(2. opinion. The first review was published August 13th.) Matthias Schwengler is German. Cologne-based trumpeter and composer who blends jazz with music from the Balkans, memories of the industrial heritage of Germany’s Ruhr region (Schwengler comes from a family of coal miners), spiced with echoes of Arabic and Latin music. His fourth album with his chamber Soulcrane trio – with German guitarist Philipp Brämswig, German-Iranian double bass player Reza Askari, augmented by French accordionist Laurent Derache – offers an intimate exploration of memory, silence and the quiet power of darkness.
But Schwengler’s music does not evoke melancholy; Dark suggests a stimulating counterpoint and invites listeners into a mysterious and timeless space of warmth, reflection and stillness, a refuge from the noise and speed of everyday life. This album was recorded at Hansahaus Studios in Bonn in May 2025.
Schwengler acknowledges the seminal influence of American trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas’ now-defunct chamber quartet Charms of the Night Sky (with accordionist Guy Klucevsek, violinist Mark Feldman, and double bass player Greg Cohen), where the accordion often took the rhythmic role of the drums. In Soulcrane’s music, Derache’s accordion plays a different role, introducing an understated sense of spaciousness and adding a layer of redemption to the Dark‘s romantic spirit. Brämswig solidifies Soulcrane’s rhythmic side together with Askari’s commanding double bass playing.
Schwengler’s playing gravitates toward warmer, softer, and darker tones as he sings the impressionistic, dance-like melodies, often with a muted trumpet and a voice that adapts the sonic palettes of trombone or flugelhorn. His touching themes flirt with Balkan traditional music (he is married to a Bulgarian wife). Solucrane’s perfectly balanced dynamics allow enough space and time for patient, always elegant, collective exploration of the themes and their shadowy realms, as an antidote to the garish overload and relentless acceleration that defines the Information Age. The album’s cover artwork, built around two miners’ lamps, evokes Schwengler’s family history in the Ruhr region.
The beautiful Dark lets you believe that there are more radiant, rich colours and shades in darkness.
Eyal Hareuveni
Matthias Schwengler (trumpet), Laurent Derache (accordion), Philipp Brämswig (guitar), Reza Askari (double bass)
