Julia Brüssel / Frank Gratkowski / Lothar Ohlmeier / Wolfgang Seidel - TOC (2021 Umland Records)

The Cologne-born (free) jazz violinist Julia Brüssel (The Dorf, Umland Collective, h i l d e) and Berlin avant-garde drummer and electronics musician Wolfgang Seidel (founding member of "Ton Steine Scherben") met in 2020. Since then, they have experimented a lot and played together in many different casts with musicians from the Berlin free jazz and real-time music scene.

They recorded several sessions of improvised music with the two wind instrumentalists Frank Gratkowski and Lothar Ohlmeier.

The CD "TOC" tells a trippy story of electronically and acoustically fused fantasies, created in various trio sessions with Frank and Lothar in 2020.

1. To come to 04:30

2. Tocotrienole 04:20

3. Toco Loco 04:24

4. Toccata 03:17

5. Atocha 03:10

6. High Toc 04:04

7. Anthrocyane 03:12

8. Slow Toc 04:44

9. Kottbusser Toc 04:43

10. Toctally 02:20

11. Tocalote 03:58

12. Toctophon 03:11

Julia Brüssel (vl) (Track 1-12)

Wolfgang Seidel (dr, perc, syn, org, el) (Track 1-12)

Lothar Ohlmeier (bcl) (Track 1-3,10-12)

Frank Gratkowski (sax, fl) (Track 4-9)

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Philippe Lemoine / Ulf Mengersen / Wolfgang Seidel - II (Berlin 2017) 2018

1. II 25:50

PHILIPPE LEMOINE - TENOR SAXOPHONE

ULF MENGERSEN - DOUBLE BASS

WOLFGANG SEIDEL - DRUMS AND PERCUSSIONS

Philippe Lemoine / Ulf Mengersen / Wolfgang Seidel - I (Berlin 2017) 2018

Philippe Lemoine, born 1970, is a french tenor saxophone player, based in Berlin (Germany) and Marseille (France). He is active in Contemporary Jazz and Improvised Music since the early 90’s.

He is exploring the expressive capacities of his saxophone, developing his own languages, with a wide vocabulary of dynamics, pitches, densities and speeds, pushing the acoustic limits of the instrument.

In abstract improvisation contexts (Ensembles Squid Lux, Via Lucis  Trio, Le Grand 8, duos with Simon Rose -baritone saxophone-, with Yorgos Dimitriadis -Drums-, with Wolfgang Seidel -synthesizers-, with avec Klaus Kürvers -doublebasse-), he use the saxophone as a generator of frequencies, a mechanism made of wood and metal to play with air and water, in a sound universe close to the  electro-acoustic music.

In Contemporary Jazz contexts (Quartets -ION, Philadelphie), he uses his mastery of saxophone’s sound and his proactive force to serve the sound of the ensemble. His fresh, winding and atonal phrasing, browses an almost four octaves range, included extended techniques like multiphonics, circular breathing, and voice/sound mixing.

With the program " Mélodramatic French Songs" by the trio "Le Maigre feu de La nonne en Hiver", Philippe Lemoine plays like a singer, phrasing with care in order to stand as close as possible to a human voice singing words, looking for the exact intention of each note.

As a soloist, Philippe Lemoine uses all those aspects of his strong personality, in a expressive, generous and challenging narrrative.

He was the leader of septet ‘Kassalit,’ which was awarded ‘best band’ and ‘best composition’ at La Défense Jazz Contest in 1997. From 2002 to 2005 he performed and toured internationally with the Orchestre National de Jazz under the direction of Claude Barthelemy. Playing a role in the underground arts scene in Europe, Lemoine has also been involved with numerous other collectives and collaborative bands in his home country, such as Circum Grand Orchestra, in Lille or “à plusieurs” in Argenteuil, and leaded and composed for his own quartet «Le Talent de La Colère».

1. I 01:02:10

PHILIPPE LEMOINE - TENOR SAXOPHONE

ULF MENGERSEN - DOUBLE BASS

WOLFGANG SEIDEL - DRUMS AND PERCUSSIONS