Category: piano

A lot could be said about this iconic, one of a kind collaboration. Or maybe you just listen.











Henrik Schwarz & Bugge Wesseltoft on improvisation at Ableton Loop

In an highly insightful and entertaining presentation at the 2015 Loop summit, Germany’s Henrik Schwarz and Norway’s Bugge Wesseltoft go deep into the artistic and technical aspects of their long-standing collaboration. Moderated by CDR’s Tony Nwachukwu, the lively discussion is punctuated by several of Schwarz and Wesseltoft’s free-flowing, genre-defying improvisations.

When Bugge Wesseltoft and Henrik Schwarz produced their collaboration „Duo“, it was clear that their synergy was both unique within, and revitalizing to, the whole genre of electro-acoustic beat-based improvisation.

Now the duo becomes a trio, and the dialogue becomes a Trialogue. Bassist Dan Berglund (est, Tonbruket) brings additional dimensions and a whole new range of improvisational possibilities, new musical conversational topics, and a completely new layer of sound, giving this project a different drive, yet retaining the spirit of the Duo project.

A will to surprise – not just the audience, but themselves as well – dominates proceedings. Moments of quasi-ambient atmosphere sit alongside driving energetic swathes of blues-inflected jamming from the future, near-metallic semi-sinister meteor storms of sound rest easily beside moments of classic jazz noire, and there is a marked assimilation of classical chamber sensibilities.

Where other musicians have engaged in similar stylistic juxtapositions, Wesseltoft, Schwarz and Berglund set themselves apart by managing the near-impossible feat of making a perfectly coherent aesthetic, a complete musical language of their own.

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BUGGE WESSELTOFT (PIANO)

Since 1990 Bugge Wesseltoft has made an impressive, truly post-modern transistion from his ECM nordic jazz traditions.
Playing and recording together with the likes of Jan Garbarek, Sidsel Endresen, Terje Rypdal, Nils Petter Molvaer, Jon Eberson to forming his own innovative, worldwide touring group New Conception Of Jazz.
Wesseltoft is the founder of his exquisite label Jazzland Recordings, a highly demanded score composer and is credited as producer Joyce, Torun Eriksen, Akiko, Karen Mok.
Recently he made himself a name in the world of classical music playing selected Bach repertoire, Goldberg Variations or beside violinist Henrik Kraggerud on the beautiful ACT album Last Spring.

DAN BERGLUND (BASS)

A rock music lover from heart Berglund been one important third of the group E.S.T., the Esbjorn Svenson Trio.
He made his way from the Royal Music University of Stockholm to the largest venues all around the globe.
Dan Berglund is legendary for his deep and full “Mingus-like” bass tone and his “Jimi Hendricks-like” solos, using all sorts of effects to make the double bass sound like screaming electric guitars. This has made him the sensation in many of e.s.t.´s concerts.

INTERVIEWS


The celebrated techno producer/ score composer Henrik Schwarz meets the ECM-recording artist, inventor of Zen-Funk, Nik Bärtsch.

Scripted & Prepared is a fully acoustic, contemporary non-electronic music concept performed  on 2 grand pianos, the masters of all instruments.
This set up of just 2 grand pianos, scripted and prepared with high-tech, software, toys, simple white paper from a copyshop, allows the two scientists to create mindblowing music unplayable by regular humans, make complex rhythmic patterns groove, recreate the sounds of drum machines, transform sonic harmonic and melodic adventures into earwormes.

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Schwarz is playing on scripted GRAND PIANO 1, a servo-engine-packed acoustic piano becoming a music robot with electrified keys, hammers, pedals also to be able to play just by itself and most important to react to Schwarzs playing. Schwarz plays keys of ebony and ivory, alongside software scripts that manipulate sounds, expressions and the listeners expectations.

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This instrument is injected, manipulated by Schwarz’s self written software scripts digitally controling the piano to react to his analog human playing. Self-written and programmed algorhythms are changing and are the basis of every composition. This goes along with Grand Piano 2 zen-funked and prepared by ECM artist Nik Bärtsch. Preparations are manipulations of the inside, the strings, hammers, acoustics of a grand piano invented by John Cage. Bärtsch’s minimal music style of playing, heavily syncoped, and played by human hands like a machine itself is another form of acoustic techno music.

Scripted & Prepared is of scientific character and goes beyond its own written music compositions – specially written for this performance. It gives the artists the freedom to write beautiful music of unheard nature.

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