Koma Saxo with Sofia Jernberg - Koma West (March 18, 2022 We Jazz Records)

Petter Eldh's explosive ensemble Koma Saxo continues their adventures with a new album "Koma West", out on We Jazz Records, 18 March 2022. The album sees Koma Saxo expand on their previous sound with the addition of vocalist Sofia Jernberg and a strong cast of featured artists, including cellist Lucy Railton, violinist Maria Reich, pianist Kit Downes and accordionist Kiki Eldh (Petter's mom!). The hard-hitting key quintet remains, including Eldh on bass and assorted instruments, Christian Lillinger on drums, plus saxophonists Otis Sandsjö (of Y-OTIS), Jonas Kullhammar and Mikko Innanen bringing the SAXO to the KOMA operation.

At 14 tracks, "Koma West" is a full menu of monumental compositional ideas that could spawn entire albums. True to his chop & go production style, Eldh relies on continuous movement while presenting another all killer no filler program taking Koma Saxo on a sonic outing not quite like anything that had previously appeared under the band's name. That being said, there's very much the Petter Eldh touch here, one which might be hard to pinpoint and verbalise, but nevertheless a recognisable style of composing, producing and arranging.

Thematically, the album is rooted in the West Coast of Sweden, where Eldh grew up – he's from a tiny town called Lysekil. There's a thread of Swedish folk song tradition that has been part of the Koma Saxo DNA from the get-go and you can hear that here as well, especially on cuts such as "Närhet", beautifully sung by Sofia Jernberg.

Petter Eldh says:

"In a way, it's a concept album and a celebration of the Swedish West Coast. The first single is called 'Koma Kaprifol', and kaprifol is the landscape flower of Bohuslän on the West coast, where I grew up. I'm not too wild about attaching strong narratives to my music but there's no way around it this time. The oysters, a common snack around the coast, are a strong conceptual presence here. Anyway, they seem to pop up here and there quite often already thus far in the Koma Saxo narrative, even though it's not always so obvious. Koma Vocals! Koma Strings! I love the presence of Sofia Jernberg here and I love writing string arrangements, too, although I never thought I would do it for Koma, but of course, Koma should have some strings, why not?. Koma Saxo should and can become anything." 

1. Lo Ve Ko Ma

2. Croydon Koma

3. Koma Krig

4. Flamman

5. Lake Koma

6. Koma Kaprifol

7. Ostron Accordion

8. Klippan Granit

9. Koma Rail

10. Närhet

11. Koma Fred

12. Saxo Chop

13. Clos Eko

14. Koma Camu

Petter Eldh - Double Bass, Sampler, Piano, Percussion

Sofia Jernberg - Voice

Christian Lillinger - Drums

Otis Sandsjö - Tenor Saxophone, Alto Clarinet

Jonas Kullhammar - Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Slide Saxophone

Mikko Innanen - Alto Saxophone, Sopranino Saxophone

Lucy Railton - Cello

Maria Reich - Violin

Kiki Eldh (the momvillain) - Accordion

Kit Downes - Piano

Produced by Petter Eldh

Executive producer Matti Nives

All compositions by Petter Eldh except “Närhet”, written by Fritz Sjöström, arranged by Petter Eldh

Recorded at Atlantis, Stockholm, 14th of April 2021, by Niclas Lindström

Additional recordings by Petter Eldh at Koma Saxo Industries, Berlin

Some of the voice and piano additions recorded by Sofia and Kit somewhere in Europe

Kiki Eldh recorded by Petter Eldh at Mountain Man Studios, Lysekil

Mixed by Petter Eldh at Koma Saxo Industries, Berlin

Mastered by Martin Ruch at CONTROL ROOM BERLIN

Design by Matti Nives

PRE ORDER

PUNKT.VRT.PLASTIK Kaja Draklser / Petter Eldh / Christian Lillinger - Zurich Concert (March 11, 2022 Intakt Records)

“A supergroup” is what the German music magazine Jazzthetik calls Punkt.Vrt.Plastik. Kaja Draksler, Petter Eldh and Christian Lillinger make up this trio – “Two musicians and one musician who are among the most exciting and active that the European avant-garde has to offer.” and Die Zeit writes: “They reinterpret an entire genre at once: the good old piano trio.” The trio convinces with a highly individual sound and a rarely heard clarity and precision, even where there is free improvisation and where rhythm, melody and metrics dissolve. now, a year after their celebrated album Somit, they present an impressive live statement that takes up the material from their eponymous first album and Somit and impressively demonstrates the live realizations of studio ideas. “It is a stunning reminder that whatever else it can be, music is a fundamentally communicative enterprise. It is our great fortune that the microphones were up on this night so that Punkt.Vrt.Plastik can again tell us what they said”, writes Alexander Hawkins in the liner notes.

1. Nuremberg Amok (Live)

2. Axon (Live)

3. Trboje (Live)

4. Vrvica I (Live)

5. Amnion (Live)

6. Body Decline - Natt Raum (Live)

7. Morgon Morfin (Live)

8. Vrvica II (Live)

9. Membran (Live)

10. Traces of Veins (Live)

11. Veins (Live)

12. Zug (Live)

13. Azan (Live)

Kaja Draksler: Piano

Petter Eldh: Bass

Christian Lillinger: Drums, Percussion

Music by Kaja Draksler (Buma), Petter Eldh (STIM), Christian Lillinger (GEMa). Recorded live May 14, 2021, at unerhört!-Festival at Rote Fabrik in Zurich by Michael Brändli. Mixed at Hardstudios in Winterthur by Christian Lillinger and Michael Brändli. Mastered at Hardstudios by Michael Brändli. Midi quarter- tone keyboard programmed by Gianluca Elia. Cover photo: Kaja Draksler. Graphic design: Paul Bieri. Liner notes: Alexander Hawkins. Band photo: Palma Fiacco. Produced by Kaja Draksler, Petter Eldh, Christian Lillinger and Intakt Records. Published by Intakt Records.

PRE-ORDER

Dell Lillinger Westergaard & Maneri - MONUMENTS / 25 February 2022 on edition niehler werft (enw)

Monuments offers the exciting collaboration of the trio Dell Lillinger Westergard (DLW) and Mat Maneri. In 2015 the internationally acclaimed trio teamed up with the American viola virtuoso to investigate in a fascinating sound landscape. Maneri's unique style is informed by microtonal concepts and open compositions. It blends perfectly well with the innovative structural approach of DLW, while expanding the latter in its harmonic tonal space. Displaying ground-breaking views on and work with musical material, the recording at hand focuses on the commonality and the aspect of balance, especially between the different and contrasting instrument groupings and timbres.

In all cases of approaching compositional aspects, the musicians take their point of departure in questioning their concepts of a musical work over and over again. It is decisive, that the artists can never be sure exactly what defines modern genre types such as New Music, experimental music or Avantgarde. Instead each single composition should always open a path for new perspectives, options and procedures. Against this background, the compositional interspaces, the open structural and fragile cracks, the organizational fluctuation between action/sound/time levels establish the formal design of this at the sam time important and evocative recording: the differentiality and relationality of the work and its performers.

Since its formation in 2011, the trio Dell Lillinger Westergaard (DLW) have been researching energetic playing and structural composition in real time. Their complex interactions result in high energy materializing in different layers of sounds, relationscapes. Form comes into being through musical production. In this way the trio transcends the usual dichotomy of rhythm section vs. solo player.

Nominated for the German Jazz Prize 2021, the trio has released numerous productions and toured worldwide. Their double album „Grammar“ (released 2013 on gligg-records) demonstrates the trio’s specific structural approach to form-making from a variety of perspectives. The renowned German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau called the band's work "Boulez in real-time". Organizationally and aesthetically, the setup of DLW works as a plug-in structure creating space for guests, who bring their specific character of playing into the band’s sound. One example is the celebrated cooperation with the late John Tchicai, documented on the record „The Traveller“. Released in 2012 on Jazzwerkstatt Berlin, the ground-breaking album received rave reviews and was on the shortlist of the German Recording Award. DLW teamed up with the experimental electronic artist Johannes Brecht for the recording „Boulez Materialism“, released on PLAIST in 2018. Further collaborations include the renowned pianists Tamara Stefanovich, Bob Degen and Søren Kjærgaard.

This publication is the second publication in the new retroactive series of the exclusive artist’s label edition niehler werft (enw). In 2015 Marko Birkner meticulously engineered the session at the Funkhaus-Studios while Gleb Zagrebin provided a retroactive and punctilious mastering of the recordings in 2021.

Tracklist CD

01 Monument 14 * 04:52

02 Monument 13 * 10:24

03 Void 6 00:35

04 Void 4 01:16

05 Monument 12 04:03

06 Monument 18* 11:20

07 Void 10 02:00

08 Void 1 * 00:54

09 Monument 20 10:21

10 Void 11 * 01:11

11 Void 8 01:43

12 Monument 15* 05:17

13 Void 9 * 01:04

14 Void 7 00:40

15 Monument 16* 08:32

Total time: 64:45 *= on vinyl

Christopher Dell – vibraphone

Christian Lillinger – drums

Jonas Westergaard – drums

Mat Maneri – viola

Recorded 15th of May

2015 by Marko Birkner

Mastered 10th of August

2021 by Gleb Zagrebin

All compositions and concept by

Dell Lillinger Westergaard & Maneri

© & ℗ 2021 Christopher Dell

enw 014

retroactive series

Design by Christopher Dell

Produced by enw and DLW

Dell Lilllinger Westergaard & Maneri MONUMENTS is released by the exclusive artist's label edition

niehlerwerft (enw) on

-180g Vinyl CD with inside out cover and inlaycard (LimitedEdition300)

-CD with 6page booklet (Limited Edition300)

-On digital platforms

Dell Lillinger Westergaard & Maneri - MONUMENTS / 25 February 2022 on edition niehler werft (enw)

(In the United States, it will be released on 03/11/2022)

edition niehler werft (enw)

Big Bad Brötzmann Quintet - Bambule! (December 19, 2021 EUPHORIUM Records)

Bambule! was originally released in 2021 as a CD. You can buy it HERE

Again, Peter Brötzmann meets Oliver Schwerdt and Christian Lillinger, the most powerful youngsters of German Free Jazz culture. After 2017s Karacho! we now have the quintet with the unsurpassable Johns as it worked out that brilliant night of 2019! Edwards and Eckhardt did a warm up as a duett dedicated to the most beautiful legs on earth. Peter Brötzmann just know what sexuality has to do with the energy this group deals with! Listen also to the 15-minute-trio-interaction called Hot Ass!

---

Kurz nach dem Karacho! vom 7. Oktober 2017, welches die Erstbegegnung von Peter Brötzmann mit Christian Lillinger verzeichnet hatte, sicherte sich Oliver Schwerdt, vormals bekannt geworden als Elan Pauer, den Willen des legendären west-deutschen Saxofon-Schwerts zu, ein abermaliges Abenteuer im doppelt mit dem Doppelbass besetzten Quintett auszufechten. Nach dem er Luten Petrowsky neue Flügel verliehen hatte, scheint auch der Wuppertaler sich Schwerdts Fähigkeiten als fulminanten Turbolader für‘s Alter gern zu bedienen. Dem als Bambule! ausgewiesenen Hauptakt des 2019 realisierten Zweit-Treffens liegt wieder die sensationelle Aufwärmübung im Trio beiseite, dieses Mal in Anspielung an Brötzmanns Lobpreis der Sexualität Hot Ass/Beauty Legs geheißen: eine Viertelstunde Trio ohne Bass, plus Bass-Duo. Die Sternstunden des Free Jazz funkeln nochmal in ihren höchsten Tönen. 

01 Bambule! (37’04)

02 Bambule Again! (13’21)

Peter Brötzmann - tenor saxophone, clarinet, tarogato

Oliver Schwerdt - grand piano, percussion, little instruments

John Edwards - double bass

John Eckhardt- double bass

Christian Lillinger - drums, cymbals, percussion

PRE ORDER

Big Bad Brötzmann Trio / John Edwards & John Eckhardt - Hot Ass​ /​ Beauty Legs (December 19, 2021 EUPHORIUM Records)

Hot Ass/Beauty Legs was originally released in 2021 as a mini CD. You can buy it HERE

Biturbo!, the paradisian debut of the legendary instrumental constellation of saxophone, piano and drums as Peter Brötzmann celebrate it with these powerful German youngsters is highlighted by that performance these three realized two years later. Hot Ass is a fulminant trio action bringing all together for an outstanding explosion of musical interaction: the wisdom and strength of an all-time hero as Peter Brötzmann in dance with the velocity and extremly young fighting of Oliver Schwerdt (formerly known as Elan Pauer) and Christian Lillinger. Get that kick to the ultimate jazz ecstasy. Beauty Legs is called the first duet of the marvelous double bass players both called John, Edwards here, Eckhardt there..

Dass Oliver Schwerdt, vormals Elan Pauer, seine klassischen Hardcore-Freejazz-Quintette mit basslosen Aufwärmrunden beginnt, ist spätenstens seit der jenem 2013 mit Petrowsky entfachten Tumult! vorgelagerten Mini-CD mit dem Titel Short Night bekannt. Nachdem EUPHORIUM Records die allererste Begegnung von Peter Brötzmann und Christian Lillinger, realisiert am 7. Oktober 2017 im legendären Leipziger Club naTo, Biturbo! getauft hat, und bei dem neben Lillinger Schwerdt selbst dem alten Kapitän sein hyperschallschnelles Ruder heranträgt, erscheint nun auch der Nachfolge der damaligen Quintett-Aufnahme (Karacho!) mit einem Trio-Nachfolger. Hot Ass präsentiert mit Beauty Legs zudem die beiden Bassisten, die sich mit den basslosen Drei hernach zum Quintett vereinen werden, im Zweiklang ihrer tieftönenden Holzboote. Die Auffächerung der kompletten Geschichte einer der energetischsten Abenteuer überhaupt.. 

1. Hot Ass 14:43

2. Beauty Legs 08:56

Peter Brötzmann- tenor saxophone, clarinet

Oliver Schwerdt - grand piano, percussion, little instruments

Christian Lillinger - drums, cymbals, percussion

John Edwards - double bass

John Eckhardt - double bass

PRE ORDER

Gordon Grdina 'Pendulum' & 'Klotski' / Two releases on October 22, 2021 Attaboygirl Records

Guitarist, composer and oud master Gordon Grdina launches Attaboygirl  Records with a wide-ranging trio of adventurous new albums

The new label, created in partnership with his partner, photographer and visual artist Genevieve Monro, will make its official debut with its first two releases on October 22, 2021

Inaugural releases include a new solo album for classical guitar and oud along with the studio  debut of the quartet Square Peg with Mat Maneri, Shahzad Ismaily, and drummer Christian Lillinger

 

“Gordon Grdina Makes Music that is Important for Humanity.”

– Eyal Hareuveni, The Free Jazz Collective

“(Nomad) presents the restless spirit of jazz that refuses to be still, searching for a home and never settling down…”

– Jon Davis, EXPOSE

“The prevailing ambience is one of dark mystery, but the ruggedness of Grdina’s tone makes for a palette of rich contrast.”

– David R. Adler, JazzTimes (review of Think Like the Waves)

KLOTSKI

The prolific Vancouver-based guitarist, composer, improviser, and master oud player Gordon Grdina has long been tireless in his pursuit of new possibilities and partnerships for his expansive musical imagination. Seeking a new outlet that can keep pace with his ever-expanding roster of ongoing projects and new collaborations, Grdina has announced the launch of Attaboygirl Records. The endeavor is being undertaken in collaboration with his partner, photographer Genevieve Monro, who will curate the distinctive visual style of the label. At the outset Attaboygirl will begin strictly as an imprint for Grdina’s own efforts, though the founders have plans to eventually expand to include other artists as well.

 

Attaboygirl Records will make its official debut on October 22, 2021, with the simultaneous release of the first two entries in its catalogue. Pendulum is Grdina’s third solo album and the second composed for classical guitar and oud. Klotski, meanwhile, marks the studio debut of Gordon Grdina’s Square Peg, an exploratory quartet featuring Grdina on guitar and oud, Mat Maneri on viola, Shahzad Ismaily on bass and Moog, and Christian Lillinger on drums.

 

A third new release will follow in January 2022, with the meeting of guitar innovator Marc Ribot with Grdina’s Arabic music ensemble Haram. Grdina will also continue to record for other labels in the new year; in May 2022 the much-anticipated second outing by Grdina’s explosive Nomad Trio with pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Jim Black will be released via Astral Spirits.

 

“I seem to be putting out more music than other labels can handle,” jokes Grdina about the new effort. “The label is a project that Genevieve and I have wanted to take on for a while now. It allows us to release projects when we want and to create a cohesive visual style for these disparate releases.”

The label’s name stems from a favorite saying of Monro’s late father, serving as a personal dedication while alluding to the two partners at the helm. “It's also a positive, encouraging sentiment,” Grdina adds, “which is important when taking on something new like this.”

01 Impending Discomfort 7:22

02 Escherian 6:09

03 Bacchic Barge 7:39

04 Sulfur City 9:21

05 Kaleidoscope 5:41

06 Microbian Theory 8:07

07 Sore Spot 4:13

08 Joy Ride 4:38

Gordon Grdina  guitar / oud

Mat Maneri  viola

Shahzad Ismaily  bass / moog

Christian Lillinger  drums

PREORDER

PENDULUM

Pendulum builds upon the success of Grdina’s previous solo releases. The first, 2018’s China Cloud, featured his usual arsenal – electric guitar and oud – won a Juno Award (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy) for Instrumental Album of the Year. His Juno-nominated 2020 follow-up, Prior Street, shifted into more of a chamber-jazz concentration with pieces designed for classical guitar and oud. The new album continues in that vein, intricately exploring the harmonic possibilities of the instruments in ways that bridge their Western and Arabic origins.

Square Peg brings Grdina together with Ismaily and Maneri, both longtime members of New York’s downtown scene, and German drummer Christian Lillinger, an award winning player in the European avant- jazz and improvised music world. For Klotski, Grdina penned a number of short, modular compositions that could fit together like puzzle pieces to form a free-ranging but focused setlist. The album’s single, nearly hour-long piece moves through eight of these cellular pieces, each able to be initiated by any member of the group and bridged by captivating improvisations, vividly blurring the lines between the written and the spontaneous.

 

Grdina founded Haram in 2008 with two purposes in mind: to further evolve his work with traditional Iraqi and Arabic folk music, and to convene several of his favorite Vancouver improvisers into one large ensemble. The follow-up to the ensemble’s 2012 debut, Her Eyes Illuminate, features the addition of legendary guitar wizard Marc Ribot, whose fabled career has included influential work with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Robert Plant and John Zorn among countless others, as well as his own projects like Ceramic Dog, Los Cubanos Postizos, Spiritual Unity and the Rootless Cosmopolitans.

 

“Ribot's been a hero of mine for a long time,” Grdina says. “He added a whole lot of energy and excitement as well as a punk rock aesthetic to these pieces.”

 

Finally, next May will bring the release of Boiling Point, the second outing for Grdina’s Nomad Trio with Matt Mitchell and Jim Black, two of the most inventive and technically audacious artists in modern jazz. “I can write anything for this band,” Grdina touts. “It's very complex music, rhythmically, harmonically, melodically, and in the way every piece fits together, those guys really can do anything. Since the last album, the group has solidified its unique sound, which is exciting to hear develop on this second record.”

1 Koen Dori  8:02

2 Contra 6:52

3 The Chase  6:53

4 Benbow Blues  8:32

5 Wayward  9:22

6 Pendulum  6:02

7 Always Been The Song II 5:15

Gordon Grdina  classical guitar, oud

PREORDER

Guitarist, composer and oud master Gordon Grdina launches Attaboygirl Records with a wide-ranging trio of adventurous new albums

The label, created in partnership with his partner, photographer and visual artist Genevieve Monro, will make its debut with its first two releases on October 22, 2021

 

Inaugural releases include a new solo album for classical guitar and oud along with 

the studio debut of the quartet Square Peg with Mat Maneri, Shahzad Ismaily, and drummer Christian Lillinger

 

In early 2022, Attaboygirl will release the new album by Grdina’s Arabic music ensemble Haram with special guest Marc Ribot, while Astral Spirits will unveil the second album by the Nomad Trio with pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Jim Black

“Gordon Grdina Makes Music that is Important for Humanity.” 

— Eyal Hareuveni, The Free Jazz Collective

“(Nomad) presents the restless spirit of jazz that refuses to be still, searching for a home 

and never settling down…”

— Jon Davis, EXPOSE

“The prevailing ambience is one of dark mystery, but the ruggedness of Grdina’s tone makes for a palette of rich contrast.”

— David R. Adler, JazzTimes (review of Think Like the Waves)

The prolific Vancouver-based guitarist, composer, improviser, and master oud player Gordon Grdina has longbeen tireless in his pursuit of new possibilities and partnerships for his expansive musical imagination. Seeking a new outlet that can keep pace with his ever-expanding roster of ongoing projects and new collaborations, Grdina has announced the launch of Attaboygirl Records. The endeavor is being undertaken in collaboration with his partner, photographer Genevieve Monro, who will curate the distinctive visual style of the label. At the outset Attaboygirl will begin strictly as an imprint for Grdina’s own efforts, though the founders have plans to eventuallyexpand to include other artists as well.

 

Attaboygirl Records will make its official debut on October 22, 2021, with the simultaneous release of the first two entries in its catalogue. Pendulum is Grdina’s third solo album and the second composed for classical guitar and oud. Klotski, meanwhile, marks the studio debut of Gordon Grdina’s Square Peg, an exploratory quartet featuring Grdina on guitar and oud, Mat Maneri on viola, Shahzad Ismaily on bass and Moog, and Christian Lillinger on drums.

 

A third new release will follow in January 2022, with the meeting of guitar innovator Marc Ribot with Grdina’s Arabic music ensemble Haram. Grdina will also continue to record for other labels in the new year; in May 2022 the much anticipated second outing by Grdina’s explosive Nomad Trio with pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Jim Black will be released via Astral Spirits.

“I seem to be putting out more music than other labels can handle,” jokes Grdina about the new effort. “The labelis a project that Genevieve and I have wanted to take on for a while now. It allows us to release projects when we want and to create a cohesive visual style for these disparate releases.”

 

The label’s name stems from a favorite saying of Monro’s late father, serving as a personal dedication while alluding to the two partners at the helm. “It's also a positive, encouraging sentiment,” Grdina adds, “which is important when taking on something new like this.”

Pendulum builds upon the success of Grdina’s previous solo releases. The first, 2018’s China Cloud, featured his usual arsenal – electric guitar and oud – won a Juno Award (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy) for Instrumental Album of the Year. His Juno-nominated 2020 follow-up, Prior Street, shifted into more of a chamber-jazz concentration with pieces designed for classical guitar and oud. The new album continues in that vein, intricately exploring the harmonic possibilities of the instruments in ways that bridge their Western and Arabic origins.

 

Square Peg brings Grdina together with Ismaily and Maneri, both longtime members of New York’s downtown scene, and German drummer Christian Lillinger, an award winning player in the European avant- jazz and improvised music world. For Klotski, Grdina penned a number of short, modular compositions that could fit together like puzzle pieces to form a free-ranging but focused setlist. The album’s single, nearly hour-long piece moves through eight of these cellular pieces, each able to be initiated by any member of the group and bridged by captivating improvisations, vividly blurring the lines between the written and the spontaneous.

 

Grdina founded Haram in 2008 with two purposes in mind: to further evolve his work with traditional Iraqi and Arabic folk music, and to convene several of his favorite Vancouver improvisers into one large ensemble. The follow-up to the ensemble’s 2012 debut, Her Eyes Illuminate, features the addition of legendary guitar wizard Marc Ribot, whose fabled career has included influential work with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Robert Plant and John Zorn among countless others, as well as his own projects like Ceramic Dog, Los Cubanos Postizos, Spiritual Unity and the Rootless Cosmopolitans.

 

“Ribot's been a hero of mine for a long time,” Grdina says. “He added a whole lot of energy and excitement as well as a punk rock aesthetic to these pieces.”

 

Finally, next May will bring the release of Boiling Point, the second outing for Grdina’s Nomad Trio with Matt Mitchell and Jim Black, two of the most inventive and technically audacious artists in modern jazz. “I can write anything for this band,” Grdina touts. “It's very complex music, rhythmically, harmonically, melodically, and in the way every piece fits together, those guys really can do anything. Since the last album, the group has solidified its unique sound, which is exciting to hear develop on this second record.”

gordongrdinamusic.com

Luís Lopes Lisbon Berlin Quartet - Sinister Hypnotization (June 2021 clean feed records)

Luis Lopes’ Lisbon Berlin Quartet immediately references the residences of the contributing musicians, Lopes and Rodrigo Pinheiro from Lisbon, Robert Landfermann and Christian Lillinger from Berlin, but there’s more than this that feeds the specific urban relations of this music. To say each is a city with a past, is understatement. If Berlin will loom larger in general histories, from the nightmare of Nazism and the following decades of division, the wall and the refined horrors of the Stasi, Lisbon has a special claim on duplicity, given the half-century reign of the Salazar dictatorship, a fascist regime that preferred relationships with major Western ‘democracies’_ England, America_ which in turn found secret police, torture and oppression easily overlooked for an ally in the war against communism. It was a duplicity that once made Lisbon an espionage hub, a network of spies, lies and conspiracies as much as a city. 

Lopes’ Lisbon Berlin references all of that indirectly, but it’s a contemporary vision—forcefields and fault lines, underground and skyline, alive from road to rail to phone to rail to phone to cloud, all that data congealing in space, messages breaking up into compound futurities.

The band exercises a brilliant fury, parts mirror one another, sounds may be distinct_ there’s definitely something special about Landfermann’s upright bass, often bowed but through pedals and amp creating a hybrid monster of acoustic and electronic genes_but it’s the wild reflective possibilities of all those high-volume sounds, bouncing off studio walls at a pace in which sonic after-images present undreamed of future cities, third-world Metropolises with contemporary social problems wed to future mutations.

Pinheiro, elsewhere master of a certain contemporary classicism, here pursues his own electronic bent, a happy partner and prod to Lopes’ amplified kinetics, while Lillinger, here and elsewhere, exercises a combination of chance and precision that could make him the defining drummer of a generation.

1. Identification 03:38

2. O Andróide que Sonhava Ser Humano 08:17

3. Sinister Hypnotization 13:10

4. Werther's Memories 04:38

5. Berlin Line (Picture of Berlin in Three Movements) 07:45

Luís Lopes electric guitar

Rodrigo Pinheiro fender rhodes

Robert Landfermann double bass (with effects)

Christian Lillinger drums

Pre-order

Wollny / Parisien / Lefebvre / Lillinger - XXXX (2021 ACT Music)

 eXplore

This story begins with just one sound, originating in the place which Berlin jazz people think of as their living room, the A-Trane. Back in December 2019, the club was host to four leading figures in today’s improvised music scene, who turned this cozy space into their blank canvas, their research lab. In eight sets over four nights, piano phenomenon Michael Wollny, re-inventor of the soprano saxophone Emile Parisien, electric bass icon Tim Lefebvre, and that free spirit of the drum kit Christian Lillinger were given free rein. They had agreed beforehand, incidentally, that nothing should be composed, arranged or pre-planned.

eXpand

As a result, the music we hear doesn’t fit into any category. We’re in uncharted territory, so a good way to capture its essence might be to break it down into its four component parts. First there’s Michael Wollny, here for the very first time playing only on electronic keyboard instruments. He creates a characterful world of retro-futuristic sounds that is very much his own. We find the occasional nod to early Jean-Michel Jarre, references to science fiction and horror movies, and also vivid memories of the sounds of avant-garde Krautrock: "Can" and Irmin Schmidt and Klaus Schulze. As for Tim Lefebvre, here is a musician who has plied his very great craft with stars such as David Bowie, the Tedeschi Trucks Band, John Mayer, Knower, Steely Dan, Elvis Costello and Wayne Krantz. Here he is like a rock in a tempestuous sea. He propels the music forward with a combination of bass and effects. He builds structures and tames unruly elements. The way he lays down a groove is overwhelming. As a counterbalance we find the explosive yet highly sensitive playing of drummer Christian Lillinger. He stacks layer upon layer of rhythms and textures. And the melodic lines of Emile Parisien on soprano saxophone always have an astonishing springy inventiveness. Such is Parisien’s latent energy, it seems as if at any moment he could suddenly become airborne.

eXploit

It takes a particular kind of musician to step forward willingly into a context like this with no fall-back or safety net. Before they actually met, the four musicians had been well aware of the risks. Each of them knew how different the others’ musical vocabularies and heritages were. And there was indeed a kind of tension at the start, which took about a quarter of an hour to subside. What took its place, however, was a collective sense of raised consciousness. The players’ eager curiosity as to what the next turn, the next impulse, the next push will be is palpable to the listener. One can sense the tension between the urge to construct forms, lines, grooves, harmonies, textures, versus the illicit joy of tearing such fragile structures apart before they have even been heard. There are beats and patterns from the 90s, 80s and 70s, all coalescing into cinematic bacchanalia of sound. These four master improvisers and composers all have the urge to rewrite the rules of their musical world – and to do so in real time.

eXterminate

And the story continues. The live sets by the musicians and their equipment produce a wealth of juxtapositions, fascinating collages of instrumental sounds. And in total, the recordings from the A-Trane result in at least eight hours of music. A decision is taken to distil these recordings into just one album that will be more than simply a document of the series of live concerts. Tim Lefebvre has the spark of an idea, and in February 2020, he and Michael Wollny meet producer and sound engineer Jason Kingsland in Atlanta. Kingsland has a background not just of working with renowned indie rock and pop artists, but also a passion for experimentation and improvisation. So the task becomes one of capturing the intoxication and the euphoria of these four Berlin nights, and also to take the abundance of possibilities and whittle them down to a cohesive album. Gradually, over several days and nights, the material is reduced, and a distillate consisting of ten surprisingly succinct tracks emerges. But here’s the paradox: this is a live recording which also sounds like a studio album… and yet every note in it was improvised at the club. What emerges here is an album full of joy, emotion, humour and an almost childlike, naïve pleasure in "playing". And it also presents a new trans-Atlantic group which is absolutely “sui generis” – a quartet which is one of its kind in the world right now.

1. Somewhere Around Barstow (Michael Wollny / Emile Parisien / Tim Lefebvre / Christian Lillinger) 04:14

2. Dick Laurent Is Dead (Michael Wollny / Emile Parisien / Tim Lefebvre / Christian Lillinger) 04:47

3. Too Bright in Here (Michael Wollny / Emile Parisien / Tim Lefebvre / Christian Lillinger) 05:33

4. Grandmother’s Hammer (Michael Wollny / Emile Parisien / Tim Lefebvre / Christian Lillinger) 01:59

5. The Haul (Michael Wollny / Emile Parisien / Tim Lefebvre / Christian Lillinger) 05:03

6. Find the Fish (Michael Wollny / Emile Parisien / Tim Lefebvre / Christian Lillinger) 03:05

7. Doppler FX (Michael Wollny / Emile Parisien / Tim Lefebvre / Christian Lillinger) 03:59

8. Michael vs. Michael (Michael Wollny / Emile Parisien / Tim Lefebvre / Christian Lillinger) 06:50

9. Nörvenich Lounge (Michael Wollny / Emile Parisien / Tim Lefebvre / Christian Lillinger) 03:47

10. Nostalgia for the Light (Michael Wollny) 05:22

Michael Wollny / synthesizer, rhodes & piano

Emile Parisien / soprano saxophone

Tim Lefebvre / electric bass & electronics

Christian Lillinger / drums & percussion

All music improvised by Michael Wollny, Emile Parisien, Tim Lefebvre & Christian Lillinger, except “Nostalgia for the Light” written & arranged by Michael Wollny; “Doppler FX” includes a sample of The Norwegian Wind Ensemble: “Rules of Behaviour Part II” directed by Geir Lysne & Michael Wollny

Recorded by Gleb Zagrebin live at A-Trane, Berlin, December 2019

Mastered by Zino Mikorey, Berlin

Produced and mixed by Jason Kingsland, Michael Wollny & Tim Lefebvre at Martin’s Garden, Roswell, Georgia, February 2020

Executive Producer: Andreas Brandis

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AMOK AMOR (Peter Evans / Christian Lillinger / Petter Eldh / Wanja Slavin) March 2021 Boomslang Records

The provocative band name „Amok Amor“, sounds truly promising, considering the members of this German- American- Swedish formation can certainly not be viewed as a tender loving group. They ride a merciless attack and leave the listener after thirty-six eventful minutes totally exhausted and yet extremely happy behind. Three members of the quartet are well experienced as an already existing trio.

They live in Berlin and have for many years been supporting the city’s jazz life in numerous constellations and with decisive impulses. Wanja Slavin (33) the alto saxophone player and ECHO Jazz Award winner, Swedish bass player Petter Eldh (since 2009 active in Berlin) plus Germany’s most agile and unpredictable drummer, Christian Lillinger (31) recorded with “Starlight” an already rousing album, released under the Suisse label Unit Records.

Ulrich Steinmetzger’s evaluation of this production in the magazine „Jazz Thing: „This CD is a perfect example for the vitality of a never ending young metropolitan jazz scene, constantly moving forward while escaping the experimental hermetic towards integrating various elements deriving from the participant’s musical and other social essences and bringing all of this together in a relaxed and well considered combination“.

This trio, praised by the above mentioned hymn has now engaged in a mutual operation with an excellent and versatile trumpet player, the American Peter Evans (34) who is among other famous for being a long lasting member of the group „Mostly Other People Do The Killing“ (he has meanwhile left the group).

In a quartet, the two Germans, the Swede and the man from the United States developed an enormous spin on their album „Amok Amor“, a contagious and outraging energy and a breathtaking power. Somehow they have internalized the spirit of the wild sixties and yet their music is incorporated in the here and now. It is music drawn out of common categories.

Rhythm is prolonged here and accelerated plus artistically maneuvered and unconventionally accentuated until the bar lines tremble. Barely signalized melody shreds are added while wild and fast themes often tightly embrace the brass players. Incomparable and ludicrous tempi are added by Petter Eldh, Christian Lillinger, Wanja Slavin and Peter Evans in distinct compact pieces with such beautiful titles like „Manipulating II“, „Sons of Angels“, Born As A Socialist“ or „Axis Of The Good“ and which are without any garrulousness despite the immense information tightness.

This over active and yet controlled amok run is not killing – it is reviving! The „Amok Amor” – listeners will moreover question where these four members drew their strength, their motivation, their naturalness, their chuzpe and their incentive.

1. Manipulieren II 03:46

2. Amor 01:27

3. Sons of Engels - Marx 05:41

4. The Resistance 04:54

5. Rowk 05:39

6. Als Sozialist geboren 03:37

7. Mani 3 - Achse des Guten 07:20

8. Amok 04:01

AMOK AMOR are:

Petter Eldh, bass

Christian Lillinger, drums

Wanja Slavin, sax

Peter Evans, trumpet

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PUNKT.VRT.PLASTIK Kaja Draklser / Petter Eldh / Christian Lillinger - Somit (March 19, 2021 Intakt Records)

Following their acclaimed 2018 debut album, the band Punkt.Vrt.Plastik, which brings together Kaja Draksler, Petter Eldh and Christian Lillinger, three of the most exciting, profound and versatile musicians on the European jazz scene, presents another stroke of genius. With Somit they take their urgent ensemble playing to new heights, creating a highly individual sound aesthetic with unusual instrumentation (Kaja Draksler plays two different upright pianos) and sophisticated post-production, culminating in a deceptive puzzle of acoustic and manipulated sounds.

"Punkt.Vrt.Plastik have an amazing sound and a unique vision," writes Alexander Hawkins in the liner notes.

1. Helix GA

2. If Asked

3. Membran

4. Natt Raum

5. Amnion

6. Morgon Morfin

7. Fraustadt

8. Somit 

9. Axon

10. Enbert Amok

11. Trboje

12. Ribosome

13. Vrvica

Kaja Draksler: Piano

Petter Eldh: Bass

Christian Lillinger: Drums

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Kaja Draksler / Petter Eldh / Christian Lillinger - Punk.Vrt.Plastik (INTAKT RECORDS November 2018)

Kaja Draksler, Petter Eldh and Christian Lillinger are among the most thrilling, deep, and versatile figures to emerge in Europe over the last decade and the music of the trio is nothing less than a hybrid of personalities largely unimaginable if one examined the work of the players outside of this configuration. They knew they had something special right away.

Lillinger and Eldh have been working together for much of the last decade, forming an implacable bond within the wildly agile quartet Amok Amor with trumpeter Peter Evans and saxophonist Wanja Slavin. "We've really found a way to morph and stretch forms and groove, and I feel there's a very strong core between us," says the drummer.

"And Kaja is able to avoid that and deal with it at the same, which means she is able to shape or color things in her own way."

"Some of the pieces are complex and demand accuracy, but on the other hand, none of us are very precious about it," explains Draksler. "So there is inherent freedom … the music and the energy is much more important than correct notes, yet we want to get it right. And there is trust." 

Peter Margasak, Liner notes

Kaja Draksler: Piano

Petter Eldh: Bass

Christian Lillinger: Drums

1. Nuremberg Amok (Lillinger) 4:02

2. Evicted (Draksler) 8:01

3. Punkt Torso (Eldh) 3:59

4. Azan (Lillinger) 5:00

5. Veins (Lillinger) 4:08

6. Body Decline (Eldh) 4:48

7. Plastic (Lillinger) 4:04

8. Momentan (Lillinger) 3:30

9. Life is Transient (Eldh) 4:22

Recorded February 26, 2018, at Loft Cologne by

Christian Heck. Mixed by Martin Waschkowitsch,

Berlin. Mastered by Zino Mikorey, Berlin.

Liner notes: Peter Margasak.

Cover art photo: Edith Ringer. Photo: Ziga Koritnik.

Graphic design: Jonas Schoder. Produced and published

by Intakt Records.

KUU! - Lampedusa Lullaby (ACT MUSIC 2018)

The music on "Lampedusa Lullaby" packs an incredible power. It disturbs, connects, it has a way of getting through to the feet, the head and the soul – and all the same time. KUU! is a band of superlatives. It is an outstanding representation of new European jazz at its most innovative, but also shows on “Lampedusa Lullaby” with razor-sharp precision a way that rock music can function in 2018.

Jelena Kuljić / vocals

Kalle Kalima / guitar

Frank Möbus / guitar

Christian Lillinger / drums

1 Impossible ( Kalle Kalima) 03:54

2 Lampedusa Lullaby ( Kalle Kalima / Essi Kalima) 05:43

3 Scream ( Kalima, Möbus & Lillinger / Kuljic) 04:32

4 On The Mountain ( Kalle Kalima) 04:06

5 Crossing Border In A Milk Truck ( Kalima, Möbus & Lillinger / Kuljic) 07:51

6 About Death ( Kalle Kalima) 03:08

7 My Eyes Are Blind ( Kalle Kalima / Jelena Kuljic) 06:48

8 Thank You Iceland ( Kalima, Möbus & Lillinger / Kuljic) 04:13

9 We Watch Them Fall ( Kalle Kalima) 05:46

Recorded by Zodiaque in Berlin, 2016-2017

Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Produced by the artists

Cover Art: Eri Rama © 2016 “untitled” / Documenta Kassel 2017

courtesy of Galerie Michael Schulz, Berlin

Amok Amor - We know not what we do (INTAKT RECORDS 2017)

You are gonna love this quartet", writes American journalist Kevin Whitehead. "This quartet was preceded by the Starlight trio of the Berlin players Christian Lillinger, Petter Eldh and Wanja Slavin, but Peter Evans is obviously a full partner in a new band. He brought some prime material, and shows uncanny range. His improvising is airy and abstract, tuneful, and tinged with the blues. His lines and Slavin's can be disarmingly lovely; the blend is bright and fizzy. 

The rhythm section is earth to their air: the nutty precision of abstract beat music echoes in Eldh's eloquent stutters and way of covering highs and lows in a single line, and in Lillinger's clarity at high speed; his sticks on snare can sound like dried peas poured on a metal sheet, every stroke distinct.

Yeah, they're all great, but this music is about how they come together, showing creative tradition some crazy love: amour run amok. Kevin Whitehead, Liner notes

1. Pulsar (Peter Evans) 8:31

2. Body Decline (Petter Eldh) 5:05

3. Brandy (Petter Eldh) 6:02

4. Alan Shorter (Peter Evans) 4:54

5. Trio Amok (Christian Lillinger) 4:05

6. Enbert Amok (Christian Lillinger) 5:18

7. The New Portal (Peter Evans) 6:26

8. Jazzfriendship (Wanja Slavin) 2:28

9. A Run Through the Neoliberalism (Christian Lillinger) 4:03

Christian Lillinger: Drums

Petter Eldh: Bass

Wanja Slavin: Saxophone

Peter Evans: Trumpet

Recorded in May 2016 by Marco Birkner at Studio H2 in Berlin, Germany. Mixed in February 2017 by Marck Fuck. 

Mastered in February 2017 by Klaus Scheuermann. 

Liner notes: Kevin Whitehead. Photo of cover art: László Moholy-Nagy. 

Graphic design: Jonas Schoder. Photo: Lukas Haemmerle. Executive producer: Anja Illmaier.

Produced by Amok Amor and Intakt Records, Patrik Landolt. Published by Intakt Records.