BAGG*FiSH is the improvisational noise power duo featuring Viennese Michael Fischer, a key figure in the Austrian free improvised music scene, the inventor of the feedback-saxophone, and the artistic director of the Vienna Improvisers Orchestra, and Argentinean-Dutch, Amsterdam-based drummer Marc Baggiani, a leading voice in Amsterdam’s flourishing free improv scene. El Tren, titled after the Viennese studio where the duo recorded eight, uncut improvisations in September 2021, is the second album of the duo (following the self-titled album from 2013 (released by Trytone).
El Tren features the gifted Brazilian double bass player Vinicius Cajado, who divides his time between New York, Berlin and Vienna, and joined BAGG*FiSH’s latest tour in Austria and Hungary before recording this album. Cajado integrates immediately with the hectic and subversive dynamics of BAGG*FiSH.
El Tren presents the augmented BAGG*FiSH in its most dadaist and radical free improvisation mode. The dynamics are restless and unpredictable, full of inventive and risk-taking gestures and, manic rhythmic patterns, and are mischievous, noisy and inventive. There is no way to tell where this trio would take you in its mysterious ride. BAGG*FiSH is determined to explore and experiment with the outer sonic range of the tenor sax and the feedback sax, often sounding like a psychedelic electric guitar on distortion steroids, the powerful drumming by Baggiani, or the idiosyncratic sonic palette of Cajado. But BAGG*FiSH does not focus only on intense and ecstatic onslaughts and can explore soft, delicate and quiet soundscapes as on «Buenos Debrecen», gentle ones on «Late Night Conversation» or twisted, shamanic ones on the last improvisation «Arrival».
The titles of the pieces hint about the performance of the trio at the ArtActs Festival in St Johann in Austria (“Sankt Amsterdam” and “New São Johann”) and prepare the listener for the wild, imaginative and poetic journey.
Eyal Hareuveni
Michael Fischer (tenor saxophone, feedback saxophone, vocals), Vinicius Cajado (double bass), Marcos Baggiani (drums, percussion, kazoo)
