Oliwood is an ongoing project of German, Berlin-based drummer Oliver Steidle (who leads Oli Steidle and the Killing Popes quartet, Soko Steidle quintet and plays in the Ilog duo with turntables wizard Ignaz Schick) that has a changing line-up and distinct sonic aesthetics for each production, stressing Steidle’s claim that he is no purist and feels at home playing jazz, bebop, free jazz, classical music, Neue Musik, hip-hop or punk.
The first album of this project, Euphoria (Yellowbird, 2017), featured German sax hero Frank Gratkowski, and Finnish (and fellow Berliner) guitarist Kalle Kalima, and offered Steidle’s compositions that flirted with art rock and Neue Musik. The new, second line-up of Oliwood is acoustic and suggests a modern approach to the so-called Jazz from the sixties, and features American trumpeter Peter Evans (on a pocket trumpet only), and German bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall (who plays in Soko Steidle) and double bass player Robert Landferman. The album was recorded live at the Loft club in Cologne in September 2022.
The album's title captures the irreverent, free spirit of the album, but it is also a reflection of how these gifted musicians play and improvise, construct and deconstruct compositions and build tension, and weave together colors, illusions and layered rhythmic patterns. The four musicians contributed compositions, often ones that they already tested in their own independent projects. The album opens with Landfermann’s “Right as Rain” (from his Brief, Pirouet, 2018), which already establishes the brilliant, super-fast manner that the quartet playfully alternates between ‘in’ and ‘out’ while employing inventing breathing, bowing and percussive extended techniques. Mahall’s “Ich stand im Stau” (I was stuck in a traffic jam in German, from Die Enttäuschung, Music Minus One, Two Nineteen, 2023) and “Ich hab den Kopf nicht frei” (I don’t have a clear mind) solidify the ironic-anarchistic spirit of the album as well as the great love these musicians share for bebop music.
The quartet’s free-improvised piece “Meditation on a slaughterhouse” (in its two parts) has a macabre title, but many of the old slaughterhouses - schlachthofs - have been transformed into art spaces, so this surreal and restless piece may reflect on the poor lives taken in such halls. Evans leads the quartet on his composition “Freaks” (which will appear on his upcoming solo album, Extra, We Jazz, 2024), pushing all into a powerful, free jazz groove. Steidle’s “Bling bling Frogs” and “How to prioritize differently” intensify this rhythmic vein but with a more disciplined and complex approach that affirms the benefits of tension-filled dynamics. Hopefully, this great quartet will keep on to dissect the Anatomy of Anarchy.
Peter Evans (pocket trumpet); Rudi Mahall (bass clarinet); Robert Landfermann (double bass); Oli Steidle (drums, percussion).
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please note that comments on posts do not appear immediately - unfortunately we must filter for spam and other idiocy.