«Live At JazzCase» documents the first meeting and first live recording of German-Dutch flutist Mark Alban Lotz’ Lotz Of Music band with Swiss clarinet player Claudio Puntin. The expanded Lotz Of Music performed wo sets at the Dommelhof in Neerpelt, Belgium, in September 2016. During these sets, the tunes list transformed into a long and playful improvisation.

Such meetings are common in the long musical adventure of the globe-trotter Lotz, who grew up in Thailand, Uganda and Germany, collaborated with folk musicians from Cuba, India and Turkey, as well as with jazz musicians from all over the globe, theater groups and dancers. His own pan-European Lotz Of Music has become his own sonic lab that transcends classical and contemporary chamber music , jazz, world music and free improvisation spices with subtle electronics.

Lotz always stresses the importance of «being swept along by the power of the moment». And this is what «Live At JazzCase» is all about. An intuitive and joyful journey into ancient and imagined, colorful territories, characterized with inventive dramatic narrative, compassionate humor and many melodic gestures and games. Lotz’s flutes, including the PVC contrabass flute, and his extended breathing techniques, can make you imagine the taste of a pickled herring or Japanese omelette, the joy of sailing in faraway rivers and bathing in sunny beaches or the disturbing sense of dreaming about the fate of Quasimodo, as the titles of his pieces suggest, All these visions may become blurred and somewhat hazy throughout the eight pieces of «Live At JazzCase». You may remember where and how you began this trip. No guarantee that you would have any clue about its destination.

Eyal Hareuveni

Mark Alban Lotz (piccolo, c, alt, bass and PVC contrabass fl, v, eff), Claudio Puntin (cl, bcl, jaw harp, v, eff), Albert van Veenendaal (p, prep. p), Jörg Brinkman (c, eff), Alan Purves Gunga (dr, perc, brim bram, objects)