Ticho
- Date: Do, Okt 20, 2016
- Zeit: 20:00 - 22:00
- Austragungsort: Firlej, ul. Grabiszyńska 56, 53-504 Wrocław
- Location: In Between Festivals, Poland
- Tickets kaufen
Marc Schmolling
“TICHO”
Marc Schmolling – piano, composotion
Tom Arthurs – trumpet
Almut Kühne – voice
(Foto: Frank Schindelbeck 2016)
“This is a brilliant debut album by a trio consisting of German pianist / composer
Marc Schmolling (a son of Czech poetess Inka Machulkova), female vocalist Almut
Kuhne and British trumpeter Tom Arthurs. The eight pieces (one composition is
repeated twice as the opening and closing track of the album) are based on precomposed
themes, which are then freely improvised upon by the trio members.
The unique piano / trumpet / vocals lineup invokes an immediate associative
comparison to the legendary British trio Azimuth (John Taylor, Kenny Wheeler,
Norma Winstone), and some similarities are of course detectable, but this album is
much more oriented towards the Free Jazz / Improvised Music openness, whereas
Azimuth, as revolutionary and amazing as it was at the time, was overall much
more melodic and structured in form.
All three individual contributors are first class musicians of course: Schmolling
plays delicately and lyrically, Arthurs is simply brilliant with an incredible technique
and extraordinary sensitivity, emerging as one of the top British contemporary
trumpeters and Kuhne is a sensational surprise, with stunning vocal abilities
combining the powers of modern female Jazz vocal Divas, like Julie Tippetts,
Norma Winstone, Jeanne Lee, Lauren Newton and others. She is definitely worth
watching very carefully in the future.
The trio works also perfectly as a unit; Arthurs and Kuhne converse fiercely,
exchanging vocal and trumpet phrases like never heard before, while Schmolling
keeps the music in control with his guiding chords. The overall ensemble result is
simply breathtaking. This is a kind of music that combines the free spirit with the
essence of European culture, often based on reserve and intrinsic discipline.
Overall this is a excellent piece of music, which holds new surprises with every time
it is played, full of wonderful aesthetics and urgency to discover, an example of
ambitious creation that works out perfectly and in spite of its intimacy creates a
whole universe of sounds and feelings.
It is great to see that intelligent music is still being made in our cultural void, which
of course keeps those, who are open enough to listen to it, resistant to the
brainlessness out there. Wholeheartedly recommended!”
(Adam Baruch – The Soundtrack Of My Life – Record Reviews, April 2016)