QUINTET MODERNE line - up 2021
Harri Sjöström - Philipp Wachsmann - Sebi Tramontana - Wilbert De Joode - Dag Magnus Narvesen
Harri Sjöström - Philipp Wachsmann - Sebi Tramontana - Wilbert De Joode - Dag Magnus Narvesen
"The group is one of the rare and daring ensembles of the European music scene, who take the risk of unconditional improvisation and who at the same time bring to bear spontaneous composition. The musicians, each an excellent instrumentalist, are not concerned with dazzling audiences by means of a display of skill or superficial tricks. The quintet makes group related music incorporating the five strong and “characterful” musicians, each of whom relies on a history of rich experience. They intentionally avoid clichés and face up to the challenge of using their highly developed techniques in an always unpredicted process of communication. Fine subtleties of rhythmic flow, of noise and tone colors create a complex tableau full of unremitting inner tension. What might bring to mind elements hear in contemporary composed music is nothing more than an associativescenario for this interactive process. Although the players are of varied backgrounds and different geographical origins and experiences, their music has one common basis—the aesthetic and even an ethical principle of improvisation. ...”
(Text by Bert Noglik, translated by Phil Wachsmann)
(Text by Bert Noglik, translated by Phil Wachsmann)
QUINTET MODERNE
Die Gruppe wird zu den raren und mutigen Kollektiven der europäischen Musiklandschaft gezählt, die sich auf das Risiko vorbehaltloser Improvisation einlassen und dabei zugleich einenausgeprägten Sinn für spontanes Komponieren offenbaren. Den Musikern, alle erstklassige Instrumentalisten, geht es allerdings nicht darum, durch vordergründige Kunststücke zu verblüffen: das Quintett überzeugt vor allem durch das gruppenbezogene Spiel von fünf starken Musikerpersönlichkeiten, die allesamt auf eine reich musikalische Erfahrung zurückgreifen können. Sie vermeiden bewusst, erprobte Spielmuster zu reproduzieren und sich der Herausforderung, ihre hochentwickelten Techniken in einenjedesmal voraussagbaren Kommunikationsprozess einzudringen. Durch feine Differenzierungen von rhythmischen
Bewegungsströmen, Klang-und Geräuschfarben entsteht ein musikalisches Ensemblebild, das zugleich von einer unablässigen Eigendynamik durchgezogen wird. Was an Einflüssen aus komponierter Neue Musik erinnern mag, ist nichts anderes als ein Assoziationsfeld, in dem sich diese Spielprozesse auch bewegen. Trotz weitergespannter geografischer Linien, die die Lebenswege der fünf Musiker beschreiben, gibt es eine gemeinsame Basis des Spiels: Eine Ethik und Ästhetik des Improvisierens mit europäischem Hintergrund.
(Bert Noglik)
Die Gruppe wird zu den raren und mutigen Kollektiven der europäischen Musiklandschaft gezählt, die sich auf das Risiko vorbehaltloser Improvisation einlassen und dabei zugleich einenausgeprägten Sinn für spontanes Komponieren offenbaren. Den Musikern, alle erstklassige Instrumentalisten, geht es allerdings nicht darum, durch vordergründige Kunststücke zu verblüffen: das Quintett überzeugt vor allem durch das gruppenbezogene Spiel von fünf starken Musikerpersönlichkeiten, die allesamt auf eine reich musikalische Erfahrung zurückgreifen können. Sie vermeiden bewusst, erprobte Spielmuster zu reproduzieren und sich der Herausforderung, ihre hochentwickelten Techniken in einenjedesmal voraussagbaren Kommunikationsprozess einzudringen. Durch feine Differenzierungen von rhythmischen
Bewegungsströmen, Klang-und Geräuschfarben entsteht ein musikalisches Ensemblebild, das zugleich von einer unablässigen Eigendynamik durchgezogen wird. Was an Einflüssen aus komponierter Neue Musik erinnern mag, ist nichts anderes als ein Assoziationsfeld, in dem sich diese Spielprozesse auch bewegen. Trotz weitergespannter geografischer Linien, die die Lebenswege der fünf Musiker beschreiben, gibt es eine gemeinsame Basis des Spiels: Eine Ethik und Ästhetik des Improvisierens mit europäischem Hintergrund.
(Bert Noglik)
Harri Sjöström - born on 29 February 1952 in Turku, Finland, found his voice in music on the soprano and sopranino saxophone. His music and fine art studies in San Francisco at Lone Mountain College (UCSF) and San Francisco Art Institute in the 1970s led him directly to workshops by John Cage, Bill Dixon, Vinko Globokar, George Russell, and his saxophone teachers Leo Wright and Steve Lacy. Since 1978 continuous extensive work as a freelance musician, initiator of interdisciplinary ensembles in the field of contemporary improvised music and mixed media projects. Back to Europe 1978 he started to work with Derek Bailey, Teppo Hauta-aho, Paul Lovens, John Russell, Paul Rutherford, Alexander von Schlippenbach a.o.
In 1980 -1985 he lived in Vienna, Austria, which became his doorway to the European contemporary music scene; formed his first groups and organized numerous artist exchange-projects in Finland and elsewhere.
Between 1990 and 2016 an extensive collaboration with the pianist and composer Cecil Taylor developed, including seven live recordings with small ensembles and recordings with larger Cecil Taylor ensembles. Of particular note is the Cecil Taylor Quintet with Cecil Taylor, Harri Sjöström, Teppo Hauta-aho, Tristan Honsinger, Paul Lovens. Energetic and with an appetite for risk he founded and co-founded many ensembles with highly interesting instrumental line-ups including such as Quintet Moderne, MOVE - quintet, European Composers Improvisors Orchestra - ECIO, Up And Out, City Of Pyramids, The Player Is, Wait, Motström, The Treasures Are, Sestetto Internazionale a.o. Harri has been teaching saxophone since 1980 and is a vital member of the European contemporary improvised music scene; he has composed music for film and is still active today with his photography.
www.harrisjostrom.com
In 1980 -1985 he lived in Vienna, Austria, which became his doorway to the European contemporary music scene; formed his first groups and organized numerous artist exchange-projects in Finland and elsewhere.
Between 1990 and 2016 an extensive collaboration with the pianist and composer Cecil Taylor developed, including seven live recordings with small ensembles and recordings with larger Cecil Taylor ensembles. Of particular note is the Cecil Taylor Quintet with Cecil Taylor, Harri Sjöström, Teppo Hauta-aho, Tristan Honsinger, Paul Lovens. Energetic and with an appetite for risk he founded and co-founded many ensembles with highly interesting instrumental line-ups including such as Quintet Moderne, MOVE - quintet, European Composers Improvisors Orchestra - ECIO, Up And Out, City Of Pyramids, The Player Is, Wait, Motström, The Treasures Are, Sestetto Internazionale a.o. Harri has been teaching saxophone since 1980 and is a vital member of the European contemporary improvised music scene; he has composed music for film and is still active today with his photography.
www.harrisjostrom.com
Phil Wachsmann - born 1944 is a contemporary / new music violinist composer performer. He has worked with many musicians in the free jazz idiom, including Evan Parker, Fred van Hove, Barry Guy, Derek Bailey, Paul Rutherford and many others. Largely concerned with improvisation, he developed work on the violin both acoustically and with electronics.
John Corbett notes that Phillip Wachsmann came to free improvisation from a predominantly classical background, particularly via the contemporary experiments of indeterminacy, graphic and prose-based scores, conceptualism and electroacoustics, listening to Webern, Partch, Ives, Berio and Varèse, reading ‘Die Reihe’ and interrogating the rhythmic, harmonic and melodic preoccupations of Western art music. Starting in 1969, Wachsmann was a member of Yggdrasil, an ensemble performing works by Cage, Cardew, Feldman, Ashley and others and in this group he used contact mikes on the violin and made his own electronic instruments, ring modulators and routing devices. Ironically, his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris (1969-1970) pushed him hard in the direction of free music. He recalls: ‘Despite her neoclassical orientation, her insistence that composition is about the imagination of performance and its realisation, the live moment, and her stunning ability to make this happen was a powerful influence on me, steering towards ‘performance’ and therefore ‘improvisation’.’
LINKS:
European Free Improvisation
Bead Records
Philipp Wachsmann was born in Kampala in 1944 and moved to England in 1954. He studied violin with the international artist Isolde Menges, and music at Durham University gaining a BA with first class honours, and received a scholarship to study violin and composition at Indiana University, Bloomington USA in 1964/5, and another scholarship to study composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in 1968/9 where he also attended courses in modern music given by Henri Pousseur, and, by Pierre Boulez in Basel. He was a lecturer subsequently at Durham University 1969/70 and then moved to London to start a performing career.
He pioneered new sounds using the violin and electronics and can be heard on over 90 LPs/CDs on different labels including ECM, and plays worldwide. He performs with most of the musicians working in modern and improvisation related music. Ensembles and recordings include the London Jazz Composer’s Orchestra, the late Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Barry Guy, the Belgian pianist Fred van Hove, and Tony Oxley. Recent ensembles are the Stellari String Quartet, The Imaginary String Trio but he often works as a soloist alone or with other groups. He regularly conducts his own pieces with the London Improvisation Orchestra. Compositions include ‘Three Draft Pistons’ for violin and electro-acoustic tape, a work for Chamber Orchestra, and various pieces and conduction projects with the London Improvisers Orchestra.
Recent performances include a tour with the video artist Kjell Bjorgeengen and musician Keith Rowe in the ‘Kill Your Timid Notion’ festival tour, a tour in the trio with the Chicago based saxophonist Ken Vandemark and Paul Lytton, and with the artist Sarah Eckel at the FMP Festival in Berlin.
He also works with film, dance and architecture. For many years he was Director of the Electronic Music Studio at Morley College and currently teaches courses in composition at the City Literary Institute.
He was much influenced by the music of Uganda heard since childhood and by discussions with his Father Klaus Wachsmann over the years, and by ethno-musicological thinking, though he has developed his own musical language as a performer and music making musician. Recently he delivered a now published paper on the “Changeability of Musical Experience – influences on my music making”.
Starting in 1972 he has given regular workshops in improvised music at various places and which have been a starting place for many of today’s performers.
John Corbett notes that Phillip Wachsmann came to free improvisation from a predominantly classical background, particularly via the contemporary experiments of indeterminacy, graphic and prose-based scores, conceptualism and electroacoustics, listening to Webern, Partch, Ives, Berio and Varèse, reading ‘Die Reihe’ and interrogating the rhythmic, harmonic and melodic preoccupations of Western art music. Starting in 1969, Wachsmann was a member of Yggdrasil, an ensemble performing works by Cage, Cardew, Feldman, Ashley and others and in this group he used contact mikes on the violin and made his own electronic instruments, ring modulators and routing devices. Ironically, his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris (1969-1970) pushed him hard in the direction of free music. He recalls: ‘Despite her neoclassical orientation, her insistence that composition is about the imagination of performance and its realisation, the live moment, and her stunning ability to make this happen was a powerful influence on me, steering towards ‘performance’ and therefore ‘improvisation’.’
LINKS:
European Free Improvisation
Bead Records
Philipp Wachsmann was born in Kampala in 1944 and moved to England in 1954. He studied violin with the international artist Isolde Menges, and music at Durham University gaining a BA with first class honours, and received a scholarship to study violin and composition at Indiana University, Bloomington USA in 1964/5, and another scholarship to study composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in 1968/9 where he also attended courses in modern music given by Henri Pousseur, and, by Pierre Boulez in Basel. He was a lecturer subsequently at Durham University 1969/70 and then moved to London to start a performing career.
He pioneered new sounds using the violin and electronics and can be heard on over 90 LPs/CDs on different labels including ECM, and plays worldwide. He performs with most of the musicians working in modern and improvisation related music. Ensembles and recordings include the London Jazz Composer’s Orchestra, the late Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Barry Guy, the Belgian pianist Fred van Hove, and Tony Oxley. Recent ensembles are the Stellari String Quartet, The Imaginary String Trio but he often works as a soloist alone or with other groups. He regularly conducts his own pieces with the London Improvisation Orchestra. Compositions include ‘Three Draft Pistons’ for violin and electro-acoustic tape, a work for Chamber Orchestra, and various pieces and conduction projects with the London Improvisers Orchestra.
Recent performances include a tour with the video artist Kjell Bjorgeengen and musician Keith Rowe in the ‘Kill Your Timid Notion’ festival tour, a tour in the trio with the Chicago based saxophonist Ken Vandemark and Paul Lytton, and with the artist Sarah Eckel at the FMP Festival in Berlin.
He also works with film, dance and architecture. For many years he was Director of the Electronic Music Studio at Morley College and currently teaches courses in composition at the City Literary Institute.
He was much influenced by the music of Uganda heard since childhood and by discussions with his Father Klaus Wachsmann over the years, and by ethno-musicological thinking, though he has developed his own musical language as a performer and music making musician. Recently he delivered a now published paper on the “Changeability of Musical Experience – influences on my music making”.
Starting in 1972 he has given regular workshops in improvised music at various places and which have been a starting place for many of today’s performers.
Wilbert de Joode “Wilbert does not play bass anymore… He has become his bass”
Wilbert de Joode (1955) is a veritable research scientist of bass pizzicato and bowing techniques. A self-taught musician, he has been playing the double-bass since 1982. He began working in groups that improvised within a jazz framework. Other musicians were soon drawn to his idiosyncratic style, and in the mid 80s he played in groups led by Vera Vingerhoeds, Armando Cairo and Ig Henneman where he further developed his improvisation skills. He came into contact with such musicians as J.C.Tans, Rinus Groeneveld, Michiel Braam, Han Bennink, Han Buhrs (Schismatics) and Ab Baars.De Joode is currently one of the most active bass players on the European improvised music circuit.
His individual style and musicality transforms the double bass into an equal partner in the most varied ensembles. A personal tone colour, exploration of the outer registers, quirky improvisations and the use of gut strings contribute to an instantly recognizable and intriguing sound.The seventeen improvised pieces on his first solo cd Olo (distributed by ToonDist) show how rich and complex his sound on the double bass is.
Wilbert de Joode (1955) is a veritable research scientist of bass pizzicato and bowing techniques. A self-taught musician, he has been playing the double-bass since 1982. He began working in groups that improvised within a jazz framework. Other musicians were soon drawn to his idiosyncratic style, and in the mid 80s he played in groups led by Vera Vingerhoeds, Armando Cairo and Ig Henneman where he further developed his improvisation skills. He came into contact with such musicians as J.C.Tans, Rinus Groeneveld, Michiel Braam, Han Bennink, Han Buhrs (Schismatics) and Ab Baars.De Joode is currently one of the most active bass players on the European improvised music circuit.
His individual style and musicality transforms the double bass into an equal partner in the most varied ensembles. A personal tone colour, exploration of the outer registers, quirky improvisations and the use of gut strings contribute to an instantly recognizable and intriguing sound.The seventeen improvised pieces on his first solo cd Olo (distributed by ToonDist) show how rich and complex his sound on the double bass is.
Sebi Tramontana - Born 12 December 1960 in Rosolini, Sicily; trombone.
Sebi Tramontana started playing guitar as a child and then moved to the soprano saxophone in the late 1970s. He switched to trombone in 1982 and during a radio production with Bruno Tommaso met Giancarlo Schiaffini, who convinced him to move to Rome and study with him at A. Casella Conservatorio in L'Aquila. In Rome he calloborated with Martin Joseph, Eugenio Colombio and Mario Schiano and in 1986 was a member of the New Talents Orchestra, performing at the Rocella Jonica Festival. He guested with Gruppo Romano Free Jazz for their 30th anniversary in 1996. In 1987 he started a trio with Daniel Studer and Roberto Altamura which played at the Contraindicazione Festival in Rome and subsequently performed with Paul Rutherford, Barry Guy, Gerard Siracusa, Eugenio Colombo, Co Streiff and Martin Mayes.
Tramontana was invited by Mario Schiano in 1988 to take part in the recording of Red and blue with Vladimir Tarasov and Vladimir Chekasin. In 1990 he completed his studies at A. Casella Conservatorio and joined the Italian Instabile Orchestra. His first solo performance was in Rome in 1992 and this has been followed by performances in Zürich, Mulhouse, Clusone, Köln, Ruvo Di Puglia, Roccella, Jonica and Göttingen. In 1994 he was invited by Georg Gräwe to "Two Nights Of Random Acoustics" in Köln, subsequently joining the Georg Graewe Quintet and touring Europe. In 1998, he recorded a duo with Graewe for the Italian Splasc(h) label and in July 2003 became a member of the Georg Graewe new quintet, with Tobias Delius, Kent Kessler and Michael Vatcher.Paragraph. Zur Bearbeitung hier klicken.
Sebi Tramontana started playing guitar as a child and then moved to the soprano saxophone in the late 1970s. He switched to trombone in 1982 and during a radio production with Bruno Tommaso met Giancarlo Schiaffini, who convinced him to move to Rome and study with him at A. Casella Conservatorio in L'Aquila. In Rome he calloborated with Martin Joseph, Eugenio Colombio and Mario Schiano and in 1986 was a member of the New Talents Orchestra, performing at the Rocella Jonica Festival. He guested with Gruppo Romano Free Jazz for their 30th anniversary in 1996. In 1987 he started a trio with Daniel Studer and Roberto Altamura which played at the Contraindicazione Festival in Rome and subsequently performed with Paul Rutherford, Barry Guy, Gerard Siracusa, Eugenio Colombo, Co Streiff and Martin Mayes.
Tramontana was invited by Mario Schiano in 1988 to take part in the recording of Red and blue with Vladimir Tarasov and Vladimir Chekasin. In 1990 he completed his studies at A. Casella Conservatorio and joined the Italian Instabile Orchestra. His first solo performance was in Rome in 1992 and this has been followed by performances in Zürich, Mulhouse, Clusone, Köln, Ruvo Di Puglia, Roccella, Jonica and Göttingen. In 1994 he was invited by Georg Gräwe to "Two Nights Of Random Acoustics" in Köln, subsequently joining the Georg Graewe Quintet and touring Europe. In 1998, he recorded a duo with Graewe for the Italian Splasc(h) label and in July 2003 became a member of the Georg Graewe new quintet, with Tobias Delius, Kent Kessler and Michael Vatcher.Paragraph. Zur Bearbeitung hier klicken.
DAG MAGNUS NARVESEN - drums
born in 1983, is a drummer, percussionist and composer who is mainly working in the field of improvised and contemporary music. Emerging from the diverse and renowned jazz scene of Norway, leading bands like Sasquatch, co-leading Kitchen Orchestra and as a member of Gunhild Seim's Time Jungle, his current musical endeavors feature his highly acclaimed octet DAMANA, Schlippenbach/Narvesen Duo, Dag Magnus Narvesen kvintett, Harri Sjöström's MOVE quintet and Up and Out, Didrik Ingvaldsen Orchestra and Aki Takase's Japanic, to name a few. In working with these and other bands, especially some tied to the Berlin scene, he has acquired a reputation as a highly skilled drummer and a trusted musical collaborator.
www.dagmagnus.com
born in 1983, is a drummer, percussionist and composer who is mainly working in the field of improvised and contemporary music. Emerging from the diverse and renowned jazz scene of Norway, leading bands like Sasquatch, co-leading Kitchen Orchestra and as a member of Gunhild Seim's Time Jungle, his current musical endeavors feature his highly acclaimed octet DAMANA, Schlippenbach/Narvesen Duo, Dag Magnus Narvesen kvintett, Harri Sjöström's MOVE quintet and Up and Out, Didrik Ingvaldsen Orchestra and Aki Takase's Japanic, to name a few. In working with these and other bands, especially some tied to the Berlin scene, he has acquired a reputation as a highly skilled drummer and a trusted musical collaborator.
www.dagmagnus.com
