BISTRE is the Berlin-based, free-improv trio og German trombonist Matthias Müller, Portuguese cellist Guilherme Rodrigues and American guitarist Eric Wong. The trio describes itself as exploring multiple dynamics of playing, and utilizing different sounds, ranging from noisy attacks to full resonance of their instruments, intervening with each other to create dialogues, tensions, and different spectrum of soundscapes.
Müller has worked with of innovative German trombonists as albert Mangelsdorff, as a member of the German-French Jazz Ensemble, and in a trombone trio with Johannes Bauer and Christof Thewes («Posaunenglanzterzett – live im Künstlerhaus», Gligg Records, 2012). He is also member of the local Splitter Orchestra and active in the field of contemporary music and writes music for theatre and dance pieces. Like-minded Rodrigues and Wong collaborated before in a free-improv quartet («Temperature Difference», Creative Sources, 2017) and as a duo («ArtTraktiv Studios Berlin 2016» (Self releases by Rodrigues 2017).
«As We Read Along…» was recorded at Studiobörne 45 in May 2017 and the trio recorded afterwards a live album in November 2017, «Live at StudioAcht» (self produced, 2017). The five pieces are titled as opening lines to short, mystery stories but cut in the middle before betraying the complex plot. In a way, the collective improvisations offer similar enigmatic journeys in weird but colorful and imaginative sounds, disciplined manner of tension building, contemplative but surprisingly lyrical dynamics and highly attentive interplay, where every gesture or sound counts.
The third improvisation «What I’m Going To Tell You Is…» sounds as the most open-ended and richest in tensed dynamics and arresting sounds, suggesting a free-associative talk between friendly poets, each one is talking in a different language. «Being Nomadic Has…» offers a mysterious, cinematic narrative and the last and short «To Chop It Down We Must First…» quite a playful one.
Eyal Hareuveni
Matthias Müller (tb), Guilherme Rodrigues (c), Eric Wong (g)
