Der Vierte Zustand (The Fourth State) is the German, Cologne-based free improvising trio of vocal artist Hanna Schörken (who also has a duo with cellist Emily Wittbrodt), guitarist Christina Zurhausen, and drummer Ramon Keck (who also plays in Zurhausen Trio and her Endgegner quartet). This trio has been performing since 2021, relying on the idiosyncratic approaches of its musicians and mixing the sound language of new music, the energy of free jazz and song structures of noise rock. Its debut album was recorded at Topaz Audio Studios in Cologne in July 2024.

True to its title, this trio’s aesthetics exist outside the common norms. The music flows in an urgent, free-associative, and playful mode, flirting with the eccentric and the provocative, and always searches for cathartic climaxes. Schörken sketches the emotional territory of the improvised pieces with her pixie-like, acrobatic wordless delivery; Zurhausen pushes the envelope with snaky and thorny, effects-laden guitar lines, and Keek anchors the commotion in seductive grooves. The elusive fourth state is a transcendental power in the energetic interplay of soundscapes, grooves, and noises.

The centerpiece is the 15-minute «Three Paces In Front Of Me», a mysterious, sparse story that slowly gains more ritualist, percussive nuances and complex emotional shades as it progresses. This piece, as well as the other shorter one, highlights Der Vierte Zustand’s gift of evoking vivid and imaginative sound universes that act according to their own, free-associative logic.

Eyal Hareuveni
Hanna Schörken (voice), Christina Zurhausen (guitar, effects), Ramon Keck (drums)