Training is the German, Berlin-based experimental duo of sax-flute-synth player Johannes Schleiermacher and drummer-synth player–electronics player-vocalist Max Andrzejewski (who have collaborated in Andrzejewski’s HÜTTE since 2011). This duo aims to be a platform for musical freedom, ecstasy, and spirituality and began working in 2020, and released an aptly titled debut EP, *x EP (Fun in the Church, 2020), and a duo album with Derrhoof’s guitarist John Dieterich (Training & John, Three Seconds, Fun in the Church, 2021). In the first half of 2023, Training invited guest musicians from various musical backgrounds to join the duo with the idea of animated graphics as the recurring basis for new collective compositions and guided improvisations.
The second full-length album of Training is with celebrated Italian, London-based bassist Ruth Goller (of the bands Acoustic Ladyland, Melt Yourself Down, Let Spin, and Vula Viel), who hosted Andrzejewski on her album Skyllumina (International anthem, 2024). It was recorded in 2023, and expands, again, the duo’s sonic palette but in a completely different, adventurous approach to composition.
The seven pieces of threads to knot adapted an old French parlor game called cadavre exquis as a compositional principle, in which an absurd picture – or musical piece – is sketched and improvised together by continuing to draw a small, visible part – or bars – of what was previously sketched. The resulting, often chaotic and skeletal sonic image – or an exquisite sonic corpse – is a snapshot of egalitarian collaboration in action.
Accordingly, the music of Training and Goller sounds fresh and urgent, provocative and seductive, feeding the body and the soul, and collapsing the dividing lines between cerebral jazz beats, effect-warped saxophone, modular synth wizardry, and earth-shaking, muscular bass sounds. It packs post-rock, free jazz, ambient, and noise into a 36-minute mix of imaginative and organic sounds that was further refined by producer Daniel Freitag.
Eyal Hareuveni
Johannes Schleiermacher (saxophone, flute, synthesizer), Max Andrzejewski (drums, synthesizer, guitar, electronics, voice), Ruth Goller (electric bass, voice)
