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Nillesen, Etienne / Nicola Hein / Magda Mayas / Eve Risser / Marta Warelis: Piano Trialogues (Creative Sources)

Nicola L. Hein, performing on prepared guitar, and Etienne Nillesen on extended snare drum, present three trio recordings with three different pianists--Magda Mayas, Eve Risser, and Marta Warelis--each adding a different dimension to Hein & Nillesen's playing, as heard in these three live recordings from The Loft in Cologne, Germany in 2018.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Nicola L. Hein-guitar

Etienne Nillesen-drums

Magda Mayas-piano

Eve Risser-piano

Marta Warelis-piano


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UPC: 5609063406245

Label: Creative Sources
Catalog ID: cs624
Squidco Product Code: 28209

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2019
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at the Loft, in Cologne, Germany, on September 11th, 2018, by Lukas Lohner , and on November 9th, and December 9th, 2018, by Stefan Deistler.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Returning to recent Creative Sources releases, Piano Trialogues involves three different trio recordings, i.e. Nicola L. Hein (prepared guitar) & Etienne Nillesen (extended snare drum) with three different pianists for three tracks (recorded respectively in September, November & December of 2018, and appearing in chronological order) totaling well over an hour: It's an interesting approach - & I'd thought originally that the album used three pianists simultaneously - & involves a lot of extended technique, such that instruments are rarely individually recognizable.

Of course, I've been following Hein for a while here, so let me just mention his trio album Digressions (discussed September 2018, i.e. around the time of these recordings) with Kriton Beyer, and also his solo album released this year on Shhpuma, The Oxymothastic Objectar.... I didn't end up discussing the latter, but the deconstruction of "guitar sound" is analogous to that employed on Piano Trialogues (although, obviously, more to the fore).

Nillesen was new to me, though, and as the credit suggests, his playing involves a lot of buzzing, etc. Pianists also work mainly inside & via various preparations, with the first to appear, Eve Risser (first mentioned here in September 2013 around En corps), being a staple of "free jazz" discussion more widely: The track with Risser does make a strong impression - with a variety of rumbling, scuttling, squeaking, buzzing & clunking merging & building into some sort of mysterious pulse that almost suggests a groove. As do the other trios, it also involves a variety of evocations from industrial train yards to swelling squeals....

The next pianist is Magda Mayas, whom I've featured most often here (starting with Flock by Great Waitress in May 2014), and she likewise doesn't disappoint: Low grinding vibrations shift into gamelan-esque exchanges, back into electronic feedback & static, again pulsing into a pause yielding more mysterious grinding & evocations of wind. The track also maintains a taut intensity, ominous from the start, fading toward the end....

The final pianist to appear was new to me, though, Marta Warelis: Much of the track is the most "pianistic" of the three (& this is, barely, the longest track as well), such that there's also a sort of delicacy that emerges from springy tinkling overtaking percussive clunks, although it also comes to involve a slow howl....

Overall, there are many appealing sounds & combos on Piano Trialogues, then, but the results also seem to remain more exploratory than major statements. So, I'm not really sure what to make of the approach to record an album with three different pianists, or what it says about the future of a Hein-Nillesen duo... they tend to function more as accompaniment here (if one can even be sure). I did enjoy the music, though."-Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Get additional information at Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

Artist Biographies

"Nicola L. Hein (Born 1988 in Düsseldorf) is a guitarist, composer and soundartist. As a guitarist he is mainly concerned about the search for new sounds on his instrument. He plays electric and acoustic guitar with or without preperations and tries to find new ways of playing the guitar within the context of Free Improvised Music and Jazz. He plays the guitar with his hands and plectrum but also with a lot of different objects: screws, rulers, iron wool, violin bow, abrasive paper, magnets and many other objects which are part of his musical vocabulary. The result is his very own world of sounds, which is using the rich potential of the guitar as a creator of sounds. The manual creation is a very important character of this sound world, which never gets distorted by the use of electronic effects. As a composer he finds different ways of integrating philosophical ideas into music and to play music as a form of philosophy. In order to actualize itself the compositional work is always aimed at the improvising musician as a dialectic partner of the composition. From the interplay of these partners an ästhetic emerges that is based on the spontanity of the performance and the setting of aesthetic action spaces alike. As a soundartist he is developing different ways to project the musical ontology of Improvised Music onto different aesthetic rooms. This is done by creating instruments, installations and other ways of using the guitar, which use the musical ontology of Improvised Music as the center of the sonic practise but generate a lot of different sense structures that differ from the usual practise of Improvised Music (for example by creating a scenic sense layer etc.). He also creates sound installations which involve the recipient as a part of the work. The works encourage the recipient to make a special aesthetic experience with different sounds. The aesthetic of these sounds is inspired by the aesthetics of Free Improvised Music.

He studied Jazzguitar, Soundart/Composition, Philosophy and German philology at the Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn and the Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. Projects with the support of: Initiative Musik, Staatsministerium für Kultur und Medien, Kunststiftung NRW, Deutscher Musikrat, Akademie der Künste der Welt, Kultursekretariat NRW, Ministerium für Familie, Kinder, Jugend, Kultur und Sport des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Landesmusikrat NRW, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatstheater Mainz, Staatstheater Hannover, ON Neue Musik Cologne, RheinEnergieStiftung Kultur, Kulturamt der Stadt Köln, Kulturamt der Stadt Düsseldorf, Kulturamt der Stadt Essen, Kulturbehörde Hamburg, Hamburgische Kulturstiftung, Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln, Köln Musik, Acht Brücken, RWE Stiftung für Energie & Gesellschaft, Second Floor e.V., Jazz Offensive Essen, ZKM Karlsruhe etc. He has worked with: Evan Parker, Phil Minton, John Russell, Paul Lytton, Frank Gratkwoski, Michael Vorfeld, Rudi Mahall, Tobias Delius, Liz Allbee, Christian Lillinger, Ute Wassermann, John Butcher, Axel Dörner, Thomas Lehn, Wilbert de Joode, Tristan Honsinger, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Michael Thieke, Sofia Jernberg, Audrey Chen, Peter Jacquemyn, Carl Ludwig Hübsch, Robert Landfermann, Jon Rose, Sebastian Gramss, Tomomi Adachi, Alfred Zimmerlin, DJ Illvibe etc."

-Nicola L. Hein Website (https://nicolahein.com/blemishes/about/)
3/13/2024

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

"Etienne Nillesen is an active voice on the European creative music scene, with regular performances across Europe, Asia, America and Africa.

His main focus is improvisation with ongoing collaborations including the trio OGU, and STØY, in which he is exploring all the possibilities of music, playing a snaredrum and a cymbal with all kinds of sticks, toys, bells and bows.

His interest in various forms of exploratory music gave him an opportunity to work with artists as, as well as the opportunity to work with artists such as Claudio Puntin, Philip Zoubek, Sebastian Gramss, Matthias Schrief, Shelley Hirsch, Carl Ludwig Hübsch, Eivind Aarset, Florian Weber, Simon Nabatov, Ernst Reijseger (CN), Tom Arthurs, Robert Landfermann, Bram Stadhouders, Jeroen van Vliet, Udo Moll, Sebastian Duboc, Simin Tander, Frank Wingold, Frederik Köster and Matthias Muche. Beishan International Jazz (CN), Bohemia Jazzfest (CZ), OCT-LOFT Jazz (CN), Women in Jazz (DE), Jazzfest Berlin (DE), The Hague Jazz (NL), Madrid International Jazzfestival (ES), Catania Jazz (I), Caïro International Jazzfest (EG) and clubs all over the world."

-Schraum.DEe (translated by Google) (http://www.schraum.de/en/musicians/nillesen.html)
3/13/2024

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

"Magda Mayas, born 1979, is a pianist living in Berlin. Developing a vocabulary utilizing both the inside as well as the exterior parts of the piano, using preparations and objects, she explores textural, linear and fast moving sound collage.

Alongside the piano, Mayas has recently been performing on a Clavinet/Pianet, an electric piano from the 60s with strings and metal chimes, where she engages with noise and more visceral sound material, equally extending the instrumental sound palette using extended techniques and devices.Mayas performs internationally solo and in collaboration with a large number of musicians and composers.Current projects are "Spill", a duo with drummer Tony Buck, a duo with Christine Abdelnour (sax) and "Great Waitress", a trio with Monika Brooks (acc) and Laura Altman (cl).

She is currently undertaking Phd studies at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and investigating extended instrumental techniques, spectral music and psychoacoustics in an improvised music context.

Since 2013 she has also been producing radio pieces for ABC Australia and Deutschlandradio Kultur and has released 20 CDS to date.

Magda Mayas has performed and toured in Europe, the USA, Australia, Mexico and Lebanon and collaborated with many leading figures in improvisation and composers such as John Butcher, Andy Moor, Zeena Parkins, Joelle Leandre, Paul Lovens, Ikue Mori, Phill Niblock, Peter Evans, Andrea Neumann and Axel Dörner. She has performed at festivals and exhibitions such as Maerz Musik (2012,2015), Documenta (2012) or the Berlin Biennale ( 2014)."

-Magda Mayas Website (https://magdamayas.jimdo.com/bio-cv/)
3/13/2024

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"Eve Risser has her musical roots in chamber music as a flutist and pianist. While residing in Alsace, France, she merged in to the contemporary and jazz/improvised music world. In June 2008, she got the 1st Piano Price in Jazz & Improvised Music at National Conservatory in Paris, a soloist price at the International Competition of La Défense. From 2009 to 2013 she took part of National Jazz Orchestra of Fance (ONJ) directed by Danie Yvinec. Eve's multifaceted musical creativity has been heard in various settings, festivals and groups throughout the world.

She performs solo with piano or electric harpsichord and a her own improvisations or compositions. She leads and co-leads, plays, and composes in the Donkey Monkey with Yuko Oshima ; in the quartet The New Songs with the swedish singer and composer Sofia Jernberg, Kim Myhr and David Stackenäs ; in the trio EN-CORPS (Risser/Duboc/Perraud) ans many others.

Currently Eve's musical life is based out of Paris where she is involved in organizing creative music live performances and the label UMLAUT. Eve has had the possibility to play and collaborate with great musicians such as John Hollenbeck, Billy Hart, Benoît Delbecq, Jon Irabagon, Mickael Formanek, Médéric Collignon, Marc Ducret, Emile Parisien, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Mickael Zerang, Andreas Werliin, joel grip, eivind lohning, Wolfgang Mitterer, Quatuor Bela, MAGMA, Le Sacre du Tympan, Magnetic Ensemble, The Bridge #5, les solistes de l'Ensemble Intercontemporain Nicolas Crosse & Pascal Gallois, Pascal Niggenkemper Vision 7 and many others.Je suis un paragraphe. Cliquez ici pour ajouter votre propre texte et modifiez-moi. Je suis l'endroit parfait pour raconter une histoire, et pour vous présenter à vos utilisateurs."

-Eve Risser website (http://www.everisser.com/biography)
3/13/2024

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

"Pianist Marta Warelis (1986) is a vibrant performer with a strong preference for improvisation and experimentation in all genres. She continually aims for instant composing on the basis of new sounds and influences. Her work draws inspiration from music across the globe including cumbia, Angolan dance music, as well as jazz, western classical music and the various schools of free improvisation. Born and raised in Poland where she graduated with honours from WSJiMR in Wroclaw, Marta moved to Groningen in 2010 to attend the Prins Claus Conservatory. In 2014 she found her place in Amsterdam, very quickly becoming an active member of the local improvisers' scene. Marta has appeared frequently in the Bimhuis, where in 2017 she was given a Carte Blanche in recognition of her remarkable talents. She performs with a variety of creative musicians including Michael Moore, Ab Baars, Mike Reed, Andy Moor, Joost Buis, dancers Lily Kiara and Michael Shumacher, as well with such groups as Hupata!, Omawi, Future Neighbor, Polyband, Edge Ensemble, Strings5, Xavier Pamplona, Warelis/Rosaly/Lumley/Dikeman and Bazooka."

-DOEK Festival (https://www.doek.org/project/marta-warelis/)
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Eve 22:29

2. Magda 18:52

3. Marta 24:21

Related Categories of Interest:


Creative Sources
Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Trio Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Creative Sources.


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