C.A.R. Cologne, Germany

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "C.A.R. Cologne, Germany"

May Hudson
5 years ago
Views:

1 C.A.R. elektronic / jazz / kraut Cologne, Germany

2 A quest for musical spirituality in the twentytens. Four young musicians transform their musical faith into C.A.R. With flaming empathy they develop a trip-like melange of jazz and electronics, improvisation and experiment, science fiction and film noir, krautrock and cyberpunk. Gleaming energy, kaleidoscopic thoughtfulness, subtle finesse and an undeniable love for the beat capitalization of an intoxicating mix: C.A.R Contact Kenn Hartwig kenn@thisiscar.de

4 This is C.A.R. C.A.R. was founded in 2011 by Johannes Klingebiel and Kenn Hartwig in Cologne, Germany. Originally a quintet playing wild experimental jazz music with a pop approach, they eventually kicked the guitar and found their strength to be a subtly flowing melange of kraut-like arrangements infused with electronic and jazz sounds. Featuring drums, double bass, a wurlitzer stage piano, korg and oberheim synthesizers as well as an alto saxophone heavily altered by electronic effect devices, their tunes leave a lot of space for improvisation, but not in classical jazz way with one soloist dominating the music, but always as a delicate web of sound which has a potential to take their audience on an enticing trip. Among the highlights of the band s career were gigs at festivals such as at Fusion and L*abore. In 2017 C.A.R. by invitation of the Goethe Institute went on a four week long tour playing concerts in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India, giving eleven concerts and three workshops for college students. The first album Beyond The Zero was released in 2014 by the Swiss label Unit Records and was well recieved by audiences and critics alike. In September 2017 the Interlude EP was released and recordings for a new album finished, which will be released in 2018.

6 The psychedlic Four of C.A.R., who combine repetition and wobbling. Ulrich Stock, Die Zeit Enthralling psychedelic sort of 70 s music, pleasurably taking you on underwater or interstellar wanderings. The Dawn, Pakistan Delicate jazz textures with freakout noise and digital vamps. A journey worth taking. A kind of trip, gentle and subtle. Thomas Volkmann, Jazzpodium When listening to C.A.R. the old fields of jazz seem to lie on another planet. Jörg Meyer, Kieler Nachrichten Through a variety of electronic effects and a strong rhythm, their music becomes meditative indeed. Dietmar Ebert, Thüringische Landeszeitung Guaranties for a quick trip! Highly recommended! Dieter Manderscheid

9 Press about live concerts Getting of the Comfort Zone (original: Kieler Nachrichten, September 29th 2015) Playing Jazz means breaking boundaries. Or to pretend that there are none. This is what C.A.R. do on their debut album Beyond The Zero. The Cologne Quartet, which amongst others features pianist Christian Lorenzen, born in Kiel, and double bassist Kenn Hartwig, born in Flensburg, comes to the north for four concerts with its modern, gripping jazz approach. Audio Spiritual Seekers from their debut album is a first flowing, then tense, pulsating, ultimately aurally blossoming trip-hop piece full of electronic effects. The title fits well to the musicians and their experimenting pleasure. Yes, that s true, says Christian Lorenzen, who in the Nuller years brought it to some notoriety with his Band Inchworm. Today, when not playing with C.A.R., he plays in other projects such as Zooom Trio, Makkro and the classical jazz oriented Christian Lorenzen Trio. C.A.R. has always been looking for new sounds, working a lot with sound research, also spherical and sometimes contemplative. Actually relatively often. He only had had rough sound ideas, says Kenn Hartwig, who wrote the seven-minute-long Audio Spiritual Seekers. It is not easy to build up a tension in this length. Usually

10 one band mamber comes up with very concrete ideas, to which the others contribute. But also with the concerts the pieces will still develop in new directions and clear themselves up. Is the improvisational element extremely important for C.A.R.? Yes, it is in fact, but it s not like the rhyhthm section playing form and somebody soloing, says Hartwig. It s rather a collective improvisation, which is about energies and about spaces. The tune Oh No! is a good example for this, sometimes flowing like thick stream of lava. And the danger of screwing it when improvising? There is courage to make mistakes and leave a certain comfort zone, says Lorenzen. The concept of screwing it up implies that there is a concept of playing correctly, but that is a very academic approach. Lorenzen and Hartwig had already played together in the youth jazz orchestra of their homestate Schleswig-Holstein, in 2002 their paths separated. Lorenzen went to study in Cologne in 2003, Hartwig decided to also move to the cathedral city in 2006 as a place of study. In 2011 the band s birth was the diploma concert by Lorenzen and Hartwig, with Leonhard Huhn (saxophone, effects) and Johannes Klingebiel (drums). The name C.A.R. came later. When people describe the music of C.A.R. a lot of them mention the genre Krautrock. Do they see themselves in the tradition of bands like Can, Neu! or Amon Düül? It s not my teenage music, that rather was hip-hop, says Hartwig. The band itself put the concept of Kraut into play when describing their music to people. When they look at old videos of Kraut-Bands, it is amazing to them how similar the concepts of C.A.R. can be, although

11 nothing was ever consciously adapted. At the end of the year C.A.R. is going to record an EP with cover versions, translating pieces from electronic producers like Squarepusher, but also Led Zeppelin, Pavement or Tame Impala into the C.A.R. sound, Drummer Johannes Klingebiel tells us. And the 70s trash promo photos with courage to ugliness? These were meant to be a counter-design to the established standards in jazz, where people like to portray themselves with photoshop filters through glass, explains Hartwig. And also to leave an impression with people. That actually worked quite well. Playful intensity and musical spice (Thüringische Landeszeitung, January 28th 2015) C.A.R. from Cologne [...] inspire the audience of Jena BY DIETMAR EBERT JENA. At the end of their tour the group C.A.R. from Cologne played a gig at the Jazzclub International in the club Weintanne. The group features Leonhard Huhn (Saxophone, Efffects), Christian Lorenzen (Synthezisers, Wurlitzer, Fender Rhodes), Kenn Hartwig (Double Bass, Effects) and Johannes Klingebiel (Drums). They got to know each other

12 at the Cologne conservatory Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln and now presented their CD BEYOND THE ZERO, published by the Swiss label Unit Records. They try to find a musical style that combines young people s sense of life with a sense of sensuality in times of uncertainty and isolation - this way they came up with their melange of jazz and electronics. Through a variety of electronic effects and a strong rhythm, their music touches the meditative. Christian Lorenzen and Kenn Hartwig precisely controlled the electronic effects, while at the same time all four musicians developed their interplay freely and associatively. At times they layered sound to sound. It almost seemed as if musical spaces were emerging in which neither an instrument nor electronic effects could be heard. But the release of musical energies can also produce a great sound, as in the albums last piece, Phosphene Party, in which every single instrumental voice can be heard. The new way the group C.A.R. is exploring, this rapid pushing of the pace, does not feature individual soloists in the foreground, but strongly depends on what all the instrumentalists have to contribute. That s up to the fact that the young Cologne musicians have written four pieces of their new CD together, which is unusual and makes us curious about where the future will take them.

13 X-PLORATIONS NO.II, MIT C.A.R., AI UND HARU SPECKS CHRISTUSKIRCHE DÜSSELDORF September 25th 2017 wired.de The interplay of the group (consisting of drums, contrabass, synths, and electronicly twisted saxophone) is phenomenally concentrated and intuitive, which is simply wonderful to watch. The sound is very playful and open, jazz in the best sense. There is, however, a great sensitivity among the musicians, so that the dynamic overall sound is always in the focus. The whole concert evolves over five or six pieces, until it gets really loud at the end. All the while the supertight drummer keeps everything in balance. The music always remains varied and oscillates between composing, melodic parts and free improvisation or ambient noise generation, whereby it can also get a bit weird when the bassist starts searching for the brown tone with a short wave radio or the saxophonist playfully turns the knobs of a small tone generator and produces wonderful chirp sounds. An incredibly good band, if you have the opportunity, go check them out!

14 Press About the Interlude EP (2017, self released) Well, their new release has much of the same intriguing mix of modern jazz and electronic music, except this time around, they focus on the compositions of artists like Pavement, Flaming Lips, Tame Impala and James Holder. Beyond The Zero allowed itself to be more random with unexpected bursts of melody. The Interlude EP shows how arresting their sound can be when they work a project that possesses a pop music succinctness. Good stuff. birdistheworm.com About the debut album Beyond The Zero (2014, Unit Records) The list of ingredients sounds promising: Jazz and electronics, Krautrock and Cyberpunk, Film Noir and Science-Fiction. Four young Cologne musicians (Leonhard Huhn on saxophone, bass clarinet and effects, Christian Lorenzen on various electronic keyboard instruments, Kenn Hartwig on double bass and effects, and Johannes Klingebiel on drums) have joined forces for this project and created a sound, which carries you away like a cloud that lets you float and descend. Kind of a trip, gentle and subtle. Each of the ten titles opens a door to a new universe. Beyond the Zero is an extremely meditative disc that can get you down after a grueling day, but far from being esoteric monotony. The-

15 re is simply too much experimenting pleasure and improvisational joy in the four gentlemen - and last but not least the need to arouse emotions with deep beats and oblique tones. Thomas Volkmann, Jazz Podium Wow! It seems these four young Cologne people want to know it exactly. This album bursts with intensity, improvisation and wit, but never becomes too loud. Leonhard Huhn (saxophones, bass clarinet, effects), Christian Lorenzen (synthesizers, Wurlitzer, Fender Rhodes), Kenn Hartwig (double bass, effects) and Johannes Klingebiel (drums) certainly deliver more than just a talent test. The four take themselves and the listeners on a crazy but always clever trip between jazz, electronics and improvisation, consciously delving the boundaries, without overdoing it and deliver a really fresh sound. The repertoire is very diverse and appealing and seems to come effortlessly. It is also remarkable that none of the 10 numbers falls out of the frame. That s the way modern, contemporary jazz should sound! Concerto (01 / 2015)

Robert Landfermann. Night Will Fall. press release PRESS CONTACT:

Robert Landfermann. Night Will Fall. press release PRESS CONTACT: Robert Landfermann Release date: January 1, 2016 Christian Weidner alto saxophone Sebastian Gille tenor saxophone Elias Stemeseder piano Robert Landfermann bass Jim Black drums 1. Motettu de Tristura 2.