The Squid's Ear Magazine


Denzler, Bertrand (Beliah / Heilbron / Majkowski / Shirey): Low Strings (Confront)

Following an exploration of the double bass in his 2018 Confront release Basse Seul, Swiss-French composer and saxophonist Bertrand Denzler again jumps into the deep end again with a quartet of accomplished double basssists--Sebastien Beliah, Jon Heilbron, Mike Majkowski, Derek Shirley--for two extended works of encompassing low-register tones.
 

Price: $13.95



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 2.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Bertrand Denzler-composer

Sebastien Beliah-double bass

Jon Heilbron-double bass

Mike Majkowski-double bass

Derek Shirley-double bass


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




Label: Confront
Catalog ID: core 29
Squidco Product Code: 33008

Format: CDR
Condition: New
Released: 2023
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Sleeve in Plastic Sleeve
Recorded at Ausland, in Berlin, Germany, on March 24th, 2022, by Sebastien Beliah.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Low Strings is the composition of Swiss-French composer-sax player Bertrand Denzler for a double bass quartet featuring French Sebastien Beliah, Australian Jon Heilbron and Mike Majkowski and Canadian Derek Shirley, recorded at Ausland in Berlin in Marc 2022. Denzler already explored the sonic range of the double bass in Basse Seule (confront, 2020), a series of etudes and pieces composed for French double bass player Felicie Bazelaire. Both compositions for the double basses are from 2016.

Low Strings offers two versions of this composition, number 4 and 3, and both are, obviously, dark and deep-toned drones focusing on a sense of almost statis, created by a patient and methodical sustained bowing of the double bass strings that in its turn creates harmonic dynamics. The minimalist and subtle variations of this composition, with their profound investigation of the dark and often dissonant timbral palettes, only intensify the hypnotic impact of the double basses' encompassing waves of slow resonating vibrations and suggests a sense of being out of time and lost - willingly - within the vibrations of the low strings."-Eyal Hareuveni, The Free Jazz Collective


Get additional information at The Free Jazz Collective

Artist Biographies

"Bertrand Denzler is a tenor saxophone player. He has played in Europe and Latin America both as a solo act and with musicians such as Xavier Charles, Peter Frils Nielsen, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Barry Guy, Ninh Lê Quan, Urs Leimgruber, Günter Müller, Bob Ostertag, Norbert Pfammatter, Hasse Poulsen, Mark Sanders, Mathieu Werchowski, and Otomo Yoshihide. He is a member of the groups Hubbub, Nanocluster, Laps, Denzler-Mariage, A3/1, and Chamaeleo Vulgaris. He has put out a number of compact discs on various labels."-ActuelleCD.com (http://www.actuellecd.com/en/bio/denzler_be/)
3/27/2024

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

"Sébastien Beliah is a Paris-based double bass player and composer. His work is mainly focused on improvisation and oral composition (R.mutt), relationship between composed music and improvisation (Ensemble Hodos), and jazz (Umlaut big band, The Coquettes, Un poco loco). As a double bass player, Sébastien Beliah has performed solo pieces from Hans-Joachim Hespos, James Tenney or Kenneth Gaburo among others. He is also doing improvised solo performance. As a composer, his pieces has been performed by musicians like Félicie Bazelaire, Pierre Borel, Hannes Lingens or the large ensemble ONCEIM. Sébastien Beliah is also deeply involved in the field of education, and teach double bass, jazz and improvisation at the Conservatoire de Reims."

-Umlaut (http://www.umlautrecords.com/people/sebastien-beliah/)
3/27/2024

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

"Jon Heilbron is an Australian Double Bass player, improviser and composer, working within the areas of contemporary classical, improvised and experimental music. Jon has performed both as a soloist and with various groups in Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Denmark, Israel, Russia, Norway, Austria and Singapore.

As an interpreter of contemporary music, he has performed with Klangforum Wien (Austria), Apartment House (UK), Kammerensemble Neue Musik (Germany), An Assembly (UK), Ensemble Soundinitiative (France) Konzert Minimal (Germany) and Ensemble Schallfeld (Austria).

He has presented music at festivals including the Darmstädter Ferienkürse (Germany), Archipel Geneva (Switzerland), Wien Modern (Austria), Manifeste Paris (France), the Impuls festival, Graz (Austria), The Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music (Australia), SpinaFest in St. Petersburg (Russia) and the Multiversal Festival in Copenhagen (Denmark).

He is active within improvised and experimental music with his collaborative groups Ellipsis, Arches, DRUM and doubleFRAU, and is the founder of the Phonetic Orchestra, an ensemble made up of some of Melbourne's most innovative emerging Improvisers, composers and performers."

-Jon Heilbron Website (http://www.jonheilbronmusic.com/about.html)
3/27/2024

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

"Mike Majkowski is a double bassist / composer born in Sydney, Australia. Currently based in Berlin. Active in the fields of improvised, composed and exploratory music. Performs as a soloist + with a number of collaborative projects (some of which are featured in this site) mike is currently exploring the spectral qualities of double bass resonance, examining deliberate frequencies and circumstantial resonance. His music also explores the relationship between physicality and sonority, with the aim of creating a sense of stillness."

-Site.Google.com (https://sites.google.com/site/mikemajkowski/)
3/27/2024

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

"Derek Shirley, multi-instrumentalist (Kontrabass, cello, drums, electronics) based in Berlin. Active in the improvised/experimental music scene, focusing on low frequency minimalism in both improvised and composed realms. Performs actively with such groups as Monno, Vladislav Delay Quartet, HotelgŠste, MEK, obliq, coal oven, ruby3 and unununium. And in various collaborations with such musicians as: Sven Ake Johansson, Chris Abrahams, Steve Heather, Anat Cohavi, Tobias Delius, Antoine Chessex, Lucio Capece, Mika Vanio, Michael Thieke, Robin Hayward, Justin Haynes, Dave Bennett, Allesandro Bossetti, Tony Buck."

-Artesonoro (http://www.artesonoro.org/archives/tag/derek-shirley)
3/27/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Low Strings 4 19:58

2. Low Strings 3 19:57

Related Categories of Interest:


Compositional Forms
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Stringed Instruments
Quartet Recordings
New in Compositional Music

Search for other titles on the label:
Confront.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Lumpeks
Polonez
(Umlaut Records)
Ethnic folk flavors of traditional Polish dance music and song merge with modern jazz in the Polish Lumpeks quartet, researching the history of their music and working with musicians of multiple generations as they update their antecedents through free improvisation, and augmenting their repertoire with exotic instrumentation including bird calls, cabasa, baraban, basy, and drone box.
Lumpeks (Laurain / Borel / Koziel / Beliah)
Lumpeks
(Bolt / Umlaut)
Bassist Sebastien Beliah leads this French-Polish quartet with Louis Laurain on cornet, Pierre Borel on alto saxophone, and Olga Koziel on voice & percussions, blending free jazz and traditional Polish music & songs with an experimental bent and the flourish of East European folk energy, a passionate mix that entertains and surprises the listener with unexpected twists & turns.
Bosshard, Patricia
Onceim-CoO
(Potlatch)
Umlaut Big Band
Mary's Ideas [2 CDs]
(Umlaut Records)
Rare and newly discovered works from jazz composer and pianist Mary Lou Williams performed by the Umlaut Big Band in their series of portraits of forgotten jazz artist, here taking a broad look at the prodigious career of this essential and gifted pianist, composer & arranger, whose influence on swing and early be-bop deserves this fitting and inclusive overview.
Un Poco Loco (Fourneyron / Beliah / Gesser)
Ornithologie
(Umlaut Records)
Formed in 2014 to explore their own personal history with jazz music, the French trio of Fidel Fourneyron on trombone, Sebastien Beliah on double bass and Geoffroy Gesser on tenor saxophone & clarinet put their focus on the master of be-bop, Charlie Parker, updating, reinventing and making an inventive playground of Parker's music through thirteen classics.
Denzler, Bertrand / Antonin Gerbal
Sbatax
(Umlaut Records)
A burning album of free jazz caught live at Au Topsi Pohl, in Berlin, Germany in 2019 between the long-running duo of tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler and drummer Antonin Gerbal, best known for their work in Zoor or Denzler-Gerbal-Dorner, here working an "Interstellar Space" area of strength and energy through intense interaction and cathartic playing.
Lumpeks (Laurain / Borel / Koziel / Beliah)
Lumpeks
(Bolt / Umlaut)
Bassist Sebastien Beliah leads this French-Polish quartet with Louis Laurain on cornet, Pierre Borel on alto saxophone, and Olga Koziel on voice & percussions, blending free jazz and traditional Polish music & songs with an experimental bent and the flourish of East European folk energy, a passionate mix that entertains and surprises the listener with unexpected twists & turns.
Umlaut Big Band
Plays Don Redman: The King Of Bungle Bar
(Umlaut Records)
Don Redman was an American big band leader popular in the 1930's, responsible for work on animations, sound tracks, and recordings of pre-swing hot jazz arrangements of popular tunes; here the French Umlaut Big Band under the direction of Pierre-Antoine Badaroux pays homage to his music in rich orchestration showing the melodic, inventive, and complexities of Redman's music.
Denzler / Grip / Johansson
Zyklus 1 [2 CDs]
(Umlaut Records / SAJ)
Exploring new ways of interplay within a classic jazz trio setting, "Zyklus 1" or "Cycle 1" is the 3rd album from the trio of Bertrand Denzler on tenor saxophone, Joel Grip on double bass, and Sven on Ake Johansson on drums, a double CD + poster of four improvisations that reference "Time" through masterful technique and superb collective free jazz.
Musaeum Clausum
Musaeum Clausum
(Umlaut Records)
Musaeum Clausum is a French-German trio that features Louis Laurain on cornet (Die Hochstapler, Umlaut Big band, ONCEIM), Hannes Lingens on drums (Obliq, Konzert Minimal) and Sebastien Beliah on bass.(Un Poco Loco, Ensemble Hodos, Umlaut Big Band), in an album of patiently developing improvisation giving each player freedom and flexibility within a composed framework.
Beliah, Sebastien
Nocturnes
(Umlaut Records)
Sebastien Beliah is a Paris-based double bass player, a member of Umlaut Big Band, The Coquettes, Un poco loco, &c., here in a solo album of bass noir, dark and resonant tones evoked through strong bowing, finding harmonics between the strings and from the instrument itself, creating beautiful passages in a mirage of engulfing deep timbre.
Ensemble Hodos
Lifework : A Unity - Ensemble Hodos plays Philip Corner (Vol. 1)
(Umlaut Records)
Saxophonist Pierre-Antoine Badaroux and double bassist Sebastien Beliah formed Ensemble Hodos in 2008 to perform the music of composers who wrote scores that include freedom and/or improvisation for the players, here performing the music of Philip Corner.
Zoor
Volumes A + B
(Umlaut Records)
The French trio of saxophonist Bertrand Denzler, guitarist Jean-Sebastien Mariage and drummer Antonin Gerbal in two extended works beginning and ending on a sustained plateau while maintaining a constant state of anticipatory suspense using no electronics, treatments or effects.
Denzler, Bertrand / Antonin Gerbal
Heretofore
(Umlaut Records)
The duo of tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler and percussionist Antonin Gerbal, 2/3 of the Zoor trio, in an album of free improvisation contrasting simple and complex sounds, organic and mechanical rhythms while evoking asymmetric, geometric or enigmatic shapes.
Fabric Trio (Frank Paul Shubert / Mike Majkowski / Yorgos Dimitriadis)
Murmurs [VINYL]
(NoBusiness)
The open-minded and masterful trio of Frank Paul Schubert (sax), Mike Majkowski (bass) and Yorgos Dimitriadis (drums) recording 5 group compositions in the studio in Berlin, 2010.
Thieke, Michael Unununium
Nachtlieder
(Mikroton Recordings)
A diverse and fascinating release from clarinetist Michael Thieke, also on zither and providing field recordings, with guitarist Martin Siewert, accordionist Luca Venitucci, and two bassists--Christian Weber & Derek Shirley, and two drummers--Steve Heather and Eric Schaefer.
Warburton, Dan
Profession Reporter
(Aural Terrains)
Warburton's latest in his Walk Series, using field recordings from Morocco to study the fragile barriers between composition, improvisation, natural, and man-made sound.
International Nothing, The
Mainstream
(Ftarri)
Other Recommended Releases:
Pateras, Anthony
A Dread of Voids
(Another Timbre)
Two works written for a group of Australian performers living in Berlin--Jon Heilbron, Rebecca Lane, Jess Aszodi & Sam Dunscombe--by Australian composer and pianist Anthony Pateras, A Dread Of Voids developed for a residency at the Archipel Festival in Geneva after enduring a pandemic quarantine; and Patterned Language, composed for the Astra Chamber Music Society.
Sbatax (Denzler / Gerbal)
Spires
(Umlaut Records)
A high-intensity free jazz workout from the French duo of tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler and drummer Antonin Gerbal, long-time collaborators in their 3rd sax & drum duo album, anticipating each other's gestures to allow them flexibility in creating textural approaches to their dialog, challenging physical limits while subtly progressing their frenzied and arresting playing.
Denzler, Bertrand / Jason Kahn
Translations
(Potlatch)
The seventh release on Potlatch for tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler and the first for electronic artist Jason Kahn, in an extended electroacoustic improvisation, Denzler performing his instrument in ways Adolphe Sax did not intend intersected by Kahn's bent and crackly emissions, each increasingly assertive through to a engrossing, exhalable end.
Sugimoto, Taku
Octet
(Meenna)
Part of Japanese composer Taku Sugimoto's Solo for Strings series, these works focus on bowed stringed instruments played only with natural harmonics, arranged with clarinets and flute, using long tones and repetition that allow the performer decisions on their length, performed by a Berlin-based octet including Catherine Lamb, Johnny Change, Samuel Dunscombe, &c.
Bosshard, Patricia
Onceim-CoO
(Potlatch)
Two major works of evolving acoustic soundscape from Swiss violinist & composer Patricia Bosshard realized by the 27-member Orchestra des Nouvelles Creations, which includes Bosshard, Stephane Rives, Bertrand Denzler, &c.; "Sillon" employs a percussive pulse over 27 independently transforming grooves; "Reflets" a harmonic composition for bowed strings, including three double basses.
Euphorium_freakestra
Grande Casino [3 CDS]
(Euphorium)
A truly diverse set of improvisations, from solo work to large scale ensemble, as Euphorium_Freakestra are joined by European Free Jazz legends, drummer Baby Sommer and double bassist Barry Guy, in a band with leader & pianist Oliver Schwerdt, plus Bertrand Denzler, Burkard Beins, John Eckhardt, Pierre-Antoine Badaroux, Patrick Schanze, Daniel Beilschmidt & Freidrich Kettlitz.
Pateras, Anthony
Pseudacusis
(Bocian)
The title referring to a condition of aural hallucinations, Anthony Pateras' composition is a work of tense motion, dissonance and resolution, commissioned by the Musica Sanae project and performed at the 17th Sacrum Profanum Festival in Krakow, 2019, using a recording improvised and assembled in Australia with his tape septet that underpins the performances in concert with his live septet.
Denzler / Rodrigues / Moimeme
Immobility and Movement
(Creative Sources)
An exquisite and mysterious album of free improvisation merging acoustic and subtle electroacoustic elements, from the trio of Bertrand Denzler on tenor saxophone, Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and Abdul Moimeme on electric guitar & objects, recording in the studio for this extensive work in four parts that transitions between moments of transfixing sound and cautious motion.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC