The Berlin-based trio of free improvising vocalist Almut Kuhne, pianist Achim Kaufmann and reedist Gebhard Ullmann for ten originals, on-the-edge, informed improvisation of great skill and melodic invention, taking their music into uncharted and unconventional territory.
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Almut Kuhne-voice
Gebhard Ullmann-tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
Achim Kaufmann-piano
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UPC: 5024792072620
Label: Leo Records
Catalog ID: LEOR726.2
Squidco Product Code: 22002
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2016
Country: UK
Packaging: Jewel Case
Recorded at RBB Studios, in Berlin, Germany, on July 2nd, 2013, by Nikolaus Lowe.
"You won't find the word "marbrakeys" in the dictionary. It is a sound invention of a young brilliant vocalist Almut Kuhne who is at the beginning of her exciting career. She is not intimidated to perform with two major European improvising artists: Achim Kaufmann on piano and Gebhard Ullmann on tenor saxophone and bass clarinet. There is nothing she cannot do with her voice which covers a huge range of sounds from the highest to the lowest. You would do well to remember the name -a major vocal force has arrived on the scene."-Leo
"The ever-productive reed musician Gebhard Ullmann has dropped his third and fourth releases for 2016 at the same time. Geode boasts 12 new improvisations performed by Ullmann on tenor saxophone and bass clarinet and Achim Kaufmann on piano and Marbrakeys adds vocalist Almut Kühne to the same lineup for 10 jointly-composed tracks.
Geode was recorded in a chamber music hall in Berlin and it finds Ullmann and Kaufmann playing off one another wonderfully. Kaufmann consistently blurs the line between jazz and classical music, as he does on "Eulenblind", and Ullmann keeps stretching the sounds of his instruments to their breaking points, as on "Fault-lines" and "Fleckgeist". Almut Kühne, for her part, doesn't seem to be performing off of Ullmann or Kaufmann for much of Marbrakeys. Instead, she seems content puncturing the air with as many histrionic distractions as she wishes, no matter what the other two musicians are up to. It can make for agitated listening, one in which, Geode, for all its atonal risks and loose structure, becomes an unlikely antidote."-John Garratt, Pop Matters
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Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Gebhard Ullmann "Born on November 2, 1957 in Bad Godesberg, Germany saxophonist (tenor and soprano), bass clarinetist, bass flutist and composer Gebhard Ullmann studied medecine and music in Hamburg and moved to Berlin in 1983.Since then he has recorded more than 50 CDs as a leader or co-leader for prestigious labels such as Soul Note (Italy), Leo Records (UK), Between The Lines (Germany), CIMP (USA), NotTwo Records (Poland), Clean Feed (Portugal) Unit Records (Switzerland) and others. For many years he is considered one of the leading personalities in both the Berlin and international music scenes and has received numerous awards for his work including the Julius Hemphill Composition Award in two categories ('99), the Deutsche Phonoakademie award ('83), one of the first SWF Jazz Awards ('87) and the nomination best-jazz-CD-of-the-year by the German Schallplattenkritik for his CD Tá Lam in 1995. His CDs Final Answer (2002) The Bigband Project (2004) New Basement Research (2008) News? No News! (2010) Mingus! (2011) Clarinet Trio 4 (2012) were all listed in Downbeat Magazine among the best CDs of those years. The CD Transatlantic received the prestigious Choc of the French Jazz Magazine in 2012. Since 2005 Gebhard Ullmann is listed in the Downbeat Critics Poll, 2015 for the first time in three categories. Since 1993 Ullmann was a recording artist for Soul Note and has been living in New York City and Berlin. He has toured with his music throughout Europe as well as Africa, the Middle East, Canada, New Zealand, the USA, South East Asia, Mexico and China and performed on most of the world's most prestigious jazz festivals." ^ Hide Bio for Gebhard Ullmann • Show Bio for Achim Kaufmann "Achim Kaufmann was born into a musical family in Aachen, Germany, in 1962, and became fascinated by jazz and the possibilities of improvisation as a teenager. He started writing tunes around that time. Later he studied music at the Conservatory in Cologne and also took classes with creative masters such as Dave Holland, Steve Coleman, Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis, and Steve Lacy. From 1996 to 2009, he lived in Amsterdam where he became part of that city's internationally renowned improvised music scene.Since 2002, he has been touring internationally with the trio Kaufmann/Gratkowski/de Joode, an improvising unit which has released four CDs so far, to much critical acclaim. In the late '90s and '00s, Achim led two groups with reed player Michael Moore: trio kamosc and gueuledeloup quartet.In 2007, he recorded kyrill, a set of compositions for piano trio featuring Valdi Kolli and Jim Black. Their follow-up cd, entitled verivyr, was released in 2011. He has also collaborated with his wife, poet/painter Gabriele Guenther, on the audiodrama Borderline - From the Shadows of a Journey, and has written music for various chamber ensembles.In his solo work, mixed techniques are used to create a fluctuating world of sounds and gestures. Resonance and reverberation, space and density play an important role in both his solo and ensemble work. Since his move to Berlin, he got involved in various new projects, such as the trio grünen with Robert Landfermann and Christian Lillinger, Oni Kramler (with Matthias Schubert, Antonio Borghini, and various guests), and a trio with cellist Okkyung Lee and trumpeter Axel Dörner. In 2013, the sextet SKEIN (Kaufmann/Gratkowski/de Joode plus Richard Barrett, Okkyung Lee, and Tony Buck) had its premiere at the dOeK festival in Amsterdam and subsequently recorded for SWR radio. He recently released duo albums with long-standing collaborators Michael Moore and Thomas Heberer. In addition, Achim has played and/or recorded with Han Bennink, Mark Dresser, George Lewis, Steve Swallow, Tobias Delius, Wolter Wierbos, Mark Helias, Paul Rutherford, Thomas Lehn, Ab Baars, Paul Lovens, Dylan van der Schyff, Peggy Lee, Chris Speed, Tomász Stanko, Gerd Dudek, Bill Elgart, Paul Lytton, Harri Sjöström, Andrea Parkins, Harris Eisenstadt, Ingrid Laubrock, Tristan Honsinger, Shelley Hirsch, Steve Swell, Thomas Heberer, Urs Leimgruber, Roger Turner, Fay Victor, Fred Lonberg-Holm, John Hollenbeck, Bob Brookmeyer, Simon Nabatov, Lê Quan Ninh, Gerry Hemingway, John Hébert, Al Foster, Adam Nussbaum, and many more. He was awarded the German SWR Jazz Award in 2001, and the prestigious Albert Mangelsdorff award in 2015. "For many years, Achim Kaufmann has been one of the most inspiring and exciting personalities of the European jazz and improvisation scene. His music bears witness to great harmonic subtlety and structural depth. A brilliant pianist and composer, his reflected exploration of tradition has led him to a nuanced, contemporary sound language that encompasses poetry, energy and abstraction in equal measure." "-Julia Neupert, SWR radio ^ Hide Bio for Achim Kaufmann
5/14/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
5/14/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
1. Marbrakeys 3:29
2. Hark 3:41
3. Fainting Lilies 6:17
4. Gebs Path 5:14
5. Two Out Of Three 3:03
6. Humble Heart 5:40
7. Hazy Maze 4:08
8. The Heron 6:18
9. Established Failures 3:22
10. Marbrakeys 8:35
Improvised Music
Jazz
European Improvisation and Experimental Forms
Free Improvisation
Trio Recordings
Unusual Vocal Forms
Leo Records
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