[em]

After the critical acclaim that accompanied their two previous albums for ACT and the widespread praise that always follows their live performances - last year the trio played concerts in 13 countries and appeared at major festivals in France, Holland, Germany, Italy, and Canada - the Berlin trio Michael Wollny / Eva Kruse / Eric Schaefer proudly present their third album: [em] 3.
At its best, and in its greatest moments, jazz is the art that unearths the universal elements that lie buried in each individual. The ad-hoc arrangements of many jazz recordings unfortunately stand in stark contrast to this aspiration. To escape the curse of the lowest common denominator, it’s necessary to have a fixed formation, and yet - especially in German jazz - groups with longevity are certainly the exception rather than the rule. With the simple title [em] 3, the trio [em] with pianist Michael Wollny, bassist Eva Kruse, drummer Eric Schaefer take a swing at one of the most complex statements in sound.
With their third album not only do these three Berliners break with the ground rules of jazz, they also find a brand new starting point for themselves. The bond within the group is so obviously strong that there is enough room for individual members to elaborate on their various and often disparate standpoints. This requires a high degree of trust and the ability for exceptional communication. And it is by daring to wage this discourse that [em] brings back to jazz what has lately been sorely missed: immediacy and relevance.
Wollny, Kruse, and Schaefer don’t try to curry anyone’s favour. Neither do they fish in the delusory slough of the musical Zeitgeist, nor stray into the enticing safety of pop music’s newest trends. And the last thing they are interested in is finding a consensus among the trio to the neglect of their individual voices. Eric Schaefer professes: “We have never been as far apart as we are now,” to which the other two vociferously agree. In no way is this insight an indication of the nearing end. Rather it demonstrates a willingness by the three to wend their way towards an even higher communicative plateau. It is precisely this mutual distance which makes it necessary for them to rely on each other and to listen with a communal ear, so that the poetic nuances may be brought to light. Their collective roots are so tightly intertwined with the actual playing process that the decision to take a few musical steps away from one another actually gives the players an even stronger sense of “We”, the trio.
The easiest thing to have done would have been to follow the successful path of [em] II (Act 9655-2). But for [em] to congeal into some sort of “jazz institution” is the last thing they want. They’ve placed the bar of their own aspirations as high as possible to make it easier on the listener, who can enter the trio’s conceptual musical world without having been raised on jazz. With complete informed awareness of jazz history, these three intuitive perfectionists prefer to give their curiosity about themselves and the world around them free rein. The instinct for play, coupled with a profound desire for completion, come together to reveal a strata between atmospheric intensity and detail-obsessed exactness, while the layer of self-importance so justifiably criticised in contemporary jazz is peeled away. This can only be done through an intuitive understanding of one’s own borders and through exploring the terrain beyond them. The tension between attempt and completion is exploited to the extreme on this album.
The most popular German piano trio of recent years have accomplished nothing less than the re-invention of their music while remaining absolutely true to themselves.
Contact:
HR MUSIC GmbH
René Hess
av. Collonges 21
CH-1004 Lausanne
phone: +41 21 647 1825
fax: +41 21 647 1829
www.hrmusic.ch
mailto: [email protected]

[em] 3

[em] 3 (ACT 9660-2)
release dates:
22/02/08 (Germany)
03/03/08 (UK)
31/03/08 (France)
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