JAZZ OR POP? ACOUSTIC OR ELECTRONIC?
For Matthias Vogt these contradictions were never mutually exclusive. By the artist name of Motorcitysoul he produces electronic club tracks and by his common name Matthias Vogt he works as a bandleader and pianist seeking the points of contact between jazz and electronic. Perhaps this double existence makes him so barely tangible.
But if we abandon thinking in pigeonholes, then we discover a musician, who has found his niche in the nowhere land between genres and who holds musical treasures, you would not have assumed to be necessarily there. With his band [re:jazz] he vests electronic club tracks with acoustic jazz robes and so guides electronica fans through the colours of jazz, as well as he turns the faces of jazz lovers towards a musical direction, whose compositions they had not much confidence in. But Matthias Vogt is not "the voice of one crying in the wilderness". He is not a missionary but a subtle music lover and curious about the possibilities music offers nowadays. Above all he is falling for the gentle notes, as you might realize very quickly when meeting him personally: more introverted, he is a prudent dialog partner who chooses his words carefully but presents them with calm self-confidence. As a musician he prefers the muted timbres to the shrill ones, he paints with the camel hair brush not with the rough bristles. This applies to the pianist as well as to the composer and the producer. In general Matthias Vogt doesn't seem to see these different roles separately. As a pianist he thinks in terms of composition and his compositions are always imprinted by the imaginative capabilities of a producer.
Bass player Andreas Manns and drummer Volker Schmidt contribute mainly to the success of the project. Since many years they have performed together as a trio and have developed an amazing degree of blind comprehension for each other. For the first time their typical trio sound which formed the backbone for the [re:jazz] project can be savoured by itself. The catchy tunes settle with repetitive listening - which is not necessarily limited to the three vocal tracks on "Changing Colours": Matthias Vogt even crosses the barriers between songwriter and jazz composer effortless. Presumably we will soon hear one of the catchy tunes in an electronic transposition? The story continues.
JÃœRGEN SCHWAB, October 2005
Born in 1973 in Hamburg, Volker Schmidt started playing drums at the age of 14. He studied jazz and pop music at the Frankfurt Musikwerkstatt for five years, followed by tours through Germany and abroad with various bands.
Born in 1977, Andreas Manns started learning bass, when he was 14 years old. He studied Jazz and Pop at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Mannheim. Among others Andreas Manns played with Jerry & Ack van Rooyen, Jeff Clayton, Madeline Bell and toured through Germany, Europe and South America.
Both have been members of the Matthias Vogt Trio and [re:jazz] from the beginning.
CD
Matthias Vogt Trio: Changing Colours (2006, Infracom)
Matthias Vogt Trio: Coming Up For Air (2009, Infracom)
