The Squid's Ear Magazine

Euphorium_freakestra

Free Electric Supergroup [2 CDs]

Euphorium_freakestra: Free Electric Supergroup [2 CDs] (Euphorium)

Since 2002 this large ensemble electric supergroup or "freakestra" has performed uncompromising free improvisation that draws on the best of modern approaches in a staggering display of style and technique.
 

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Personnel:



Axel Dorner-trumpet

Hartmut Dorschner-soprano saxophone

Frank Mobus-electric guitar

Rudi Feuerbach-electric guitar

Max Loeb-electric guitar

Timo Klockner-electric guitar

Ronny Graupe-electric guitar

Alexander Schubert-electric guitar

Friedrich Kettlitz-electric guitar

Oliver Schwerdt- digital synthesizer, electric organ

Thomas Lehn-analogue synthesizer

Jacob Muller-electric bass

Matthias Macht-drums

Jens Schneider-drums


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UPC: 786497069552

Label: Euphorium
Catalog ID: EUPH 018
Squidco Product Code: 13997

Format: 2 CDs
Condition: New
Released: 2010
Country: Germany
Packaging: Digipack Double CD
Recorded in Wachau, Germany, on December 9th, 2007, by Kai Mader.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"The EUPHORIUM_freakestra is the one and only larger ensemble in Germany, that Improvises Freely without any compromise and changes its musicians from year to year. Thereby it is a post- modern relative of Alexander von Schlippenbach's Globe Unity Orchestra.

After audio releases called Dal Ngai (2002), Anderer Maßnahmen Aufzeichnungen nach Feitenbrueden (2003) and 2 Trios & 2 Babies (2005) - further albums, the three early works entitled soundz offe drzk wähuh, Die Abenteuer des Birg Borgenthal, Börte Blomengrauss and the recent master piece Free Acoustic Supergroup have been held in drawers unpublished up to now - the ensemble presents a doubled volume as a document of its music played in 2007 on amplified instruments.

When the E_f is now called a Free Electric Supergroup there are not only two musicians working on their wind instruments and another two on their synthesizers. The FES comes along with eight more or less melodic guitar players. Besides that as it's mostly the case this E_f has two drummers. On these recordings they concentrate their creativity on metrical based beats.The E_f realizes strategies of integration and dissociation. Here 14 musicians in the young and middle aged period of their career are joining musical experiences of Leipzig and Dresden, the two Saxonian centres of creativity, Germany's capital Berlin and Cologne, the West German centre of contemporary music. Accidentally all musicians arrived at the meeting in the Austrian wine region Wachau on December 9th each driving a white Porsche Cayenne.The multiple structure of the FES opens with a session on electrifying grooves recalling musical situations feasted by Miles Davis around 1970. For the title of this first piece Frank Zappa was presumedly suggested a special sounding band name. The course of the FES moves its electric organ to a modulating area of some twelve-and-more-tone music while the trumpet no longer produces any simple signals but is becomes an instrument that establishes some complex fields of different sorts of noise. Doubtlessly the hit of the recording is done by a guitar trio with drums and electric bass. Really avant-garde things happen later. The FES includes views on audible carpets of a noise band never heard before. Nonetheless some rising melodies turning the music into beloved tunes again.

Besides the FES there is a special appearance of Phil Minton, one of the Contemporary Improvising artists of the first English generation since the Free Jazz revolution. Maybe backstage together with Friedrich Kettlitz he stirs a 'Kompott', that means a dadaistic comment on happiness produced by all that dangles."-Euphorium


Artist Biographies

"Axel Dörner (born 26 April 1964 in Cologne, Germany) is a German jazz musician (trumpet and piano) and composer.

Dörner studied piano in the Dutch town Arnhem (1988-89) and at the Music Academy in Cologne (1989-1996). From 1991 he studied trumpet with Malte Burba, and during his studies he collaborated with trumpeter Bruno Light in the "The Street Fighters Duo". At this time he also joined the ensembles "The Street Fighters Quartet" and "The Street Fighters Double Quartet" together with Matthias Schubert, Bruno Leicht, and Claudio Puntin. In addition the "Axel Dörner Quartet" was initiated (with Frank Gratkowski, Hans Schneider and Martin Blume). With saxophonist Matthias Petzold. he participated on the albums Lifelines and Psalmen Und Lobgesänge.

Dörner has resided in Berlin since 1994, and occurs in the most diverse settings like "The London Jazz Composers Orchestra" and with "Hedros" (together with Mats Gustafsson, Günter Christmann, Barry Guy and others). Since then he has contributed on more than 50 album recordings.

Dörner is distinguished mainly by his versatility. He bouth play the more traditional Bebop, just like he fits in to classic Free Jazz or electronic music. He playd with Otomo Yoshihide at the Donaueschinger Musiktage in 2005. Dörner play both solo concerts and collaborates with his trio "TOOT" (together with Phil Minton and Thomas Lehn) and "Die Anreicherung" with Christian Lillinger, Håvard Wiik and Jan Roder, and in Ken Vandermarks "Territory-Band". Dörner is an integral part of the Berlin scene of experimental new improvisational music. Dörner was given special attention for his interpretation of all compositions by Thelonious Monk, with the pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach and his own band "Die Enttäuschung" released on a three CD album (Monks Casino, Complete 2005)."-Wikipedia

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axel_D%C3%B6rner)
3/27/2024

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"Frank Möbus (* March 7, 1966 in Nuremberg) is a German guitarist of modern jazz .

Möbus studied in Boston , Massachusetts at the Berklee College of Music from 1985 to 1989, and during this time he also had regular jazz music lessons with Jerry Bergonzi .

With the bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall he founded the band Der Rote Bereich in 1989, with which he visited countless internationally renowned festivals and has released seven albums (for Jazz4Ever Records , ACT and Intakt). In the project Azul by Carlos Bica , he has worked with Jim Black since 1993. He has also been a member of the groups, Christoph Grab's "Raw Vision", the formation "KUU!", With Daniel Erdmann from Erdmann / Rohrer / Möbus / Courtois (since 2009). And Wiesendanger / Möbus / Hemingway. He was a member of the formations "Erdmann 3000" (formerly known as Erdmann 2000) " Yuri Honings " "Wired Paradise", Paul van Kemenade -international 5tett, Dejan Terzic "underground and the soulband" Spank You ". He toured as a soloist with musicians such as Herb Robertson , Ray Anderson , Kenny Wheeler , Mark Helias, Karl Berger , Louis Sclavis , Maria João , Chris Speed , David Moss , Till Brönner and Han Bennink . As a soloist, he worked for the RIAS Big Band , the Ars Nova Ensemble , the Ensemble für Neue Musik Zürich, and Kevin Coyne's "Paradise Band". Since 1990 he has played up to 300 concerts worldwide with different formations.

Möbus was appointed professor of jazz guitar and ensemble to the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Weimar in 2003. He has also taught as a lecturer for jazz guitar at the Lucerne University since 2007 and taught at many jazz workshops around the world.

Frank Möbus composed the film music for Hans-Günter Brodmann and Rio Vermelho of the director Raquel Freire and worked occasionally with ambitious productions of young artists as a producer .

Privately Frank Möbus chose Berlin as its foodstuff. He is the father of a son and a daughter."

-Wikipedia (translated by Google) (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Mšbus_(Gitarrist))
3/27/2024

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"Alexander Schubert (born 1979) is a German composer. Much of his music is experimental, involving multimedia, improvisatory, and interactive elements. He draws upon free jazz, techno, and pop styles.

Alexander Schubert was born in Bremen. He studied Bioinformatics in Leipzig, then spent a year at the Center for Art and Media Technology in Karlsruhe at the Institute of Music and Acoustics. He received a doctorate in multimedia composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, studying under Georg Hajdu and Manfred Stahnke. He teaches at the Musikhochschule Hamburg, directs the electronic studio at Musikhochschule Lübeck and has been a visiting lecturer at Darmstadt International Summer Courses. A founding member of ensembles Decoder, Trnn, Schubert-Kettlitz-Schwerdt, and Ember, he has also pursued an experimental pop music solo project under the name Sinebag.

Schubert's pieces have been performed at several international institutions, including Wien Modern, ICMC, SMC, Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, DLF Forum neuer Musik, IRCAM, ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and Blurred Edges in Hamburg.

Jennifer Walshe, Matthew Shlomowitz and Zubin Kanga have situated Schubert within what Walshe terms "The New Discipline" of contemporary music, alongside such composers as James Saunders and François Sarhan. Shlomowitz writes,

"The remit of New Music has moved on and broadened out in the twenty-first century. Composers such as Joanna Bailie, Michael Beil, Johannes Kreidler and Jennifer Walshe have created work that: engages popular and everyday culture; develops historical ideas from the visual arts (e.g. conceptualism); utilises technology to create new musical instruments; combines field recordings with music to form new relationships between music and the world; and establishes a music-led interdisciplinary practice with multimedia and theatricalised works. Whilst evidently connected to each of these trends, Alexander Schubert's work is a distinctive voice within this milieu."

Schubert's music makes extensive use of multimedia, including live video, internet-sourced content, lighting, and motion sensors. Praised by some commentators for its fusion of avant-garde and pop styles, immersive qualities, and distinctive engagement with the internet, Schubert's critics have found his work excessively confrontational or conceptual.

In 2009, Schubert won the Bourges Residency Prize, and his piece Nachtschatten ("Nightshade") placed in the Canadian Electroacoustic Community "Jeu de temps" competition. He won the European Conference of Promoters of New Music competition in 2012 and a Giga-Hertz Production Award in 2013. Wiki-Piano.Net received an honorary mention in the 2019 Prix Ars Electronica."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Schubert)
3/27/2024

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

Friedrich Kettlitz is a German guitarist & prepared guitaris, known for his work with Euphorium_Freakestra, Elan Pauer, Oliver Schwerdt, Ra Ra da Boff, and Ribo Flesh.

-Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/2094735-Friedrich-Kettlitz)
3/27/2024

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"Oliver Schwerdt (born 13 November 1979) is a German musicologist and musician (piano, percussion) in the field of free improvisation.

Born in Eisenach, Schwerdt attended school in Eisenach until his university entrance qualification and received classical piano lessons at the municipal music school there. He did his military service as a piano accompanist in the training music corps of the German armed forces. He began his studies of music and cultural sciences as well as art history at the Leipzig University in 1999 and completed them in 2006 with a master's thesis on Georg Simmel and Dadaism submitted to Klaus Christian Köhnke [de]. In 2012 he received his doctorate from Sebastian Klotz at the Institute for Musicology at the University of Leipzig [de], for which he also worked as a lecturer. His dissertation focuses on the musical strategies of central actors in the scene of free improvised music in the wake of Free Jazz and their spatial theoretical interpretation. He has taught at the Museum of Musical Instruments of Leipzig University and with the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.

From his musicological work, Schwerdt identified the challenge facing contemporary museum practice in relation to the "reinvention of the drum set combination" as they are "in European improvised music" of the 20th century became reality. He is committed to securing the "acutely endangered, historically so delicate, aesthetically highly fascinating and epistemologically valuable object complexes". the first generation of European free jazz or contemporary improvised music. As an author of music-critical articles, Schwerdt wrote for the Neue Musikzeitung, the Jazzthetik [de] and the Jazzzeitung [de], among others. He also wrote accompanying texts for albums by Günter Sommer/Wadada Leo Smith and Alexander von Schlippenbach/Evan Parker/Paul Lovens and Urs Leimgruber. In 2003 he founded the publishing house Euphorium Productions.

Since 1999 Schwerdt has been artistic director of the EUPHORIUM_freakestra, a project ensemble between contemporary improvisation, jazz, Neue Musik and theatre with Günter Sommer, Friedrich Schenker, Rudi Mahall, Paul Rutherford, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Frank Möbus, Wadada Leo Smith, Axel Dörner, Barre Phillips, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Evan Parker, Paul Lovens, Sven-Åke Johansson, Ulrich Gumpert, Manfred Hering, Dietmar Diesner, Roger Turner, Barry Guy, Akira Sakata and others worked together. At the 2009 33. Leipziger Jazztage, he performed with the project Transatlantic Freedom Suite Tentets at the Leipzig Opera.

From the project ensemble the quartet ember with Urs Leimgruber developed, Alexander Schubert and Christian Lillinger. From 2006 to 2016 Schwerdt worked with Lillinger and Petrowsky in the New Old Luten Trio. The recording of Petrowsky's late works, documented from 2013 to 2015 with the albums Tumult!, Krawall!, Rabatz! in a quintet formation expanded by the double bassists John Edwards and Robert Landfermann received great attention. With Schubert and Friedrich Kettlitz, Schwerdt operates the electrified Noise-Ensemble trnn.

In 2006, Schwerdt received the Leipzig Jazz Young Talent Scholarship of the Marion-Ermer-Foundation for his performance as pianist and ensemble leader. The critics Ken Waxman (Jazzword) and Rigobert Dittmann (Bad Alchemy) hear reminiscences of Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Cecil Taylor and Alexander von Schlippenbach in Schwerdt's piano playing.

Schwerdt uses the following pseudonyms: Edithrakneff Weinermond, Frautastem!, Ingrid Ingulfwieher, Rita Deixis, Solveig Reberp-Klamt and Elan Pauer."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Schwerdt)
3/27/2024

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"Thomas Lehn was Born in Fröndenberg (Germany) in 1958. Since the early 1980s Thomas Lehn has been working as a author and performer of contemporary music. After studying recording engineering - piano with Prof. Wilfried Kassebaum - at the Music Academy of Detmold in Germany, studies at the Music Academy of Cologne with Peter Degenhardt and Prof. Klaus Oldemeyer (classical piano) and with Frank Wunsch and Francis Coppieters (jazz piano) completed his academical education. In the 80ies he took part on courses of Studio for pianistic interpretation held by Prof. Jürgen Uhde.

As an interpreting pianist he has been playing concerts since 1982 - performing both contemporary new music including numerous first performances and traditional composed music of the classical and romantical period. In 1989 he initiated the chamber ensemble Trio Dario and four years later the Mengano Quartett, performing compositions of the contemporary avant-garde, in particular numerous first performances of comissioned works. Developed parallel to his work as a pianist, since the early 1990s his major and widely reknown work has been performing and producing live-electronic music. Rooted in the experience of a wide spectrum of musical fields based on his background as an interpreting and improvising pianist in classical-, contemporary and jazz-music and having been involved in numerous other projects like music theatre, dance, multi-media, studio pre-/post-production etc., he has been developing an individual 'language' of electronic music.

The electronic equipment he uses consists of analogue synthesizers of the late 1960s, and since 1994 in particular the EMS Synthi A. Besides the substantial sound qualities of its analogue synthesis, the facilities of this modular instrument - for example to modify electronic sounds very directly as well as to combine and to control several parameters of the sound synthesis at the same time - allows him to spontaneously act in close contact with the various structural degrees of the musical process.

In 2000 his solo album Feldstärken had been released on German label Random Acoustics. Up today, his discography enclosures about 80 CD publications. Numerous appearances at major international festivals of contemporary musics and concerts tours in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungaria, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA give evidence of his international profile and recognition.

He has been involved in projects promoted and/or supported by the Goethe-Institutes in Belgrade, Boston, Bratislava, Budapest, Chicago, Copenhagen, Glasgow, Lille, Lissabon, London, Manchester, Marseille, Milano, Montreal, Palermo, Rome, San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Toronto, Warsaw, Wellington and York. His musical activities enclosure long term and newer ensemble collaborations as well as involvements in numerous specific single projects. Long term collaborations are ensembles like KONK PACK, TOOT, THERMAL, FUTCH, MIMEO, SPEAK EASY, 6IX, VARIO-34, as well as the duo works with Marcus Schmickler, Tiziana Bertoncini, Gerry Hemingway, Paul Lovens, Frédéric Blondy Urs Leimgruber and John Butcher. More recently formed ensembles are the duos with Benoît Moreau and with the video artist Kjell Bjørgeengen, trio formations with John Butcher involving pianists John Tilbury and Matthew Shipp.

Further he is pianist and founding member of the ensemble]h[iatus, an ensemble for interpretation and improvisation of contemporary music, whichs members are all experienced interpreters and improvisers. The ensemble compiles concert programs integrating/alternating notated and real-time-created contemporary music. It has been first-performing commissioned works by Vinko Globokar, Peter Jakober, Jennifer Walshe, Anthony Pateras besides performing compositions of the contemporary repertoire. Besides performing his own electronic music, in the recent years Thomas Lehn became more active as a synthesizer interpreter of electronic compositions. The realisation of Boguslav Schaeffer's Electronic Symphony - live performed in 2010 and 2011 - has been documented on the CD PRES Scores on polish label Bolt/Monotype. In 2012 he world premierred OCCAM VI for synthesizer solo by Éliane Radigue at Berghain Berlin during festival Faithful! and - together with KlangForum Wien - dort for synthesizer and 15 piece ensemble by Austrian composer Peter Jakober at musikprotokoll Graz and at Konzerthaus Vienna."

-Thomas Lehn Website (http://www.thomaslehn.com/read/vita_e.html)
3/27/2024

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Track Listing:



CD1



1. Carmesian Olluh Bass Drive and The Lizli Gayers Diving Adventures 11:12

2. D'ille Fuzzy Karma 2:52

3. Vega Sun Layer 5:57

4. Langa Ghibli 2:03

5. Vaja Dajomme De Jajomme Lyne Dajomee 10:52

6. Dorner Arriving Too Late To Save 100 Drowning Years Of Jazz 2:46

7. Samac Calypso Contrajuice 2:22

CD2



1. Enn Lli Aylee And The Octett Gavour's Best 6:29

2. Oreathys Cleah 3:27

3. Silver Jazz Country Raighn (Das Schild) 7:26

4. Krk Avada 4:05

5.Dipple Brain Trips, Ugg... 5:28

6. Datwyler Crsle (Reggae-maische) 4:34

7. Kendosomeric Frectopasil (For Big Maybelle) 2:34

8. Ethel No. 73 2:34

9. Batanta Caramel 4:00

10. Harmolodic Barbecue In Haarlem-Bofferding 3:40

11. Saunaabendbrotchen Tschuss 4:31

12. Phil Minton Im Kompott (Alles Was Baumelt Bringt Gluck!) 6:11

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
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(Relative Pitch)
A truly unique album of free improvisation and unusual narrative from the Berlin-based quartet of Tristan Honsinger on cello, Antonio Borghini on double bass, Axel Dorner on trumpet, and Tobias Delius on tenor saxophone, clarinet, a mix of Honsinger compositions and collective improv, since 2010 a working band combining music, movement and theater; masterfully idiosyncratic.
Steidle, Oli & The Killing Popes (Steidle / Mobus / Nicholls / Downes / Donkin)
Ego Pills [VINYL]
(Shhpuma)
Rapid fire playing and a wicked humor fuels drummer Olie Steidle's album with guitarist Frank Mobus, keyboardists Kit Downes and Dan Nicholls, and bassist Phil Donkin, mashing together electro-jazz, art rock, hardcore and club music into upbeat and twisted music, building up to a narrative "Speed Junky on Funny Human Darts"; insanely embraceable and stunning.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

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