The three volumes of «Untitled» offer four extended free improvisations with British, German and Swiss masters of the art of the moment, including two solo free improvisations of two of these masters – German trumpeter Axel Dörner and Swiss sax player Urs Leimgruber, all recorded on the same day at NuR in Leipzig, Germany, in December 2015.
The first Untitled improvisation features Dörner, English percussionist Roger Turner and electric organist Ra Ra da Boff (an alter ego for pianist-keyboardist-composer Oliver Schwerdt, the head of the Leipzig-based Euphorium Records, who produced these albums and designed the covers). This improvisation continues the meeting of these gifted improvisers on «London Leipzig Berlin» (Euphorium, 2015), recorded in Leipzig in December 2013. This improvisation relies on subtle employment of extended techniques and opts for slow-cooking, deep listening dynamics. It suggests a fragile, sparse and quite an impressionist drone texture, with Dörner’s abstract, muted breaths and blows at its center.
The second improvisation features Turner, Leimgruber and electric organist Ribo Flesh (another alias of Schwerdt), and it adapts similar, patient and quiet dynamics, again, relying on extended techniques. Leimgruber takes the lead and at the beginning of this improvisation, his reserved sax blows extend the eerie, organ sounds of the mysterious Ribo Flesh, while Turner ornaments this enigmatic, ethereal dialog with ritualist, resonant bells sounds. Later, Leimgruber’s delicate sax squeaks and breaths trigger loose and brief rhythmic patterns of Turner and distant, abstract drone sounds of Ribo Flesh.
Dörner’s mini-disc «Untitled (Berlin)» is an 18-minutes improvisation that offers an array of inventive, extended breathing techniques that employ the trumpet as an ethereal sonic generator, producing a series of weird sounds ranging from, abstract white noises to alien hissing voices and some fleeting, lyrical themes.
Leimgruber’s mini-disc (plus download option) «Untitled (Luzern)» is a 14-minute improvisation and it is a real gem. Leimgruber focuses on the soprano sax and offers the poetic manner in which he weaves sonic searches and experiments with playful and talkative cries and blows into a highly nuanced and layered texture.
Eyal Hareuveni
Roger Turner (dr, perc), Urs Leimgruber (ts, ss), Axel Dörner (tp), Ribo Flesh (el.org, little instrument); Ra Ra da Boff (el.org, little instrument)
