Andreas Schaerer

Andreas Schaerer - Anthem For No Man´s LandCD / Vinyl / digital Andreas Schaerer voice, mouth percussion, bass-synth Luciano Biondini accordion Kalle Kalima electric guitar Lucas Niggli drums Swiss vocal phenomenon Andreas Schaerer has been described as 'the Germanic Bobby McFerrin with the flow of a Shakespearean actor’ (L’Alsace). His ‘charismatic and powerful stage presence’ (FAZ) mark him out as a unique figure in European music, a distinction recognised in early 2024 when he became the French Académie du Jazz’s European Artist of the Year. Schaerer, as a musical creator intent on making original art – arguably even a completely original art form – is highly conscious of the processes by which the charisma and the presence of a vocal soloist function. As he says, ‘a voice always comes directly out of the music around it. In “Anthem For No Mans Land" he takes a further step in demonstrating that he is driven by other motivations than simply to shine as soloist. Deeply committed to the collective ethos of his regular quartet, he says: ‘I have consciously studied how I can use my voice to accompany music or an instrument. It's less difficult to find accompanying patterns than to ensure that the voice doesn't constantly push itself to the fore. If you don't want to take on this traditional role as a singer, you have to be very deliberate in the shaping of your music.’ What will always shine through, however, and particularly in live performance, is the passion Schaerer applies to his art. On stage, his whole body becomes an instrument, elastic and dance-like. He inhabits the music, glides into it, takes on roles that emerge from the sounds he makes. It's an unusual concept which he can take further when he teams up with drummer Lucas Niggli, guitarist Kalle Kalima and accordionist Luciano Biondini. The quartet brings together strong and disparate musical characters who now know each other well: ‘The band has been in existence since 2016‘ says Schaerer. ‘The original nucleus was the duo with Lucas Niggli which already existed at that time. We couldn't decide whether we wanted to go more in an electronic or an acoustic direction in the long run. The plan was to have two trios. We explored one direction with Kalle and the other with Luciano. The chemistry was right, so a quartet came out of it. And we all play together in other ways, as duos in different combinations.’ It is now more than six years since the release of the quartet's first album, ‘A Novel Of Anomaly’ in 2018, and the band has evolved considerably through more than 100 concerts. The gap between albums is explained by the fact that Schaerer is involved in several other projects: Hildegard lernt fliegen, Out Of Land, The Big Wig, Rom / Schaerer / Eberle or Evolution...All of this other work feeds back into the way the group works. The quartet’s music, as heard on “Anthem For No Man’s Land”, is now perceptibly on a larger scale, and it also has a greater sense of openness and freedom. Along with Andreas Schaerer’s conscious retreat from the ‘front line’ of the band and into the collective, there is also a new experimental freedom in his use of language. The opening sentence of the liner note makes this clear: “This is our musical offering for a utopian, inclusive society, using a new, free, imaginary language unlimited by origin or cultural boundaries.” Schaerer achieves something remarkable here: without renouncing the spoken word, he has also, simultaneously, managed to turn his back on it. The words he sings may sound familiar, but the language here is invented. Schaerer’s way is to evoke associations and to create moods with language. And the way he does it is so masterful and subtle, a casual listener might have the impression they are listening to English, Spanish, Greek or Italian, and that the words have a meaning. In fact, they don’t. And whereas all this might sound as if it is done just as a joke and to get a laugh, it isn’t. There is a serious purpose. As Schaerer says: ‘The interface between language, music and sound is particularly exciting. I have always been interested in playing with this nexus, where content dissolves and language is just sound, but still has enough linguistic DNA to continue to be understood as such. It's fluid, even funny, a childlike place. Children also speak many fantasy languages. And on this album, I thought a lot in this direction. Some pieces work well without any, but others demand a language. I then experimented with imaginary English or Italian, where I only used the ‘temperatures’ of the sounds. Because it quickly became clear to me that “Anthem For No Man’s Land” should use a more free languages that do not belong to any nation. They are all non-existent words.’ The music is completely aligned with this Utopian ideal. As the liner note states: “We are not just striving to affirm freedom, we want to live it in our music.” At times, ‘Anthem For No Man’s Land’ sounds like prog rock or the psychedelic sound of the seventies. At others there is the chance to enjoy echoes of Italian popular song or to lean in to a tango. There are influences of West African rhythms and Alpine melodies. Chamber jazz leads to a sophisticated form of Dada, the diversity of sounds and motifs matches the images conjured up by the imaginary languages. “Anthem For No Mans Land” never just sticks with the obvious. Schaerer and his quartet have declared the intention to express an ideal, a philosophy ‘through the emotions and the immediacy of our music.’ They have succeeded. Credits: Produced by Andreas Schaerer, Kalle Kalima; Martin Ruch #1 & 8 composed by Kalle Kalima, lyrics by Andreas Schaerer #2 composed by Luciano Biondini #3, 4 & 9 composed by Andreas Schaerer #5 & 6 composed by Kalle Kalima #7 composed by Lucas Niggli & Kalle Kalima #10 composed by Luciano Biondini & Andreas Schaerer, lyrics by A. Schaerer Recorded by Martin Ruch at Jazzanova Recording Studio in Berlin, May 28-30, 2024. Mixed & Mastered by Martin Ruch Assistant Engineer: Marian Hafenstein The Art in Music: Cover art by Martin Noël (1956-2010), 2010, used by kind permission of Margarete and Cora Noël

Andreas Schaerer - EvolutionCD / Vinyl / digital Andreas Schaerer voice, mouth percussion Kalle Kalima electric & acoustic guitar Tim Lefebvre electric & acoustic bass (except 01 & 08) Swiss vocal acrobat Andreas Schaerer and Finnish guitarist Kalle Kalima have some things in common. As artists, each is essentially in a category completely of his own. Both are musicians who can always conjure something special from their chosen instruments. Both are known on the international jazz scene for the completely distinctive and original ways their music constantly crosses genres. Both have played together for several years in the quartet 'A Novel Of Anomaly'. And now they have recorded a first album together in which the focus is on the two of them. However, for this “evolution” (as the album title has it), they have also involved – and drawn inspiration from – a musician whom they both admire, Tim Lefebvre. The American bassist has worked with many pop and jazz stars, notably Sting, Elvis Costello, David Bowie, Mark Guiliana, Wayne Krantz...Lefebvre's involvement in the Michael Wollny Trio’s breakthrough was, incidentally, anything but tangential. In other words, his playing is at home in practically every context.Listeners familiar with Schaerer’s and Kalima’s previous work may find "Evolution" somewhat surprising. "An album is such a different platform from playing live on stage,” explains Schaerer. “Over the course of our many recordings, we have become increasingly aware quite how differently one has to play." That awareness has also resulted in a particularly careful focus on the post-production phase of “Evolution".Schaerer is describing a way of working much more familiar to the world of pop. And with its concentration on songs and lyrics, one might call "Evolution" a singer/songwriter project. "We've both been going in this direction for quite some time now. Kalle has his work with ‘KUU!’, and for me there has been ‘Hildegard lernt fliegen’ for quite a few years now.” In fact, Schaerer is more of the ‘singer’ here than we are used to. His typical vocal escapades are still there – clicking and popping sounds, beatboxing, polyphonically layered vocalise, and even the imitation of wind instruments... – but by his own standards he has been particularly frugal in his use of them here. Schaerer emphasises that “we’ve not created this album from any kind of blueprint. "We didn't say, 'we're just going to do songs now', the pieces came about very naturally. 'Pristine Dawn' is a good example: in the first instance it had a song structure and some lyrics, but no melody. The moment when it was composed was at the studio session, and the recording is the 'first take', it just flowed perfectly, so you don't even notice the 11-bar structure, which is actually very weird." There is a similar way of working on all of the tracks: taking turns, Schaerer and Kalima each contributed both an idea and a song text (three of these are in fact by Kalima's wife Essi) before developing these versions in the studio together. Each piece therefore bears an unmistakable and very personal signature, not just musically, but also in the lyrics. "Kalle and I are also processing some deeply personal and intimate thoughts and experiences in some of the lyrics. And, of course, it's also about things that are currently bothering us in the world, from artificial intelligence to the question implicit in the album title, as to whether evolution is stagnating."The track "Rapid Eye Movement'' shows Kalima's penchant for the colours of folk music; Schaerer's psychedelic "Trigger" takes him into the falsetto (high) register at the beginning and at the end. On the title track, things get pretty wild, before the piece comes to an end in free improvisation – as is consistent with its title. The fast "Multitasking" with its humorous plays on words, a "mouth trumpet” solo and a philosophical theme is just as typical of Schaerer and the breadth of his imagination as the very quiet and lyrical – and wordless – "So Far". On "Song Yet Untitled”, reminiscent of film music, and on the melancholic "Sphere", Kalima again lets his guitar sing out, as only he can. As Schaerer notes with enthusiasm, there is always "more than just the sum of the parts" when these two fine musicians and creative individuals work together. And then there is also Tim Lefebvre, whose playing, sometimes on electric bass, sometimes on double bass (with a beautiful solo intro on "Piercing Love") has been such an inspiration for both Schaerer and Kalima. "We played with Tim for the first time at the big Jubilee concert celebrating 30 years of ACT. The chemistry was so good, we decided we would keep in touch. When I called him about 'Evolution', he didn't hesitate for a second", Schaerer remembers. "It was then really impressive how quickly he could connect emotionally with the music. It's crazy how he grooves on a track like 'SloMo', and how we were able to play ourselves into a frenzy over Kalle's guitar track."In "Evolution", Schaerer, Kalima and Lefebvre have re-drawn the roadmap for the production of a jazz album. New avenues are constantly opening up in these complex but also catchy songs which are just made for repeated listening...and, of course, listening to the album is also a reminder that it will all sound completely different again when heard live. Credits: Produced by Andreas Schaerer &Kalle Kalima Executive Producer: Andreas Brandis

Andreas Schaerer - The Waves Are Rising, DearCD / Vinyl / digital Andreas Schaerer voice Andreas Tschopp trombone & tuba Matthias Wenger alto saxophone (solo on 06), soprano saxophone & flute Benedikt Reising baritone saxophone, alto saxophone (solo on 04) & bass clarinet Marco Müller bass Christoph Steiner drums & marimba Andreas Schaerer’s recent projects have established him at the forefront of the creative jazz scene in Europe. The Berne-based artist’s debut on the label, the revolutionary orchestral work "The Big Wig", a commission from the Lucerne Festival, was followed by a quartet formation with Michael Wollny, Vincent Peirani and Emile Parisien, “Out of Land”, and most recently by an album with another quartet, “A Novel of Anomaly”. This succession of highly contrasting releases have shown that Schaerer is not a jazz singer in any conventional sense: he is a vocal artist capable of imitating almost every instrument or sound with his voice. He covers all kinds of vocal styles from croon-ing to operatic tenor, and he is able to juxtapose them all in a completely individual way. Now, having lain dormant while Schaerer pursued these other endeavours, the band that first put him on the map, Hildegard Lernt Fliegen (Hildegard learns to fly) is back in business.Hildegard Lernt Fliegen made a mark outside Switzerland with an appearance at Jazzahead in Bremen in 2012 followed shortly afterwards by winning the BMW World Jazz Award in Munich. Audiences responded enthusiastically to the band’s complex compositions which were always full of surprises and had a way of completely transcending style and genre, and also left plenty of room for improvisation. There was always plenty of irony and humour, plus the opportunity to marvel at Schaerer's solo escapades. Fans of the old ‘Hildegard’ are faced with a very different prospect with the new album “The Waves are Rising, Dear!". As the title of the album suggests, it is a more serious work, a concept album, on which Schaerer has taken the band's characteristic sense of instrumental playfulness, combined it with his own, almost classically clear vocal timbre, produced without any trickery. And he has put both of these elements to the service of poetry and to the task of thinking about things more deeply."Our last album with just the band was six years ago, and we have moved on since then,” comments Schaerer, giving the background to the change of approach. “We live in times that are full of possibilities but there are also tensions, and we face big questions and challenges. The confluence of all these external factors has influenced the work of composition, the lyrical content, and music in general as I hear it today." However, the songs do still keep their secrets and Schaerer wants to leave some level of ambiguity in place: "Each piece is based on very specific personal thoughts. But I don't want to comment on them too explicitly, and would rather leave the listener the scope to reach their own interpretation. The album is deliberately conceived in such a way that a listener can bring their own stories. Maybe even their entire life-history can become part of the dramaturgy" says Schaerer.“The title can be read in a socio-critical way, or philosophically, or metaphorically, or emotionally – or even erotically if one wants." The subject-matter is at its most unambiguous in "Symptoms, Causes And Treatments", with lyrics about freedom and destiny commissioned by Schaerer from UK saxophonist, rapper and versatile thinker Soweto Kinch. "We have known each other for years, I really appreciate his take on things, so I asked him for a text based on questions I sent him about issues that concern me. And I'm very happy with what he came up with."A completely different high-point of the album is "Embraced By The Earth". Vincent Peirani, the exceptionally fine accordionist and also a friend of Schaerer’s, appears as guest on this track, and the vocalist also sings a moving duet with Jessana Némitz, an extremely promising young Swiss singer. At any event, the range of possibilities for musical expressiveness has grown once again, whether in the neoclassical poise of "Dripping Point" which serves as the introduction to the album, or the title track which has a real spring in its step, or the dra-matic "Irrlicht" with its Sprechgesang and devilish wordplay, or the avant-garde miniature "Water". The Waves are Rising, Dear!" is an ambitious, thought-through piece designed to be listened to at one sitting, and it has an overall structure and a dramaturgy that are strong and convincing. The band plays a more important role than ever. Benedikt Reising’s baritone saxophone and bass clarinet, the saxophones/flute of Mat-tias Wenger, the trombone and tuba of Andreas Tschopp, the bass of Marco Müller as well as the drums/marimba of Christoph Steiner – all of them have far more space to work with here than previously, and are able to create a compelling and exciting tapestry of sounds on "The Waves are Rising, Dear!". This is a band of virtuoso players who have all established themselves in the European jazz scene with their own projects and bands in recent times. For these musicians, Hildegard Lernt Fliegen, and one can truly hear it, represents a return to their roots, to a source of strength which is built upon firm long-term friendships, and from many years of working together as musical partners. The final track, the four-part "Love Warrior", is the best demonstration of how Hildegard Lernt Fliegen’s past and present have coalesced into one. The band’s new approach – lyrical, pensive and carrying emotional heft – merges with the storminess and the cheerful irony of their earlier years. And one can also hear a message of hope, in which one thing is certain: Hildegard Lernt Fliegen have re-emerged as one of the bands who will be shaping the future course of European jazz.Credits: Recorded by Martin Ruch & Christoph Utzinger at Bauer Studios, Ludwigsburg, 10-13 June 2019 Mixed and mastered by Martin Ruch Produced by Andreas Schaerer & Martin Ruch Cover art by Reto Andreoli

Magic Moments 1167 minutes of pure listening pleasure: The eleventh edition of the popular Magic Moments offers a comprehensive insight into our latest ACT releases with newcomers, ACT stars and real insider tips at a special price. Among others with Michael Wollny, David Helbock, Vincent Peirani, Iiro Rantala, Joachim Kühn New Trio, Ida Sand, Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu and many more.Credits:Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann Manufacturer 

Andreas Schaerer - A Novel Of AnomalyCD / digital Andreas Schaerer vocals & mouth percussion Luciano Biondini accordion Kalle Kalima guitar Lucas Niggli drums Music involves so many levels of communication: verbal, audiovisual, emotional, even body language. In jazz, the spontaneity of improvisation ramps up the suspense and the excitement. And yet in the best situations, instant osmosis and mutual trust can inexplicably kick in. And that was what happened in 2013 with the meeting of Andreas Schaerer, the Berne-based vocal acrobat and multi-genre composer, with Zurich drummer Lucas Niggli. “We went on stage,” Schaerer remembers, “without any rehearsal beforehand, or even a discussion about what we would play - and yet it felt as if we had known each other for ages.” They then continued playing regularly as a voice-and-drums duo. Sometimes what resulted was quiet acoustic dialogues; at other times they would seek out the untrammelled, bombastic and loud. And they decided quite soon that they really wanted to do was to shed light on these two extremes. So, for the purposes of a tour, they decided to use guests to develop their duo into two different trios: there would be a first trio with the Italian accordionist Luciano Biondini, which would concentrate on the lyrical, the poetic and what simply felt good; and a second with the Berlin-based Finnish guitarist Kalle Kalima, in which they would enjoy amplified sounds and electronics. “Rehearsals were planned so that we could work with Luciano in the morning and then with Kalle in the afternoon,” recalls Schaerer. “But a flight delay brought all four of us to the rehearsal room at the same time, and our sound-check simply morphed into a wild two-hour session of collective improvisation.” Niggli adds: “the two of them got on so well with each other, it was clear to us that we wouldn’t want to pull them apart again.” And that is how, instead of two trios, this one-of-a-kind quartet with guitar, accordion, drums and voice was born. Because all of its members are so popular, the band was highly regarded from the very start, and was invited by several festivals. In the course of these performances the group gelled, and what evolved was a quartet in which all of the co-conspirators would have an equal role. They started with old pieces which each took from his own repertoire, and then gradually expanded the scope with new numbers written especially for the quartet. All four were able to contribute compositions reflecting their respective musical origins and preferences. Thus the new album "A Novel Of Anomaly” opens all kind of colourful vistas, and yet at the same time reveals the harmonic inclinations and instantly recognizable character of the band. In “Aritmia”, an ideal opener with its driving swing, as in the melancholy ballad “Stagione”, the central focus is on the Mediterranean element, Biondini’s ‘Italianità’. Kalle Kalima’s “Dive” is influenced by Finnish tango, and in “Planet Zumo” the guitarist brings to the fore memories of his collaboration with Nigerian drummer Tony Allen through propulsive rhythms and the distinctive rumble of highlife guitar. Niggli also turns his gaze towards Africa. He lived in Cameroon until he was six years old. The African poet Chenjerai Hove was the creative fountainhead for his ethereal track “Flood”. In the accordion/vocal duet “Causa Danzante”, Schaerer finally makes room for some classical reminiscences, and then in “Getalateria” he lays down a brilliant rocky alpine yodel-blues. In the hymnic “Signor Giudice” all the elements - the filigree and powerful drums of Niggli, Schaerer’s multiphonics and beatboxing solos, Kalima’s expressive guitar, and the almost orchestral accordion of Biondini - find an ideal way to combine together. “For me it was important to accommodate the mother tongue of each of the musicians in this album,” Schaerer emphasizes. Thus “Fiore Salino”, composed by the members of quartet, is a story told in Italian about spiritual affinities and friendships. In “Swie Embri” Schaerer sings in the dialect of the German part of Valais about the eternal flow of things. Finally, the Finnish text of “Laulu Jatkuu”, inspired by a mountaineering drama which occurred during the band's performance at Mont Blanc, reflects upon the concurrence of creation and destruction. A “Novel Of Anomaly”, then, is a dazzling testimony to the way contemporary European jazz is growing and converging. After his gargantuan orchestral work “The Big Wig” and the improvisational fireworks of “Out of Land” (with Emile Parisien, Vincent Peirani and Michael Wollny) Andreas Schaerer has now immersed himself in a new sound-world. “A Novel Of Anomaly” presents eleven short stories, offering opportunities do delve into more intimate and pared-down vocal textures. It is an unusual, surprising and compelling album.Credits: Produced by Andreas Brandis with the artists

Various Artists - The Jubilee ConcertsCD / digital Various Artists “We fly like birds of a feather,” runs the Sister Sledge lyric. And so the musicians did – thirty-four of them flocked to the Konzerthaus in Berlin, from several countries of Europe, each of them an artist who has found a nurturing home for his or her projects and talents on the ACT label. It was their way of expressing gratitude, and of giving their label a 25th birthday present. The musicians appeared on stage in a whole variety of combinations throughout the day, some of the bands formed for these concerts having never been put together before. It was in every sense a special occasion: a day of very fine concerts, a joyous celebration of the passing of an important milestone - the date marked exactly twenty-five years and one day since the ACT label put out its very first release in 1992 - and a happy gathering for the label-as-family. What this unique event brought to the fore was that precious common spirit and attitude among these musicians: an openness and respect for the individual and very different talents of the others, the courage to take risks, and an ever-present willingness to welcome in the unexpected and to discover the new. The musicians are also from several different generations, all bringing their combined energies to the event. For example, saxophonist Emile Parisien and pianist Joachim Kühn were born nearly forty years apart, and yet their mutual understanding, their common way of making music and generating excitement makes a detail like that an irrelevance. There were two other trans-national duos on the album. Whereas saxophonist Parisien and Kühn brought high-voltage excitement, and received a loud ovation, the two double basses of Lars Danielsson and Dieter Ilg channelled very different emotions. Two bassists playing together tends to be a recipe for pure joy, good humour, bonhomie and mischief, and that was exactly what these two master musicians offered. The third duo of Nils Landgren and Michael Wollny brought warmth, affection, and wistful poetry and beauty to Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns,” which opens the album. These three intimate conversations were just part of the story of an unforgettable day. A quartet feature was led by violinist Adam Bałdych, whose ski-ing accident just a few days before had not deterred him from attending this joyous gathering - he was supported by crutches to get on and off the stage. Then there was a special one-off formation of Nils Landgren’s Funk Unit in “Walk Tall”, the band propelled by Wolfgang Haffner’s crisp, in-the-pocket drumming. One of the features of the ACT label is that founder Siggi Loch is a natural connector and helps the formation of new bands. A quintet around Nguyên Lê and the quartet led by Adam Bałdych were created especially for the evening. Lars Danielsson’s “Suffering” has as its first soloists two ACT cornerstone artists who have helped to define the many-sided identity of the label: Nguyên Lê and Nils Landgren. Another more established quartet which ACT has helped into existence is the supergroup of Andreas Schaerer, Emile Parisien, Vincent Peirani, and Michael Wollny. “B&H” shows these four stars of European jazz, all of a similar age, keeping each other and the audience on their toes. A celebration like this could run the risk of drifting into memory and nostalgia – this one didn’t. ACT has issued over 500 albums, so there is much to look back on with pride…but one moment found an inspired way to look to the future as well. The listener might wonder who the drummer and guitarist are, playing with such ease, flow and total assurance on “Dodge The Dodo.” They are Noa and Ruben Svensson, sons of the much-missed Esbjörn. The culmination of the day of celebration in Berlin was a Gala Concert by the “ACT Family Band.” The evening built naturally to a whole-band, whole-family finale in which the combined ensemble, led by Ida Sand, launched into “We Are Family”. As an expression of togetherness, of a shared joyful ethos it would be hard to beat. These Jubilee Concerts made it possible to experience at close quarters what ACT exists to achieve: it is a leading label where listeners can discover newly created music “in the Sprit of jazz.” The label’s range and its previously unimagined connections are a constant source of surprise from which it draws ever-new inspiration to connect the unexpected. Mike Flynn, Editor of Jazzwise wrote in his review of the concert that the ACT label has “a smile on its face and a swagger in its step”. And where might the best evidence for that statement be found? It’s all there on this album.Credits: Live at Konzerthaus Berlin, April 2, 2017 Recorded, mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann Curated by Siggi Loch An ACT Music concert production in cooperation with Konzerthaus Berlin

Andreas Schaerer - Out Of LandCD / digital Emile Parisien soprano saxophone Vincent Peirani accordion Andreas Schaerer voice & mouth percussion Michael Wollny piano For once, here’s a band for which the word 'supergroup' is completely apposite. Swiss vocalist Andreas Schaerer, German pianist Michael Wollny, French accordionist Vincent Peirani and his saxophonist compatriot Emile Parisien are four of the brightest and most charismatic stars in European jazz, and they have now formed themselves into a quartet. Between them, they have so far garnered no fewer than twelve German ECHO Jazz awards, as well as just about every distinction of importance in their own countries. They are in their mid- to late thirties, and their new live recording “Out of Land” demonstrates why they are at the very pinnacle of jazz musicians of their generation. It is because they are re-defining the possibilities of their instruments; not just cutting loose from the boundaries of jazz, but doing it in a way which energizes and inspires audiences of all generations. The pivot and connector for this top-flight group of musical allies and equal partners has been Peirani. He had previously played with all three of the others, and has brought them together. The quartet member he has had the closest connection with is Parisien: they have been kindred spirits since working together in Daniel Humair’s quartet. They work as a regular duo, and in the group “Living Being”. Michael Wollny had been enlisted by Peirani at the end of 2012 for the latter’s ACT debut CD “Thrill Box”, and the two have continued to bring their combined “resourcefulness, erudition and shared relish for risk” (John Fordham in The Guardian) to their 2016 ACT album “Tandem”. Schaerer had first met Peirani two years previously, when he had invited the Frenchman to join his band “Hildegard Lernt Fliegen” as a guest for their concert in Paris. After that, both wanted to do more together, but the overladen state of their diaries conspired against it. It was only when Schaerer received invitations from Budapest and Berne which gave him carte blanche to put together any project he wanted, that he was able to enrol Peirani for a project - for which the accordionist also wanted to involve both Parisien and Wollny… The four searched long and hard for the right name to put on their new band’s birth certificate. Schaerer sent Peirani a whole raft of suggestions, including the indeterminate “Out of...”. To which Peirani responded promptly with “Out of Land”. “That was it, we'd nailed it,” remembers Schaerer. The phrase “Out of Land” is intended to bring to mind that specific sense of leaving solid ground, and of venturing into terrain where it is far from obvious how things are going to develop. That was certainly a part of the concept: staying open to the ideas of the others, keeping the excitement intact, seeing what will happen musically in the moment. They did three days of rehearsals without prior preparation, and then went off to appear on stage together. Schaerer found it all very fulfilling: “It is simply a dream, almost a spiritual form of making music. It’s about being able to address one’s own visions in conditions of complete spontaneity, and also about transparency of communication with the others. These musicians can really do that!” That capacity of all four musicians to interact and co-create which Andreas Schaerer has described here begins with the Swiss vocalist himself, one of the great singing improvisers of our time. He has a vast vocal compass; his stylistic palette ranges from classical art song to crooning and scat. He can produce all kinds of improbable sounds, and is able to imitate many instruments – including various parts of a drum kit. His recent arrival at the ACT label was marked with the release of “The Big Wig”, a major composition for 66- piece symphony orchestra. Accordionist Vincent Peirani, originally from Nice, is another musician making huge waves on the European scene. He too has received numerous awards and distinctions, the “Prix Django Reinhardt” and “Victoires du Jazz” in France and an ECHO Jazz award in Germany - his profile on the scene is huge. Peirani is able to magic an astonishing, maybe unprecedented range of sounds out of his button accordion and accordina. He is an inheritor of the great French accordion tradition, and that shines through in his playing, but his own expressive purposes take him further. Peirani’s spiritual brother is Emile Parisien, and not only because both can improvise over anything from Wagner tunes to hiphop. And like his band-mates, Parisien takes his instrument acoustically and compositionally into new domains. That is also true of Michael Wollny’s piano playing, which is full of fantasy and always capable of springing surprises, whatever the context - and he plays in many. Wollny is one of the very few German jazz musicians - of any era - to have carved out a substantial profile internationally. “Out of Land” does put on record one first meeting: Wollny and Schaerer had never in fact previously played together. The listener can sense the unleashing of huge performance energy, impetus and joy right from the outset. Schaerer comments: “A whole lot of the things we had discussed in rehearsal were over-ruled once we got on stage. It was done quite consciously, the music in the moment simply demanded something different. That works with this band. It just gets airborne.” The listener gets that sense of flying with the band right from the start of Peirani’s tune “Air Song”. This highly melodic miniature brings its own powerful emotional updraft. The rhythmic and dynamic exuberance in Peirani’s tune “B&H” are overwhelming, while Wollny’s “Kabinett V” overflows with the desire for sonic experiment and discovery. Schaerer’s “Rezeusler” inspires the group to a combined burst of creative inspiration. This tune has evolved through various guises. Schaerer first imagined it as an uptempo roaster for sextet, it then morphed into a through-composed ballad for full orchestra, and is here in completely new clothes as a suite for quartet. The sounds of Peirani’s accordion, Schaerer’s voice and Wollny’s piano swirl and eddy impressionistically, before they all dig in together for a heart-on-sleeve finale. “Ukuhamba” is a fourteenminute all-encompassing jam session-like epic, which brings the album to a close. This album brings the listener tinglingly close to a moment of creation by four brilliant musical alchemists. The result is pure gold.

VArious Artists - Twenty Five Magic Years - The Jubilee AlbumCD / Vinyl / digitalIt is now 25 years since Siggi Loch properly set about being “useful rather than important” (the phrase is from his autobiography) and to move on from a successful and distinguished career in the international record industry to found his own independent jazz label, ACT. What he had in mind from the start was that it should be a platform to promote the kind of musicians who are capable of touching the emotions of their audience, of creating excitement and winning people over, artists who tend to court danger by avoiding the well-trodden paths – in other words they make their music “in the spirit of jazz.” Now, a quarter of a century and over 500 albums later, it is definitely a case of having delivered on that promise. As a “discovery label”, ACT has written part of the continuing story of jazz, and its family of musicians are now leading figures in the genre. ACT is proud to mark this milestone with a “Jubilee Album”. However, the label has taken care to steer well clear of the predictable. Except three tracks everything on the album is being released for the first time. Furthermore some tracks were in fact especially recorded at sessions involving a gradually permutating all-star line-up at the Hansa studios in Berlin. The result is a newly crafted summation of the kind of music for which ACT exists: music that can touch the heart, stir the soul and lift the spirit of the listener. It is a kaleidoscope of magical musical moments by artists with an openness of mind to all genres and styles. The opening track is the Beatles’ “Come Together”, interpreted by Nils Landgren, Ulf Wakenius and Lars Danielsson. This placing is deliberate. First it is a particularly fine example of the ACT motto of “connecting the unexpected,” following the long-standing jazz tradition of taking material from other musical areas and repossessing and transfiguring it through improvising. Great musicians reveal all kinds of unimagined things in seemingly well-known music. This stellar trio is also representative of another distinctive achievement by ACT, namely that the label is out in front as the leading exporter of Swedish jazz to the rest of the world. Landgren has been an exclusive ACT label artist since 1995 and has become the label’s most successful artist. Here on the “Jubilee Album” he also shows his funky side in “Walk Tall”. In “Paco’s Delight”, Ulf Wakenius pays homage in a duo with his son Eric to flamenco icon Paco de Lucía. The Swedish connection has been particularly fruitful for ACT. It was through her one-time accompanist Esbjörn Svensson that vocalist Viktoria Tolstoy joined the label, and the “Jubilee Album” features her singing his irreplaceable and bittersweet composition “Monologue”. The album’s closer is Svensson’s “Prelude in D Minor” and that placing has been done on purpose too. Svensson was the most important innovator in European jazz right up to the time of his tragic and fatal accident in 2008, and this solo piano piece was the only completed track from a solo album which was planned but sadly never completed. “Dodge The Dodo” reminds us of the massive charisma of the Swedish genius. Svensson’s classic tune is brought to us emphatically yet subtly by a quartet consisting of Polish violinist Adam Bałdych, Finnish Pianist Iiro Rantala and flautist Magnus Lindgren. Alongside Svensson, Bałdych and Rantala, the Norwegian saxophonist Marius Neset with “Prag Ballet“ is another example for the “Sound of Europe” which the ACT label has welcomed into its fold since the start. This commitment has been followed through with continuing and growing success, as can be vividly heard in “B&H”, a track from a live album recently recorded by the brand new combination of French stars Vincent Peirani and Emile Parisien with Swiss vocal phenomenon Andreas Schaerer and pianist Michael Wollny, who “breaks new ground for his instrument.” (The Observer, UK) Wollny is a once-in-a-lifetime talent. He is also rare among German jazz musicians in that he has successfully carved out an international profile. He is heard on this album as part of two more units: “Swing, Swing, Swing” is an explosive performance in a duo with Germany’s foremost drummer Wolfgang Haffner. This track demonstrates another important tenet for ACT: that home-grown German talent should never be overlooked. Wollny also plays “White Moon” in a duo with Iiro Rantala recorded live at the Philharmonie in Berlin, and this reflects the mission of ACT to present exceptional and pre-eminent jazz pianists to the widest possible audience. Finally, this birthday party could hardly be complete without the “great artistry of a genuine vocal marvel” (Vogue): we hear Youn Sun Nah’s “Bitter Ballad”. The “Jubilee Album” is a retrospective, a panoramic view and a peek into the future all rolled into one. As these exceptional artists perform unforgettable compositions, it becomes clear what ACT has been, what it is, and what it intends to remain: a reliable compass for new and exciting music “in the spirit of jazz.”Credits: Curated by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann Cover art by Jiri Geller, SMILE!, 2016 @ ACT Art Collection  

Andreas Schaerer - The Big WigCD / DVD / Vinyl / digital Hildegard Lernt Fliegen: Andreas Schaerer voice, beatboxing, human trumpet Andreas Tschopp trombone Matthias Wenger alto & soprano saxophone, flute Benedikt Reising baritone saxophone & bass clarinet Marco Müller bass Christoph Steiner drums & marimba Andreas Schaerer, from Berne in Switzerland, is currently one of the most talked-about vocal artists on the international music scene, and with good reason. He was awarded the title of International Vocalist of the Year at the 2015 ECHO Jazz Awards (in the year immediately following Gregory Porter), but he is considerably more than just a singer - and to classify him under jazz doesn’t really do him justice either. Schaerer uses his voice in the manner of a juggler, a magician. He can not only make it sound forth in contrasting stylistic idioms and vocal registers, (switching at will from songster to crooner to scatter), he can also produce all kinds of sounds and imitate a whole range of instruments. He can do beatbox percussion, or he can stack up polyphonic vocal parts on top of each other in a way which seems unfeasible. In addition to all that, he is also a hugely impressive composer and improviser, skills which he can bring to bear on all kinds of musical projects, where his virtuosity can be the key ingredient, either providing melodic form or rhythmic impetus. And his skills don’t stop there. He has considerable on-stage charisma, and also brings a rare gift into the world of ‘serious’ music: humour, which is the stock-in-trade of his main band Hildegard Lernt Fliegen (meaning Hildegard learns to fly). It was therefore a logical step, when the Lucerne Festival, with its unparalleled renown in the world of classical music chose “humour” as its theme for 2015, that it should approach Schaerer and Hildegard Lernt Fliegen. The festival’s head of Contemporary Projects Mark Sattler asked Schaerer if he might combine a new composition for the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra with a 20-minute appearance by Hildegard Lernt Fliegen. Schaerer didn’t just grab this opportunity, he really ran with it. What he composed was a six-movement orchestral work, with parts for 66 players. He put himself through the hard graft of composing and arranging, then through the intricacies of orchestrating and part-writing, followed by an intensive rehearsal process… as a result of which “The Big Wig” had its public premiere on 5th September 2015 in the magnificent Jean Nouvel-designed Culture and Convention Center in Lucerne. This work had the audience leaping from its seats. Even the Swiss press, normally known for its sangfroid, turned ecstatic. The cultural magazine KultUrteil concluded that only one adjective would suffice to describe the work: “gigantic.” While the Neue Luzerner Zeitung remarked: “what was crazy about this piece was how the complexity in the orchestral writing combined with grooves, something more or less unknown in contemporary music.” Fortunately, Swiss Radio (SRF) had arranged to made a recording of the premiere, and there was also a camera team on hand to film it. So this extraordinary concert has been documented both as a CD and a DVD: Andreas Schaerer “The Big Wig” - Hildegard Lernt Fliegen meets the Orchestra of the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY. There is a paradox here, however. The Festival’s theme of ‘humour’ has in fact produced in “The Big Wig” the most ‘serious’ appearance by Schaerer there has ever been. Such was Schaerer’s keenness to exploit all the possibilities of working with a symphony orchestra, it was almost inevitable as a consequence that he and his fellow band members would become another limb, bring an additional dimension to the whole orchestral sound and experience. That is certainly what happens with the three adapted and extended Hildegard compositions “Zeusler”, “Seven Oaks” and “Don Clemenza”. In this context they acquire a new flow and momentum, and a power akin to the cinematic. Maurice Ravel and Leonard Bernstein come to mind, as do Duke Ellington or Stan Kenton. The rhythmically displaced staccato figures in “Don Clemenza” even have an echo of Stravinsky. Taking the newly composed original pieces such as “If Two Colossus”, “Wig Alert” und “Preludium”, what they convey is inspired symphonic writing combined with both wit and a wish to experiment which remains accessible to the listener. These are aspects that are mostly absent from typical new contemporary classical works. The young and prodigiously talented young musicians of the orchestra, drawn from all over the world inevitably spend time outside the classical music ‘bubble’. On this recording it is clearly to be heard how much fun they are having, as they form into a relaxed, yet precisely co-ordinated ensemble under the direction of conductor Mariano Chiacchiarini. And when Schaerer himself takes the conductor’s rostrum, as happens briefly in “If Two Colossus”, they all embark whole-heartedly in the direction of jazz. Has a symphony orchestra ever been heard in a collective improvisation that is quite this lively and this thrilling? There have been plenty of occasions in the past when combinations of a symphony orchestra and a jazz combo turned out to be a car crashes. In this case the partnership turns out to be both stimulating and compelling. There is no activity which is in the background or subsidiary, every instrumental voice is at the heart of the action, including the pairs of harps and marimbas. This is symphonic music of a new kind. It doesn’t so much pass through genre boundaries; it no longer perceives them or acknowledges their existence. “The Big Wig” is a masterpiece by the multi-talented vocal marvel Andreas Schaerer. This is a work which situates him quite clearly and definitively among the most important composers and interpreters of contemporary music of his generation.Credits: