Lina Allemano - Sunday Interview

(photo by Manuel Miethe)

1. What is your greatest joy in improvised music?

Risk, adventure, not-knowing, searching, flowing, discovering, sharing.

2. What quality do you most admire in the musicians you perform with?

Deep listening, musical generosity of spirit, effortless/egoless virtuosity and/or musicality.

3. Which historical musician/composer do you admire the most?

I don’t have a singular “the most”… I admire very many and am always excited to discover more music from the living and the dead.

4. If you could resurrect a musician to perform with, who would it be?

This question is a bit for me like the question, “If you could have an all-star fantasy band, who would be in it?”, to which my answer always is, “I already have my fantasy bands”.

5. What would you still like to achieve musically in your life?

I would like to delve deeper into composition and compose for instruments I am not yet overly familiar with… like harp, for example.

6. Are you interested in popular music and - if yes - what music/artist do you particularly like

Of course! I do play with some fantastic pop musicians from time to time, and for example, I’m a fan of Jeremy Dutcher whose newest album Motewolonuwok comes out very soon…

7. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

How do I answer this one…? I’m feeling pretty lucky and happy to be alive. Changing something about myself is somehow not on the top of my to-do list, so I guess I haven’t put much thought into it. I’m more focussed on finding out what I can do while I’m here on this planet and what it means to be an artist in this crazy world…

8. Which of your albums are you most proud of?

I’m generally most proud of whichever album I’m making at the moment… until I make a new album… and then I’m most of proud of that one. And so on. I like to move forward, so I don’t tend to look back.

9. Once an album of yours is released, do you still listen to it? And how often?

Nope, never. Leading up to the release, I will have listened to it a zillion times (first choosing the takes, then mixing, then mastering… the whole process goes on for months), so by then it’s completely internalized and I have no desire to listen again. Besides, there’s always more new music to listen to since I keep making new albums, and then there’s the music of other people that I would much prefer to listen to and spend time with… and there’s only so many hours in the day, so… no, why go back?

10. Which album (from any musician) have you listened to the most in your life?

Well, unfortunately that would probably be my own due to the endless process of listening I described in Question 9 that I have to do when producing my own albums. But I’ve had many an album on endless repeat over the years from many different artists… No point in listing those off, too many, but perhaps it’s a fun fact that the first album I recall listening to endlessly on repeat was when I was aged 12… it was a Woody Shaw album called Woody 3 and it was on cassette, taped from my dad’s vinyl.

11. What are you listening to at the moment?

Takes from the latest recording sessions with my Berlin trio Ohrenschmaus + special guests. (You see? It’s endless! As soon as you release an album, you immediately have to start listening to takes from the next one.)

12. What artist outside music inspires you?

My mother inspires me a lot. She’s a literary translator and I would definitely consider what she does to be an art. I’m also currently very inspired by the drawings of Berlin-based visual artist Lena Czerniawska, who made the beautiful cover artwork for my newest album Canons.

Albums with Lina Allemano that we reviewed

• Lina Allemano, Uwe Oberg, Matthias Bauer, Rudi Fischerlehner - SOG (Creative Sources, 2023)
• Lina Allemano Four - Pipe Dream (Lumo Records, 2023)
• Lina Allemano & Nick Fraser - Trumpet Drums REMIX Festival (Lumo, 2021) ****
• Lina Allemano Four - Vegetables Album (Lumo, 2021) ****
• Bloop - Proof (Lumo, 2021) ****½
• Lina Allemano’s Ohrenschmaus - Rats and Mice (Lumo, 2020) ****½
• Lina Allemano - Glimmer Glammer - Solo Trumpet (Lumo Records, 2020) ****½
• Lina Allemano Four - Sometimes Y (Lumo Records, 2017) ****½ 
• Lina Allemano's Titanium Riot - Squish It! (Lumo Records, 2017) ****½
• Lina Allemano's Titanium Riot - Squish It! (Lumo Records, 2017) ****½
• Lina Allemano's Titanium Riot - Kiss The Brain (Lumo Records, 2015) *****
• Lina Allemano Four - Live At The Tranzac (Lumo, 2012) ****