously, he offers an experimental, ambitious and quite eccentric way to invent and reflect the sonic possibilities of the double bass, from a radical and insightful perspective, true to the seminal vision of John Cage. Niggenkemper was inspired by Japanese robotics pioneer Masahiro Mori’s visionary essay “The Uncanny Valley”, suggesting the hypothesis that as robots become more humanlike, they appear more familiar until a point is reached at which subtle imperfections of appearance make them look strange.

la vallée de l'étrange does sound strange, otherworldly, even outrageous and only rarely playful, far beyond the known acoustic or electronics-enhanced extended techniques (though Niggenkemper attaches different objects to the bass strings and body), but it is totally engaging with its unique and surprising sounds and sonic spells as well as its nuanced dynamics. Only the first piece, “Doppelgänger”, employs the familiar dark and buzzing vibrations of a bowed double bass but the random sounds of the augmented double bass soon create a cacophonic and chaotic storm. In the basso horizontale pieces, Niggenkemper plays the double bass with his mouth - breaths and whispers into the f-hole and the endpin entrance, or with assorted objects. On “choice processes frailty” he places small bridges between the fingerboard and the strings and brings the double bass to a Japanese koto territory.

A true work of a double bass poet, sonic explorer and adventurer (and mad scientist), who revisits and reinvents his - and ours - relationship to the bull fiddle.

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Pascal Niggenkemper le 7ème continent - Kipppunkt (Subran Musiques Aventureuses, 2023)

By Lee Rice Epstein

2016’s Talking Trash, Pascal Niggenkemper’s debut album with the le 7ème continent group , was one of the first I can recall to directly reference and meditate on the damage wrought by humans on the natural world. The album opened with “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” and was followed by a song titled with the coordinates of one of the patches ( we now know there are actually two ) and developed as a meditation on plastic and the potential for an organism (“Ideonella Sakaiensis”) to devour plastics.

The following year, Niggenkemper recorded a follow-up, released now as part of blòc, a massive set of new music. Kipppunkt is German for “tipping point,” and the cover photo of stacks of shipping containers tipping directly references the staggering number of containers that go missing in the ocean every year . Most of the group remains the same, Julián Elvira on flute and electronics, Joris Rühl and Joachim Badenhorst on clarinets and electronics, and Philip Zoubek on piano and synths, with Liz Kosack subbing in for Eve Risser. Niggenkemper calls the recording “collapsing container ship music for double trio or triple duo,” and it’s (once again) a fascinating, evocative, and addictive set.

Opening with the brief “Luiperd-Brulpadda”—named for two natural gas and oil fields off the coast of South Africa—like a journalist, Niggenkemper’s done his research; like a novelist, his titled and compositions are packed with references to lead listeners down a number of paths. It’s only a small part of what makes these albums so successful, the chief reason of course is the music itself. The sextet moves in small groups, as described, trios and duos alternately intersecting, moving in parallel, and, at times, seeming to reflect on each other. On the surface, there’s a chamberesque quality to tracks like “undercurrent” and “interne Gezeiten,” with a sharpened edges and dissonant tones that call to mind the quaking, rocking ships that provided inspiration. Nothing’s as obvious as all that; Badenhorst and Rühl, together with Elvira, the winds weave brilliantly through and around the bass and piano. As with the first album, Zoubek and Kosack trade percussive riffs with stark, shattering runs, as on “Kipppunkt.”

As “internal waves” winds down, in its referential final minutes, Niggenkemper maintains the connection of this music to the complexities and tragedies that inspired it. There’s enough time to properly sit and think about all that’s come, over the course of the previous hour, and all that’s yet to come, more music, yes, but also more exploration and action. As a record of a mind in constant, curious motion, Kipppunkt is one more milestone in Niggenkemper’s incredible career.

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Pascal Niggenkemper - levar lenga (Subran Musiques Aventureuses, 2023)

 By Martin Schray

Pascal Niggenkemper describes levar lenga as an “outdoor mini-opera“. It was commissioned for the Estivada de Rodez, the festival of Occitan cultures. levar lenga was performed in memory of René Duran, a passionate advocate of Occitan culture and the artistic “soul“ of the city of Rodez, who unexpectedly died in 2020. The mini-opera consists of two texts, “Crossroads“ by Jaumes Privat, whose texts also form the basis for vèrs - revèrs, and “The Parrots“ by Jean-Marie Pieyre, an Occitan writer, whose short but anger-filled novels, short stories and tales have told fates of uprooting and wandering. This gloom and anger come to the fore right from the opening piece. “per los gremos“ (through the tears) is based on Pieyre’s aforementioned story “Los Papagaios“: “there are the city streets / the smoky mornings of freezing / my father / likes them, the streets desolate / through the tears of an abandoned baby / alone in front of the church.“ Voices buzz above a ghostly drone that immediately seem to dissipate. Then Jaumes Privat joins in with a recitation that is both urgent and tender. The piece is quite short, serving only as an introduction to the larger work. The transition to “montanhas“ is then almost like a blow with an axe - choppy, monotonous, staccato-like. Dark beats on the timpani sound as if Armageddon has begun. Next, a jumble of bagpipes, bass clarinet and electronics leads into another miniature that nevertheless functions as a centerpiece: Jaumes Privat’s poem “paret et paret de parets“. Lore Douziech and Laurence Leyrolles move a wooden plate lying on the floor taken off with a piezo, a piezoelectric element/device that generates a voltage when force is applied (the so-called piezoelectric effect) or conversely deforms when voltage is applied (reverse piezoelectric effect). “In the middle / on one side / Silence / and on the other / Silence / and even more silence / wall and wall of walls / in between / silence“, Privat grumbles.

Even though the power of the voice and that of the language are strongly present and their emotions, musicality and gesture are an important part of the mini-opera, there are also grandiose instrumental pieces that run through the composition like a thread. “diferent“, with its repetitive structure and themes, or “causa salopas“, which sounds like a mixture of heavy metal and free jazz, are little gems. However, the highlight is “tornar“, the longest piece in levar lenga. Bagpipes, electronics, hurdy gurdy and bass clarinet intertwine, are unraveled again and then re-knotted with the addition of voices. The piece has an archaic and progressive character at the same time, as if past, present and future were being conceived in the here and now.

levar lenga is a courageous composition, the likes of which have probably never been heard before.

The band is:

François Bessac - electronics and objects
Igor Boyer - electronics and objects
Antoine Charpentier - bagpipes
Isabelle Cirla - bass clarinet
Lore Douziech - dance
René Duran - voice
Laurence Leyrolles - dance
Nicolas Marmin - electronics and objects
Pascal Niggenkemper - double bass
Papillion - percussion and sound sculpture
Jaumes Privat - text, voice and visuals
Guy Raynaud - electro-acoustics
Fabien Salabert - stage manager
Jean-Jacques Triby - hurdy-gurdy

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Pascal Niggenkemper & Voix En Rhizome - vèrs revèrs (Subran Musiques Aventureuses, 2023)

By Martin Schray

vèrs - revèrs is a suite for eight voices and double bass, based on texts by Jaumes Privat, whose poetry Niggenkemper came across by chance when a friend gave him a volume of Privat’s poetry. The lyrics are in Occitan, which is a Roman language that developed in Gaul from Vulgar Latin - along with French,. The varieties (dialects) of Occitan, which unlike French doesn’t have a unified written language, are spoken mainly in the southern part of France and some smaller areas in the immediate vicinity. Niggenkemper, who lives in Rodez in the Occitanie region, is particularly interested in the sound of this language. As a child (his mother is from Rodez), he says, his relatives and the older people in the villages often spoke Patois (which is what they called Occitan).That’s why the imagery of the idioms represents closeness and distance at the same time for him.

Musically, the suite is an extension of Niggenkemper’s idea of playing the double bass. The voices function like extended tonal material for the instrument. They swing ambient-like into spherical heights (“far e tonar“), shoot like ricochets through the musical space (“amar e blos“), breathe menacingly (“per baticór“), remind one of a dairymaid’s chorus at a mountain pasture drive (“can’t vent“) or remain completely silent (“talhar camin“).

vèrs - revèrs begins as if you were at a spooky party on Witch Mountain. The voices buzz around the listener like ghosts, as if they wanted to draw you into their realm. The spinning top, which begins to turn in the head, is also present in Privat’s lyrics: “I turn / turn / it turns / the world / the tongues / tongues in / our mouths / and we turn / with our tongues / we spin, spin / on the skin of the world.“

vèrs - revèrs may seem unwieldy at first listen, with all its echoes of new classical music and unfamiliar language. However, music and language are very well matched and draw the listener into a peculiar spell with repeated listening. Exemplary for this appears “tot polsar“, the last piece on the album. “Every breath / breathed / the universe / the skins / heart and planet“, the text is tossed back and forth as in a conversation. The all-encompassing is mirrored by the repetitions of the music. vèrs - revèrs is a real venture.

The Rhizome Voices are Danièle Sales, Klaus Niggenkemper (Pascal’s father), Marie-Françoise Delzons, Jean-Jacques Triby, Marie-Cécile Triby, Alain Druilhe, Marie Quet and Alain Salabert. Pascal Niggenkemper is on bass and has composed all the pieces.

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Pascal Niggenkemper - Blòc (Subran Musiques Aventureuses, 2023)

By Martin Schray

The German-French Pascal Niggenkemper is considered one of the most interesting and adventurous double bass players in the conflicting fields of improvised and contemporary music. He works both as a soloist and in various ensembles, constantly developing his musical philosophy and his musical language. Therefore, he uses preconceived ideas and notated music as well as freely improvised parts.

Niggenkemper calls Blòc, a box consisting of six albums, a statement. The individual albums present him as a bandleader who is looking for new concepts and new creative ways. This is evident in the instrumentations of the albums, but also in his view of his instrument, which has clearly evolved since his outstanding solo album Look With Thine Ears. For Niggenkemper, this new view manifests itself by working outdoors in the countryside (meaning outside cultural centers), in working with poets, in discovering local instruments, and in exploring the multiplicity of the languages and culture of France. All of this can be found on Blòc’s albums.

For Niggenkemper’s work on his instrument this means that he’s less interested in the classical sound of a double bass; he is more interested in alienating it and thus expanding the instrument’s playing possibilities. To do this, he still uses all kinds of extended materials: tone woods, small motors, funnels, tambourines, sticks, etc. According to him, however, the sounds sometimes arise out of movement, almost by chance. The interplay of sound and material then gives rise to forms that can be used consciously in the progress of the improvisation, usually as anchor points from which the improvisation then moves to or away from. Although all of these sounds are acoustically generated, from time to time this sounds like electronic music.

Bloc compiles the highlights of Niggenkemper’s music from 2017-2022. The box is limited to 120 copies, it’s available here: https://subran.bandcamp.com/album/v-rs-rev-rs.

You can also order the albums individually from the same website. 

We will be reviewing the discs throughout this week.

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