Dave Rempis / Elisabeth Harnik / Michael Zerang - Astragaloi (March 2022 Catalytic-Sound)

 

This trio didn’t know how lucky they had it. They were certainly happy to perform again when this concert was recorded at the ArtActs Festival in St Johan Austria in early March 2020. Although their first outing was back in 2013 in Harnik’s hometown of Graz - a live concert broadcast through the Austrian National Radio/ORF, the band has had a sporadic performance history. So the opportunity to reunite for this festival performance was already special. Little did they know what lay ahead though, with a pandemic that was actually breaking out right around them in the Alpine ski areas of Tirol, Austria, an epicenter that would soon be tied to COVID’s spread around Europe by international vacationers. This opening night of ArtActs ‘20 would be one of those last care-free times, when one could sit until the wee hours at the bar with friends, celebrating a night of music- making with laughter and cheer, and with no concern for a shared breath.

Thankfully, these three took advantage of the opportunity to produce a stellar document of their performance. Astragaloi is the third release by this trio formation, after the digital-only Wistfully which came out in 2016 on Aerophonic, and 2020’s Triple Tube issued on cd by Not Two. While some of those records have flown under the radar because of the trio’s sparse performance schedule, that doesn’t diminish the musical simpatico that these three have enjoyed for years. Ever since Harnik’s introduction to the Chicago scene at the 2008 Umbrella Music Festival when she was a featured visiting artist, she’s actively maintained the relationships she built there, including with Rempis and Zerang. Aside from their work as a trio, all three have worked together in duo contexts since that first meeting.

On Astragaloi, it may be Harnik’s wide-ranging abilities that tie things together in such an astounding way. At one moment her preparations inside the piano turn the instrument into a quietly percussive zither, while at another her full- throated insistence at the keyboard draws out the resonance of a full orchestra. Skittering, plucking, pounding, caressing. And while she has the sheer energy to keep up with Rempis’ firebreathing tendencies, she also knows how to rein him in to quieter, more abstract spaces that explore breathy nuance and pinpoint texture. Zerang meanwhile displays the singular approach that he’s developed on the drum kit, rooted in his Middle Eastern upbringing and the significant abilities as a hand percussionist that he developed early on. That approach frees him as an improviser from so many of the tropes common to “drummers,” as he pushes the instrument beyond groove to focus on color, density, articulation, dynamics, and drive, in a way that creates an uncommon unity within the group. There are no specialized duties here, all three of these improvisers roll up their sleeves to keep the narrative momentum moving forward using every tool at their disposal.

Astragaloi is a joint release between Aerophonic and Idyllic Noise in Austria, which releases the same material on vinyl later this spring!! 

1. Milkvetch 09:55

2. Macateta 05:07

3. Locoweed 04:16

4. Lafo Litupa 14:44

5. Goats-thorn 07:39

Recorded at ArtActs Festival in Sankt Johan in Tirol, Austria, March 6th, 2020

Dave Rempis – alto/tenor saxophone

Elisabeth Harnik – piano

Michael Zerang – drums/percussion

Recorded and mixed by Markus Massinger

Mastered by Dave Zuchowski

Design by Make Amazing

Produced by Dave Rempis

PRE-ORDER

Andrea Centazzo / Elisabeth Harnik - TWIN PEAKS (November 2021 ICTUS Records)

We like here to quote part of what the magnificent musician and great friend Steve Swell wrote about our duo just few months ago:

“...The improvisations on this recording radiate with life and provide an expansive look into the deeper reaches of our minds. Each one completely engaged me, spurring my imagination in so many ways, taking me to new places that created landscapes with some vivid and unusual scenery. It was a fun listen by two master improvisers and the perfect antidote to another day in the confines of the Corona-Virus Blues. The power of improvisation. Its where it’s at my friends....

There’s an ancient-future that reveals itself constantly here. A modernity that grows and blooms from the rich soil of the recent, flowering into the next, to assure the winning of a hard scrabble evolution into humanness…”

Steve Swell, New York City

1. TWIN PEAKS #1 04:59

2. TWIN PEAKS #2 05:11

3. TWIN PEAKS #3 12:29

4. TWIN PEAKS #4 04:34

5. TWIN PEAKS #5 08:57

6. TWIN PEAKS #6 03:19

Andrea Centazzo Percussion, Mallet Kat, Sampling

Elisabeth Harnik Piano, Objects

Recorded live in concert by Raimund Spoeck at Villa For Forest, Klagenfurt, Austria on December 13th 2019

Edited, mixed and produced by Andrea Centazzo at ICTUS Studio, Long Beach, California November 2021

Concert organized by Raimund Spoeck for Verein Innenhofkultur, Klagenfurt

Cover art by AC

PREORDER

Elisabeth Harnik & Michael Zerang - Dream Disobedience (March 2021 Catalytic Sound)

"Austrian pianist Elisabeth Harnik seems to thrive in duo settings. Michael Zerang, a Chicago-based drummer, is with her on Dream Disobedience, a live recording made at Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2019. The conversation, unabated for 35 minutes, is rather subdued, Harnik usually initiating each new topic, alternating traditional approaches with more unusual in-the-box techniques while Zerang eschews straight timekeeping for a more reactive role, adding the musical equivalents of ‘Hmm!’ or ‘Uh huh!’ and other encouragements to keep things flowing. The episodic narrative progresses through short lulls followed by bursts of energy, as if small squalls were blowing through, a grand tempest arriving near the end, one final cloudburst before irenic frog croaks and bird songs return, the pond at peace." - Tom Greenland and The New York City Jazz Record (March 2021)

1. Dream Disobedience (suite)

Elisabeth Harnik – piano

Michael Zerang – drums

Recorded live in concert by Iztok Zupan at Španski Borci, Ljubljana, Slovenia on March 23rd 2019

Pre-order

Elisabeth Harnik & Joëlle Léandre – Tender Music (TROST RECORDS 2018)

That’s another one great avant-garde jazz album, which was recorded by a duo – Elisabeth Harnik (piano) and Joelle Leandre (bass). These two avant-garde jazz musicians are famous and active members of contemporary avant-garde jazz scene. Both of them have interesting, specific and unique playing style, which is based on colorful musical language, expressive and sudden stylistic turns and huge amount of different musical expressions. Elisabeth Harnik and Joelle Leandre are experienced and creative improvisers – both of them had improvised together with many other famous jazz masters. Avant-garde jazz, bebop, post-bop, hard-bop, experimental music, soft intonations of academic avant-garde and contemporary academical music – all these elements are gently synthesized together in one place.

Creative and fascinating sound experiments, impressive and original musical decisions, rich, evocative and expressive musical language, vivacious, energetic and free improvisations, filled with spontaneous and rapid solos – all these elements are the basics of their improvisations. This album is a great opportunity to hear two outstanding jazz masters playing together.

“Tender Music” has evocative, innovative and interesting sound. The improvisations are always changing, they are based on many different styles, manners, expressions and the opposite episodes, which are highly contrasting with each other. Both musicians are improvising masterfully and splendidly – they fuse together colorful and sudden stylistic twists, expressive and spontaneous solos, rapid and acitve collective improvisations, subtle and abstract pieces, turbulent and dramatic culminations and many other elements. Elisabeth Harnik piano improvisations are based on contrasts and unusual musical decisions. Different moods, expressions, characters and other elements of musical language are connected in her improvisations. Piano improvisations are especially expressive, free, spontaneous, creative and vivacious.

Rapid, wild fast and furious solos, harsh and loud separate dissonances, virtuosic and rapid passages, passionate and touching solos, vivacious and playful or very rigorous and sharp episodes – Elisabeth Harnik really knows how to connect all these contrasting music elements in effective and passionate way. Her playing is always balancing between various playing techniques, specific manners and expressions. Rapid, sharp and dynamic solos, which are based on bebop and hard-bop finally grow to dramatic, loud, powerful and vibrant collective improvisations with spontaneeous, expressive and emotional solos.

Her music is balancing somewhere between expressive, playful, joyful and energetic improvisations and abstract, subtle and silent improvisations. Joelle Leandre bass improvisations also is the set of experimental playing techniques, various moods, emotions and chords, special effects, unusual timbres, strange sounds and evocative musical decisions. She can silmunateously use various and experimental ways of playing – huge range of experimental and extraordinary playing techniques are gently connected together with pizzicatto, glissando, portato and many others traditional and very well-known ways of playing. Her playing also is very colorful and contrasting – from the silent, meditative, nostalgic and soft sound this music suddenly gets to dramatic, rapid, vibrant, deep and dynamic solos. Passionate and expressive melodies are conected together dynamic rhythmic and harmony. Rich, colorful and impressive improvising, passionate solos, masterful and creative jazz masters, evocative musical language – all these elements make an effort to interesting and innovative sound.

Elisabeth Harnik - piano

Joëlle Léandre - bass

Mastered - Jean Marc Foussat

Artwork - Lasse Marhaug

Linernotes - Ken Vandermark

1 Ear Area I

2 Ear Area II

3 Ear Area I

4 Ear Area IV

5 Ear Area V

6 Ear Area VI

Dave Rempis / Elisabeth Harnik / Michael Zerang - Wistfully (2016) AEROPHONIC RECORDS

PRESENT

Dave Rempis / Elisabeth Harnik / Michael Zerang - Wistfully (2016)

This live trio recording was made in the late fall of 2013, and features a first-time grouping of improvisers that had never performed as a unit before, despite their interweaving musical paths. Pianist Harnik first came into contact with her Chicago counterparts at the 2008 Umbrella Music Festival, when both audiences and musicians in the city became immediately enamored with her unique and wide-ranging approach to her instrument based on her Chicago Cultural Center performance. In the years after, she began ongoing collaborations with Rempis and Zerang, performing separately with them in both the U.S. and Europe. 

In the fall of 2013, Rempis and Zerang had just finished a week in Krakow, Poland, working with Ken Vandermark’s Resonance Ensemble. They continued on to perform as a duo at concerts in Warsaw and Vienna, before meeting Harnik in her hometown of Graz, Austria to explore this first-time trio grouping at a well-known concert venue called WIST. Happily, Austrian National Radio (ORF) got wind of the occasion, and decided to make a recording for live broadcast, a document presented here. 

While fans of the music might imagine that all three of these strong voices contribute equally to the proceedings, they wouldn’t be incorrect. However it’s Harnik’s jaw-dropping ability to reconfigure the entire sound of her piano from one piece to the next that shapes each of these six improvisations into individual alien landscapes all their own. Deploying an incredible range of timbres from full-throated, lush chords, to the clanging, metallic tones of an Indonesian gamelan, Harnik deftly manipulates her instrument to paint the backgrounds on which Rempis and Zerang then build.

01. Wistful 1 09:23

02. Wistful 2 12:34

03. Wistful 3 10:29

04. Wistful 4 06:12

05. Wistful 5 07:59

06. Wistful 6 06:00

Dave Rempis – alto/tenor saxophone 

Elisabeth Harnik – piano 

Michael Zerang – percussion 

All compositions by Rempis/Harnik/Zerang 

Recorded live at WIST in Graz, Austria, November 29th, 2013 

by Norbert Stadlhofer and Franz Josef Kerstinger. Originally used for live broadcast on Austrian National Radio (ORF) 

Mastered by Dave Zuchowski 

Design by Johnathan Crawford 

Produced by Dave Rempis 

Special thanks to the staff and crew of ORF, and to Ludwig Sik.

Released January 12, 2016

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