SOUNDBRIDGES-Vandermark/Muche/Lehn/Blume | Villa For Forest

Ken Vandermark • tenorsax, clarinet
Matthias Muche • trombone
Thomas Lehn • analogue synthesizer
Martin Blume • drums & percussion

Eintritt: € 26 | € 13
(Fotos: ©Andre-Symann)

SOUNDBRIDGES – Vandermark/Muche/Lehn/Blume (USA, DE)
„Live concerts have become a rarity in times of Corona. For a music form that practically ‚lives‘ from improvisation and interaction, a special magic emanates from concerts: They are an audiovisual experience. On this recording, you can’t see the musicians, but you can feel their energy and imagine them playing together and communicating and listening to each other. Soundbridges was recorded on September 24, 2021 as part of the ‚Ruhr Jazz Festival‘ at the Bochum Art Museum. Sharing the stage that evening were four musicians whose paths have crossed several times over the decades: Ken Vandermark, Matthias Muche, Thomas Lehn and Martin Blume. And the fun they are having is audible. They go straight into full swing, as if they had a world to win: Shouts on the saxophone and trombone are amplifed by driving rhythms and analog synthesizer sounds. One free jazz attack follows the next. After four minutes things suddenly quiet down again – the calm after the storm. Signal tones ‚from outer space‘, abruptly interrupted by loud noise and threatening feedbacks, meet tonal fssures and overtones accompanied by the discreet beating on drums, bells and various other objects. It continues like this for the next 50 minutes, constantly fuctuating between the calm and dynamic parts, without ever losing its footing. And then culminates in a loud explosion, which after 35 minutes functions like a sound bridge that’s keeping the music fowing. Although there are few guidelines, the four musicians don’t move in a vacuum. They are able to draw on shared experiences from the stage and studio. The present concert also marks the end of a short tour. And as is so often the case with improvised music, the other concerts continue to resonate here: The interplay is intuitive, creating a delicate, yet complex sound structure that is held together by an imaginary band. The title Soundbridges, by the way, is a reference to a technique known from the cinema. It involves semantic and referential dynamics, as well as the acceleration and superimposition of different scenes – or in the case of the music, different pieces. The titles not only allude to cinematicarchetypes – The Thirty-Nine Steps is an homage to Hitchcock’s flm of the same name – they also play with the technique: Aperture, Arc Shot or Overlapping Edges. The transitions are correspondingly fuid and there are hardly any breaks. Instead, a simultaneousness is created, even as the next radical turn resounds: The Echo connects the past with the future while leaving listeners space to develop their own (audio) visions. A sequel is strongly welcome!“
Holger Pauler, Liner Notes CD: SOUNDBRIDGES

It is thanks to the initiative of percussionist Martin Blume, that the US-American-German quartet SOUNDBRIDGES had been founded in 2021, in which he is joined by the saxophonist Ken Vandermark, trombonist Matthias Muche and synthesizer player Thomas Lehn.

Its premiere concert took place on September 10th in Dortmund at the Visual Sound Outdoor Festival, followed by appearances at the Ruhr Jazz- and the Peitz-Festivals organized by the label jazzwerkstatt, which released the quartets first CD Soundbridges in September 2022.

In the early spring of 2023 the quartet accomplished a 11-concerts-in-12-days CD release tour of Europe. Part of that was a performance at the artacts festival in Sankt Johann in Tirol. The live recording of this concert will be released as a vinyl LP by the festivals associated label Idyllic Noise.

Die Kommunikation zwischen den Akteuren dieses furiosen Quartetts lässt nichts zu wünschen übrig. Die CD wurde 2021 im Kunstmuseum Bochum im Rahmen des Ruhr Jazz Festivals aufgenommen. Zuvor war das Improvisations-Ensemble auf Tournee, weshalb Interaktion und Reaktionsfreude der Crew sicher besonders stimmig von der Bühne tönen. Ken Vandermark aus Chicago (Tenorsaxophon, Klarinette) und seine deutschen Mitstreiter Matthias Muche (Posaune), Thomas Lehn (Analog-Synthesizer) sowie Bandgründer Martin Blume (Drums, Perkussion) formulieren eine figurenreiche Free Music ohne Vorgaben, bevorzugen dabei komplexe Kollektiv-Improvisationen. Ein klanglich-rhythmisch vielgestaltiger Sound, der auch durch die Synthesizer-Texturen von Lehn eine zusätzliche individuelle Note erhält. Eine Musik auch, die gekonnt zwischen Eruptionen, hochenergetischer Dichte und behutsamen, aussparenden Partien wechselt. Dramaturgisch besonders anregend der über 19-minütige Track »The Thirty Nine Steps« mit seinen dynamischen Finessen, attraktiven Metamorphosen und mit reizvoll changierendem Kolorit.
– Udo Andris | Jazzpodium June/July 2023