German, Cologne-based classically-trained cellist and composer Emily Wittbrodt is known for her role in free jazz ensembles as The Dorf, or recently in the Words tour of Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra, the electro-acoustic duo with Edis Ludwig on electronics, Ludwig Wittbrodt, and the chamber-jazz of hilde.
Wittbrodt began to explore in her 2023 album Make You Stay (Ana Ott) how lyrics – poems by e.e. Cummings and Stine Sampers and fragments of lyrics by bossa nova singer Astrud Gilberto—fit within her melodies and are as important as the words themselves. Wearing Words takes a step further, deepening Wittbrodt’s fascination with language and poetry. It explores the delicate interplay of language, poetry – now Wittbrodt’s songs, written and sung in English (and not German) – and music. The album’s title refers to Wittbrodt’s feeling of filling her compositions with new words in a second language. The title also reflects Wittbrodt’s response to those who use inflammatory words to desensitize society.
Wearing Words is a cycle of five instrumental chamber pieces and five baroque and pop-art songs that reflect the seminal impact of gender-fluid songwriter Anohni. Wittbrodt plays most of the music on cello, harpsichord, synths, theremin, guitar, and piano, and the intimate, vulnerable songs have an unpredictable quality, imaginative arrangements, and unconventional instrumentation. The songs are sung by the classically trained opera tenor singer, Sandro Hähnel. Wittbrodt arranged the songs for Hähnel’s voice, stressing his soft yet commanding delivery and his fragile and genderless qualities, faithfully radiating the themes of uncertainty and chaos of our current times.
Wearing Words is a thoughtful, beautiful, and, obviously, poetic work.
Eyal Hareuveni
Emily Wittbrodt (cello, harpsichord, synthesizers, guitar, theremin, piano), Jan Philipp (drums, synthesizers), Sandro Hähnel (voice), Tizia Zimmermann (accordion), Shabnam Parvaresh (clarinet, bass clarinet), David Helm (bass, harpsichord)
