Anna Webber Septet // TRAINING feat. John Dieterich and Işıl Karataş

Livestream from New York

Anna Webber Septet: “Clockwise”

Last year Anna Webber achieved a stunning apotheosis with her album “Clockwise”, leading a band as versatile as it is technically strong. Drawing from the works of Xenakis, Cage, Varese, Feldman, Stockhausen and Babbitt for inspiration, the reedist and composer analysed specific fragments of their music to build something breathtakingly original. Her complex writing is characterised by endless corkscrewing, contrapuntal and harmonically ambiguous lines that can suggest the inner workings of an old watch, with cogs and gears moving in different directions but managing to function with stunning fluidity and grace. Webber excels at arrangements stuffed with contrasting impulses and textures, creating a gut-punch tension that rarely resolves. Her superb ensemble with pianist Matt Mitchell, fellow reedist Jeremy Viner, trombonist Jacob Garchik, percussionist Ches Smith, bassist Christopher Tordini and cellist Christopher Hoffman (who thrives playing the similarly complex music in Henry Threadgill’s Zooid) shines as the musicians move between precise ensemble passages and high-wire improvisation.

Anna Webber – tenor sax, flute, bass flute, alto flute and composition
Jeremy Viner – tenor sax and clarinet
Jacob Garchik – trombone
Christopher Hoffman – cello
Matt Mitchell – piano
Christopher Tordini – double bass
Ches Smith – drums, vibraphone and tympani

  

Livestream from Berlin (commission)

TRAINING feat. John Dieterich and Işıl Karataş

TRAINING is a relatively young duo project between drummer Max Andrzejewski and reedist and modular synthesist Johannes Schleiermacher, two of Berlin’s most exciting and restless musicians. They work together in the percussionist’s superb band Hütte, which last year released a collection of wildly imaginative interpretations of songs by Robert Wyatt. Training is a more spontaneous, experimental and collaborative endeavour that the pair considers a springboard “for the greatest possible musical freedom, ecstasy and spirituality.” This special commission by Jazzfest Berlin gives them a chance to explore those goals in a conceptually daring collaboration with the American guitarist John Dieterich, a long-time member of the influential experimental rock band Deerhoof. The project is derived from a series of 2–5 second audio-visual clips made as field recordings by each participant, such as a snippet of a water sprinkler in which chirping birds are audible beneath the spray of liquid, or a close up shot of a cluster of ants busily at work. The participants each find their own particular stripe of musicality in each clip, repeating the samples to deduce rhythmic patterns and melodies, processing them in a transcontinental back-and-forth process to electronically manipulate the sounds and build additional layers with their instruments. The Turkish visual artist Işıl Karataş worked with the musicians to produce three fascinating videos, to be released in advance on the online platform Jazzfest Berlin on Demand. The project will release an EP of its work for Fun in the Church early next year and celebrate its world live premiere on stage at the festival.

Johannes Schleiermacher – sax, flute, synth
Max Andrzejewski – drums, synth, electronics, voice
John Dieterich – guitar
Işıl Karataş – video

These concerts are part of To Jazzfest Berlin – New York