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Gisler, Fabin / John Schroder / Colin Vallon / Henrik Walsdorf: Backyard Poets (Hatology)


 

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product information:

Personnel:



Fabin Gisler-doublebass

John Schroder-drums

Colin Vallon-piano

Henrik Walsdorff-alto, tenor saxophones


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UPC: 752156064527

Label: Hatology
Catalog ID: Hatology645
Squidco Product Code: 8184

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2007
Country: Switzerland
Packaging: Cardstock foldover
Tracks 1 - 7 recorded October 1, 2, 2005 at Radio studio 2, DRS, Zürich by Deaniel Dettwiler, tracks 8 - 10 recorded live June 25, 2005 at the "Bird's Eye Jazz Club" Basel, by Cornelius Bohn.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Though he's played with some prime-time bandleaders-including pianists Bill Carrothers and Mark Soskin, saxophonist Gary Smulyan and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel-Swiss bassist Fabian Gisler is a new name to me. Backyard Poets is his debut album as leader, and it's a pleasure to make his acquaintance, and those too of his colleagues Henrik Walsdorff, saxophones, Colin Vallon, bass, and John Schroder, drums.

Without any prior knowledge of the musicians, and with no clues provided by the studiously Absurdist liner notes written by critic Tom Gsteiger, the band photo on the inside cover of Backyard Poets suggests a quartet of wild-eyed and tousled late-twenty somethings who would relish strangling Diderot's proverbial last king with the entrails of the last priest.

Maybe they would, but the music suggests otherwise. Though it has its moments of tumult, particularly on the final three tunes (recorded live a few months prior to the rest of the album), the predominant vibe on Backyard Poets is gentle, elliptical, understated and pretty. Six of the tracks are group improvisations, and four are based on themes composed individually by Vallon, Gisler and Walsdorff, but there's no clear demarcation between them.

Balladic group improvisations make up the first seven tracks of the album, with Vallon's "Sans Un Mot" containing the only pre-composed theme. The group is fleet-footed, softly spoken and close-miked. Walsdorff favors the treble register on both saxophones, with a Lee Konitz-like purity of sound and a preference for sustained tones which float like little cotton wool clouds over the piano, bass and drums. Vallon spends as much time inside the piano as he does at the keyboard, variously plucking, stroking, scratching and dampening the strings. Schroder spends most of his time on brushes rather than sticks, his nimble snare drum flurries as impressionistic as the saxophone and piano. Gisler himself mostly elects to fulfill a traditional bass role, supporting and interacting with the other players rather than hogging the limelight, and he approaches the bass as a melody instrument as much as an engine of propulsion. [...]"-Chris May, All About Jazz


Get additional information at All About Jazz

Artist Biographies

"Henrik Walsdorff (* February 8, 1965 in Braunschweig) is a German jazz saxophonist.

Walsdorff, who has been living in Berlin since 1994, studied saxophone at Herb Geller. He played in the bands of Aki Takase, Marty Cook and Sven-Åke Johansson. In addition to John Schröder and Colin Vallon, he is a member of the Fabian Gisler Quartet. With Martin High de Prime, Kay Lübke and Jan Roder, he is the group The Real Latinos, with John Schröder and Uli Jenneßen the group Freedom of Speech and with Rudi Mahall, Jan Roder and Oliver Steidle the SoKo Steidle. He is also a member of the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Alexander von Schlippenbach, with whom he also directs a quartet.

In 1994, Walsdorf founded the group LAX with John Schröder, Gerold Genßler and Uli Jenneßen, whose album Time was created in 60 Seconds 2002. In the field of pop music he worked with the groups Seeed and We are heroes together."

-Wikipedia (Translated by Google) (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrik_Walsdorff)
10/2/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Poetry From Neverland A 2:08

2. Poetry From Neverland B 2:15

3. The Inner Storm 5:48

4. Sham King 1:34

5. Sans Un Mot 6:32

6. Fields Of Darkness 6:41

7. A New Life 3:44

8. Starsky's Delight 8:57

9. Freedom Speech 6:07

10. Neues Stuck 6:09

Related Categories of Interest:

Hat Art
Improvised Music
Jazz
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
June 2007
Quartet Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Hatology.


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