The Squid's Ear Magazine


Berlin Art Quartet (Schubert / Bauer / Muller / Bruggemann): Live At MIM (Unisono Records)

Formed in 2013 by drummer Reinhard Brüggemann, the Berlin Art Quartet channels the spirit of the New York Art Quartet, with saxophonist Matthias Schubert, trombonist Matthias Müller, and bassist Matthias Bauer performing a powerful live set of free jazz, blending fiery interplay, dynamic shifts, extended techniques, and raw yet thoughtful improvisation.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Matthias Schubert-saxophone

Matthias Bauer-bass

Matthias Muller-trombone

Reinhard Bruggemann-drums


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UPC: 4068992296197

Label: Unisono Records
Catalog ID: UNIREC6197
Squidco Product Code: 36203

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2025
Country: Germany
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Musikinstrumente-Museum (MIM), in Berlin, Germany, on July 25th, 2019, by Patrick Romer.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Berlin Art Quartet was formed in 2013 to flesh out and invigorate the improvisational range of its creative members, drawing inspiration from 1960s recordings by the New York Art Quartet under the direction of Danish free jazz saxophonist John Tchicai. Founded by drummer Reinhard Brüggemann, the group features saxophonist Matthias Schubert, trombonist Matthias Müller, and bassist Matthias Bauer. Live at MIM consolidates the quartet's shared passion for free jazz and improvisation, exploring carefully sculpted timbres, unpredictable jolts, and raw intersections that feel completely in-the-moment.

"Up-Crash" unfolds as mosaic-like tangle, with Bauer and Brüggemann-using arco and textural nuance-laying an open-ended harmonic bed for the melodic exchanges of Schubert and Müller. The frontline players interact with a dynamic mindset, engaging in a dialogue of questions and answers, sometimes insisting, and then departing from an idea to another with nimble reflexes. They conclude the piece soaring in tandem.

"Motion in Silence" is shaded with muted trombone, regular if sparse bass nodes, understated percussion gradually swelling with the present of cymbals, and extended techniques on tenor sax. These elements coalesce into a form of modernist abstraction. In contrast, "Gang of Four" erupts into a staggering improvisational sprint, full of unexpected turns and sonic collisions, while "Hymn" reorganizes the chaos with cerebral droning ominousness and pitching-contrast melodic fustigaton, feeling less processional or ritualistic than initially implied.

In "Mutuality", the album's longest track at 15:18, the quartet navigates a series of kinetic shifts and subtleties. Incisive saxophone paths intersect with agile bass noodling before a cohesive motion takes shape. These antic, form-blurring impulses are carried by the trombone and tenor, whose interplay always leaves space for development or counteraction. Bauer's bowed bass lines deepen the mystery with brooding resonance, and the number concludes with brisk dynamics, in an amplification of sound that doesn't really require aural adjustment.

Berlin Art Quartet can throw flames in one minute and showcase a more ruminative behavior in the next. Regardless of the mood, it consistently champions open terrain to be explored without constraint."-Filipe Freitas, Jazz Trail


Get additional information at Jazz Trail

Artist Biographies

"Matthias Schubert (born April 18, 1960 in Kassel ) is a German jazz musician (tenor saxophone, oboe and composition).

Schubert had oboe lessons as a teenager. The saxophonists Allan Praskin and Melvin Phillips introduced him to jazz. He studied from 1979 to 1983 at the University of Music and Performing Arts Hamburg with Andy Scherrer, Herb Geller and Walter Norris. He played for a long time in the Euro Jazz Band, the Graham Collier Band and the Marty Cook Group, but also with the groups of Albert Mangelsdorff, Manfred Bründl and others.

He played in the quartet with Simon Nabatov, Lindsey Horner and Tom Rainey during the 1990s. He forms a trio with Carl Ludwig Hübsch and Wolter Wierbos. He has founded the James Choice Orchestra with Hübsch, Frank Gratkowski and Norbert Stein. He also played with Karl Berger, Klaus King, Kathrin Lemke, Jeanne Lee, Joachim Ullrich, Andreas Willers, Xu Fengxia, Scott Fields, Uwe Oberg,Uli Böttcher and Alois Kott. In 2001 he was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Music, Drama and Media Hanover."

-Wikipedia (Translated by Google) (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Schubert)
5/28/2025

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

"Matthias Bauer is a double bass player, improviser and composer who is mainly working in the field of improvised and new music.

He performed with many internationally renowned musicians of the free improviser scene and took part in various ensembles and festivals.A central concern is his own solo performance incorporating the voice.

His compositions aim to make a bridge between composition and improvisation.new music

He performed a large repertoire of solo compositions and is working with Berlin based new music ensembles unitedberlin, asian art, Junge Musik and mosaik.He is on several CD releases and performed at festivals like Maerzmusic Berlin, musicaviva München, Biennale Venedig, nuovaconsonanza Rom, musique on scene Lyon, Daegu Contemporary Music Festival, Wien Modern, Konfrontationen Nickelsdorf and Total Music Meeting."

-Matthias Bauer Website (https://www.bauerbass.de/)
5/28/2025

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

"Matthias Müller was born 1971 in Zeven, Germany and starting playing trombone in the local trombone choir at the age of 10. From 1994 to 1999 he studied jazz-trombone at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, where he also made his first steps into improvised music. His CD "Bhavan", which was released in 2004, was produced by Chicago based musician and journalist John Corbett. In the same year he moved to Berlin and has since been regularly playing with internationally recognized improvisers such as John Edwards, Mark Sanders, George Lewis, Johannes Bauer, Jeb Bishop, Tobias Delius, Olaf Rupp, Paul Lovens, Toshimaru Nakamura, Clayton Thomas, Michael Vorfeld, Axel Dörner, and many more. He is a member of the 24-piece improvising ensemble, "Splitter Orchester", and was also a member of the "German-French Jazzensemble" under the direction of Albert Mangelsdorff. In addition, Müller is also active in the field of contemporary music, having worked with the Berlin-based ensembles "Xenon", "Work In Progress", and "Zinc & Copper Works". He also took part in the performance and CD-recording of composer Mark Andre's opera "...22, 13...". Müller has toured Africa, Asia, North America and many countries in Europe, having played on numerous festivals, and released more than 20 CDs of his own projects."

-Matthias Muller Website (http://matthiasmueller.net/about)
5/28/2025

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

Reinhard Brüggemann is a German drummer, known for the groups Berlin Art Quartet and Gruppe Hörsturz.

-Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/3201887-Reinhard-Br%C3%BCggemann)
5/28/2025

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


Track Listing:



1. Aufsturz - Up-Crash 6:02

2. Bewegung in Stille - Motion in Silence 6:42

3. Gegenseitigkeit - Mutuality 15:18

4. Viererbande - Gang of Four 9:33

5. Hymnus - Hymn 5:55

Related Categories of Interest:

Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Collective & Free Improvsation
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Quartet Recordings
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
New in Improvised Music
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