The Squid's Ear Magazine


bBb (Martin Kuchen / Ola Rubin): Animal Quotes (Relative Pitch)

Quirky in a masterful display of instrumental skill from the Swedish duo of soprano saxophonist Martin Küchen and trombonist Ola Rubin (Swedish Fix, Lazy Rude Monk), using every inch of their instruments along with mutes, percussion and percussive emanations, creating a virtual menagerie of animalistic sounds alongside dexterous lines.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Martin Kuchen-sopranino saxophone, percussion

Ola Rubin-trombone


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UPC: 5904224871703

Label: Relative Pitch
Catalog ID: RPR1164
Squidco Product Code: 33499

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2023
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Annelund Industrial Complex #4, in Malmo, Sweden, in Autumn, 2019, by Ola Rubin.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"bBb makes everyday music for distracted times. Influences from near and afar blow in and over - and out again. Most of it pulls through the narrow neck of the sopranino sax and the emerging sounding facets of the trombone vault, but also almost archaeologically colored sound-bearing artefacts are displayed and dissected in real time.

A crack and a bang - and then jazz like a glowing blanket thrown over everything. Ola Rubin and Martin Kuchen make music for our leaking Now - both trying closing the gaps and intensively listening to the hard metaphysical rain that the present is flooded with .... Original acoustics."-bBb


Artist Biographies

"Born 1966; saxophones. Martin Küchen has been active on the Swedish free improvised/free jazz scene since the mid-1990s. He has composed for larger groups, participated in dance projects, performed with different poets and created the music for experimental films. He now collaborates with improvisors all over Europe and USA/Canada. His current collaborations include:

Angles - a new trio with Ingebrigt Håker- Flaten, doublebass, Kjell Nordeson, drums and Martin Küchen, saxophones. Exploding Customer - a free jazz quartet with Tomas Hallonsten trumpet, Benjamin Quigley double bass and Kjell Nordeson drums, which plays mainly original compositions. Sound of Mucus - a trio with the stringchordist Herman Müntzing and Andreas Axelsson, percussion. Unsolicited Music Ensemble - a trio with Tony Wren, double bass and Raymond Strid, percussion. a duo with guitarist David Stackenås. UNSK: Birgit Ulher, Martin Küchen, lise-Lott Norelius and Raymond Strid. Looper - a trio with Greek cello player Nikos Veliotis and Norwegian percussionist Ingar Zach."

-European Free Improv Site (http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/musician/mkuchen.html)
6/11/2025

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

Ola Rubin is a Swedish trombonist, known for his duos with guitarist Henrik Olsson, with saxophonist Martin Küchen, and with bassist Dan Schyman; the trio Swedish Fix with guitarist Jon Lipscomb & drummer Anders Uddeskog; the quartet Lazy Rude Monk with Küchen, Dan Schyman (bass and Anders Uddeskog (drums); the trio Semla Empanada with Olsson & saxophonist Albert Cirera; and Tombola Rubola with drummers Anders Lindsjö & Anders Uddeskog.

-Ola Rubin Website (https://olarubin.com/)
6/11/2025

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


Track Listing:



1. Chirp 5:19

2. Below Sea Level, In The Office Among Nutters 6:08

3. What I See In You I Eat 6:02

4. No Words For Humans 5:03

5. Insatiable Flight 2:52

6. The Ideal Of Calm Exists, In A Sitting Cat 4:09

7. 7? 6:56

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Jazz
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Recordings by or featuring Reed & Wind Players
Recordings featuring brass instruments - trumpets, trombones, tubas, other horns
Duo Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Relative Pitch.


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The Squid's Ear Magazine

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