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Frames & Terrains (LP)
Martin Blume drums, percussion Tobias Delius tenor sax, clarinet Achim Kaufmann piano Dieter Manderscheid piano
| | Recording track list
Side A Frames & Terrains Part 1 Side B Frames & Terrains Part 2 | | - All compositions by Martin Blume (GEMA), Achim Kaufmann (GEMA), Dieter Manderscheid (GEMA) and Tobias Delius (BUMA/STEMRA)
- Recorded live on June 9th, 2016 at LOFT, Cologne, Germany
- Recorded and mixed by Stefan Deistler
- Mastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudios
- Front cover - original artwork „10000 signatures” by Martynas Ivinskas
- Design by Oskaras Anosovas
- Produced by Danas Mikailionis
- Co-producer - Valerij Anosov
| | reviews:
"Top 10 Jazz Albums of 2018 by Colin Green - Free Jazz
Blog"
| | "Previous collaborations between British-born (though to an Argentinean father and a German mother) reedman Tobias Delius and German pianist Achim Kaufmann include appearances in drummer Christian Lillinger's Grund and in the European version of NYC singer Fay Victor's Herbie Nichols project, so their pairing as part of a co-operative quartet on Frames & Terrains
is not without precedent. That's as it should be as their partnership
is a marriage made in heaven. Both prefer the road less travelled and
bring finely honed maverick sensibilities to play on this limited
edition LP (also available as a download).
Delius essays a
stream of false fingered notes which are never confined in pitch and
veer off in all sorts of choked snuffles, plaintive bleats and generally
unexpected tangents. Kaufmann excels at being almost as off center, his
chording and asymmetric lines evoking rows of glistening shards. But
amid the wayward impulse, they also hit upon reiterated phrases which
they bat back and forth in striking conjunctions. Keeping the
proceedings towards the free jazz end of the continuum, bassist Dieter Manderscheid
punctuates with keen commentary, while drummer Martin Blume lightly
demarcates an often shuffling momentum. Both however switch effortlessly
between pulse and coloration.
The continuous performance,
divided onto two side long cuts, starts in the unhurried conversational
mode which predominates. Although tenor saxophone and piano grab the
ear, it's a four way exchange. Lovely restrained interplay abounds,
absorbing without being overly cerebral and energetic without being
strident. One of the pleasures lies in listening to how the spotlights
shifts around the group from moment to moment, who leads and who
supports. Highlights include the passage for clarinet, arco bass and
percussion in which Manderscheid's darkly abrasive bowing matches
Delius' arresting cries, and the dashing angular piano trio, eventually
joined by tenor saxophone for a demonstrative and celebratory
conclusion.
It's a superior demonstration of the art of the unfettered imagination." John Sharpe https://www.allaboutjazz.com
| | "At a 2016 concert in Cologne, Germany, the
quartet of Martin Blume/dr-perc, Tobias Delius/ts-cl, Achim Kaufmann/p
and Dieter Manderscheid/b get together for one hour+ of improvisation
divided into two parts. “Part One” includes gasping tenor, pizzicato and
bowed bass, explorative piano and intuitive drum work, while “Part Two”
has a darker cue, including gasping and howling reeds, rustling piano
and drums and throbbing bass. The music is free, loose and intuitive.
Expressive with Jackson Pollock styled music." Jazz Weekly Georges
W.Harris
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"Someone who has been part of numerous Free Jazz
aggregations since the early 1980s, Dortmund-based percussionist Martin
Blume is the constituent element that unites these recent sessions. Both are
with working groups and filled out with an international cast of exemplary
improvisers. Live in Prague 2017 is a trio with Dutch tenor saxophonist Luc
Houtkamp and London’s Steve Beresford, who plays piano and electronics.
Recorded more than a year earlier in Köln, Frames & Terrains features
Germans, bassist Dieter Manderscheid and pianist Achim Kaufmann as well as
now Berlin-based tenor saxophonist/clarinetist Tobias Delius.
A meeting of equals, Houtkamp, Beresford and Blume are most expressive on
the jokingly titled, nearly 35-minute “Ambiguous & Incomprehensible” and a
short encore. With oscillated wave forms juddering distantly, the three’s
instrumental contradictions take the form of rim-shot clattering and drum
top squeaks, clinking keyboard chords and a cornucopia of stuttering cries
and flutter tongued plastic whistle-like peeps from Houtkamp. A known
disrupter, the pianist livens up the show mid-way through by throwing some
pseudo rock’n’roll phrasing into the mix. This gesture soon escalates to
hands flapping all over the keyboard, while picking out a Blues-Rock melody
to burlesque the pianist’s inner Jerry Lee Lewis at the same time. With the
sequences now undulating vertically as much as they move horizontally, the
saxophonist’s prodigious technique upticks as well with a “Reveille”–like
wrench that soon turns to sharpened growls and tongue-slapping, and that is
met at every juncture by tonal role-playing from Beresford that adds a light
swing feel to propulsive cadenzas. As Houtkamp’s a capella snorts and split
tones are paralleled by the pianist seemingly outlaying an upside down
version of “Honky Tonk”, it’s Blume’s nerve beats and bell clanking that
corrals the yelping sax snarls into become measured reed breaths and overall
transports the jagged challenges into a connective conclusion.
Segmented into two tracks of almost equal length and with the addition of
a bassist, the quartet disc has the same sort of interactive feeling among
the players, but is angled in a unique manner. Besides the characteristic
pulses and place markings from Blume, Manderscheid’s aggressive but
moderated thumps become progressively more important and noticeable as the
concert progresses. With the pianist and saxophonist confident enough to
express themselves in lengthening phraseology, it’s the bassist and drummer
who keep the tracks rhythmically solid enough so that the descriptive
narratives have an underpinning on which to unroll.
With his experience in ensembles ranging from the ICP Orchestra to
freewheeling combos, Delius advances the sounds with expressive gambits,
alternating storytelling and squeaks. Kaufmann also bubbles the sonic stew,
at points stirring in high frequency glissandi and at others using delicate
vibes-like plinks. On “Frames & Terrains (Part 1)” it’s the drummer’s
situated clip-clops and gong-like rumbles which set up the moderated finale,
with the bassist’s swelling Arco buzzes and the saxophonist’s breathy
melodiousness completing the thoughts. A completion of the first track, but
more whimsical and slower paced, “Frames & Terrains (part 2)” is also more
dissonant. Crushing blows and press rolls from Blume plus stream roller-like
cadenzas from Kaufmann stack up against Delius’ needle-thin blurts, snorts
and whistles. Here again sul ponticello creaks from Manderscheid’s strings
plus affiliated sweeping pianism corral other timbres into a swelling
crescendo for a final surge of collaborative polyphony.
Perhaps not the best-known European drummer, veteran Blume proves that
properly located input can contribute markedly to successful improvisations.
And he has plenty of equally sympathetic partners to confirm that on these
discs.
—Ken Waxman
http://www.jazzword.com/
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"Martin Blume has set up the band and said that he
“"ikes bringing musicians together whose combination might sound
fresh and new". Like Blume, Tobias Delius (saxophone, clarinet),
Achim Kaufmann (piano), and Dieter Manderscheid (bass) are members
of the Cologne scene (even if Delius lives mainly in Berlin). The
quartet is assembled around Blume and Manderscheid, who have been
playing together for a very long time, both being
able to switch effortlessly between pulse and coloration. Especially
their quartet FOURinONE with the late Johannes Bauer and Luc
Houtkamp is worth to be re-discovered. Compared to Live
in Prague 2017 it’s obvious that Achim Kaufmann differs
from Steve Beresford as to his harmonic subtlety and his structural
style. Similar to Blume, his approach is often close to new
classical music, being poetical, energetic and asymmetric.
Additionally, Tobias Delius - although involved in the Amsterdam
scene around the ICP Orchestra - is a very different player compared
to Luc Houtkamp. On the one hand, he also combines traditional swing
and hard bop sounds with elements of the blues and an old school
free jazz attitude. On the other hand, he does use circular
breathing, key claps, multiphonics and microtones. That said, it’s
clear that he can offer a bigger variety to the music of this
project.
The albums starts with Delius’
saxophone chasing turned up melody fragments into the room, hectic
rushes, tension, quiteness, and exuberance are present from the very
first moment. Kaufmann literally builds up the frames and terrains,
in which the four musicians are able to interact. It’s true that the
tenor saxophone and the piano grab the ear, yet it's a four way
exchange about sound and structure. After seven minutes, Kaufmann is
left alone by his combatants finishing his thoughts before a bass
pattern opens a new terrain for the others to join in. All of a
sudden the atmosphere has changed from cheerful gaiety to a gloomy
frown, typified by Delius on clarinet in a duo with Manderscheid’s
arco bass. Percussion and piano creep back into the piece almost
imperceptibly. In general it’s a pure pleasure to listen how the
highlights ricochet within the group, to find out who leads and
who’s holding back. Whenever you think that everything has fallen
apart, that there’s no rhythm anymore, no melody, when all energy
seems to have left the music, suddenly an inner connection emerges,
a compelling rhythm is found that often invites another little
melody. A perfect example of this is the ending of the album, which
displays a very tenderly introduced piano trio, delicately conceived
with Manderscheid in the center, gradually picking up dynamics and
speed. Twitching piano runs and firm chords open a last terrain: the
trio is joined by Delius’ tenor for a light-footed, jubilant
conclusion. "
Martin Schray Free Jazz Blog
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