Selections from the Gutter brings American, Brooklyn-based sax player Michael Foster with the longstanding rhythm section of Swiss double bass player Christian Weber and German drummer Michael Griener, who worked together with Ellery Eskelin, Aki Takase, Michael Thieke, and recently with Marina Džukljev. This is the first recording of this trio, captured by Weber and Griener at Alte Kita Schöneweide in Berlin in May 2025, and later mixed by Weber.
This is an intense, free improvising meeting. Foster employs extensive instrumental preparations, augmenting his saxophone with amplification and objects, as a method of subverting and queering the instrument’s history and traditional roles, characterized by a highly visceral, explosive energy. Weber and Griener add a more cerebral, restrained, and structural dimension, but still keep pushing Foster to more extreme edges with their constant shapeshifting, fractured percussive ideas, including by using the double bass bow.
The gritty, friction and risk-taking atmosphere is enhanced by the six pieces’ titles, paying tribute to American crime-noir writer David Goodis, and intensified by the vintage-like cover artwork by violinist Alex Cunningham. These collective, bold improvisations are equipped with dramatic, noir tension, and never lose their focus, balancing between cathartic immediacy and abandonless power with thoughtful sonic exploration and attention to detail.
Eyal Hareuveni
Michael Foster (saxophones), Christian Weber (bass), Michael Griener (drums)
