The legendary, pioneering free-improvising unit, Schlippenbach Trio – German pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, British soprano and tenor sax player Evan Parker, and German drummer Paul Lovens (all three musicians were core members of the groundbreaking Globe Unity Orchestra)—recorded its classic album Elf Bagatellen thirty-five years ago at the FMP-Studio in Berlin in May 1990. The Schlippenbach Trio offered free interpretations of loose, classic piano pieces, with the album’s title referencing Ludwig van Beethoven’s famous eleven bagatelles.
Schlippenbach Trio formed in 1970 and is one of the most influential free-improvising bands due to the depth of its intellectual and artistic curiosity, its paradigm-shifting technique, and collective sensibility. Elf Bagatellen was originally released by FMP in 1990, then again in a remastered version by German guitarist and sound engineer Olaf Rupp for FMP in 2010, and is now remastered again for its first-ever vinyl version by German-Viennese guitarist and sound engineer Martin Siewert for the Viennese Cien Fuegos label (a sub-label of Trost Records). The new release includes the original liner notes of German musicologist and music critic Wolfgang Burde (who passed away in 2013).
The eleven bagatelles are opened and closed by minimalist miniatures, but the rest of the pieces are complex, intense, highly creative, and completely spontaneous conversations among Schlippenbach, Parker, and Lovens, with or against each other. These pieces highlight the trio’s poetic, telepathic interplay; all flow organically, gravitating almost instantly into loose forms despite the often erratic dynamics, and all sound fresh, inspiring, and insightful. The trio suggests its own visionary musical universe, fed by the musicians’ extensive experience playing free jazz (including revisiting the opening piece of the trio’s debut album, Pakistani Pomade, FMP, 1971,, and Cien Fuegos, 2015, now called «Sun-Luck: Revisited»), but insists on a completely free language that avoids distinct themes or rhythmic patterns. Elf Bagatellen offers 75 minutes of masterful, blissful freedom.
Eyal Hareuveni
Evan Parker (soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone), Alexander von Schlippenbach (piano), Paul Lovens (selected drums, cymbals)
