[em]
  • "This is the trio's third ACT album, and it perfectly captures the fierce intensity with which they address their wide-ranging, subtly interactive music. Not only do they embrace, with unaffected ease, both poles of contemporary piano-trio jazz - the rock/drum'n'bass-inflected, rackety approach of, say, E.S.T. or even Bad Plus, and the dreamily spare spaciness of the likes of the Tord Gustavsen trio - but they also somehow contrive to occupy most of the middle ground as well, bringing to their extraordinary music (composed by all three members of the trio) a delicacy and thoughtfulness that used to be mainly associated with 'classical' music as well as the spontaneous mutual spark-striking that characterises the best jazz. By turns pleasingly nervy, gently lyrical and exuberantly propulsive, [em]'s music is consistently compelling and utterly contemporary."
    Chris Parker, The Vortex (UK), Feb.2008
  • "... eine Intensität, die das Live-Erlebnis den hörenswerten CD-Einspielungen als eigenständig und unersetzlich an die Seite stellt. Wer am Donnerstag nicht in der Romanfabrik war, soll sich jetzt einen Augenblick lang ärgern."
    Frankfurter Rundschau
  • "The music biz long ago rendered terms like 'excellent' or 'brilliant' meaningless. It's a shame, because when an album comes along that is genuinely excellent (or brilliant) it's necessary to reach for the kind of superlatives that would barely do justice to the Second Coming. So by saying [em] II announces the arrival of a major young band I realise this may be construed as a monumental understatement, particularly since it's my album of the year ... devil's music of the highest order."
    The Observer (UK)
SOAP - busca busca!
  • Die vielbeschäftigte und vielseitige Kontrabassistin Eva Kruse wurde in G&B 11/2006 ausführlich vorgestellt. Ihre Band SOAP hat jetzt 'busca busca!' veröffentlicht. Hier stehen die akustischen Instrumente Bass und Saxophon, Keyboard/Laptop und Drums/Laptop gegenüber - für Sounds und Samples ist also gesorgt. Und für Groove! Auch SOAP setzen auf den weit verbreiteten Stil-Crossover von Electric Jazz, Drum'N Bass, HipHop-Sounds und Lounge-Atmosphäre - aber sie machen ihre Sache verdammt gut und sorgen für klangliche Überraschungen an jeder Ecke und Kante ihrer Musik, die übrigens nicht ohne Humor auskommt. Eine wirklich gute Produktion.
    Lothar Trampert, Gitarre & Bass, Jun.2007
  • This is wonderfully crazy. It's an example of what we all should know a bit more about, the incredibly diverse jazz scene in Berlin thet's, er, wonderfully crazy. Eva Kruse is the bassist in Michael Wollny's highly acclaimed trio [em], and her beautiful tone features on "die strassen von hamburg" that morphs into an accomplished soprano sax feature Lars. The key ingredient in all this is electronics. The band started out doing their covers of soap operas and movie soundtracks - albeit seen through the prism of electronica, samples and much else - beefed up by a mix of what they were listening to at the moment - pop, hip hop, drum 'n' bass and, well anything goes. But it's so organic, well thought out and yes, smart - like 'Ogermann', for example. Well constructed, with thoughtful and original use of electronics, great soloing from Lars and Hendrik that draws you into the mix and keeps you wondering where all this is leading. This is an album that comes stamped with the 21st century, even if the title track, or at least 'Busca Burrito' is a bit tedious. Rap, even in German, remains formulaic and you can't sidestep that with clever ideas. But 'Lost Highway tango' is a great noise out. Every track fearlessly tries new ideas; some work, some don't but the sense of musical adventure here is palpable.
    Stuart Nicholson, Jazzwise, Sep.2007
  • Bei dieser Platte denke ich ans Fernsehen. Und das nicht nur, weil die Berliner Band SOAP das Thema von "Bezaubernde Jeanny " so augenzwinkernd in groovige Mitsummmusik verpackt. Die Akteure um den Saxophonisten Lars Dieterich stammen aus verschiedenen Szenen: Keyboarder Hendrik Stiller spielt sonst Reggae, Bassistin Eva Kruse kennt man aus dem grandiosen Jazztrio [em]. Und so ist "busca busca! " ein bunte Mischung aus elektronischen Sounds und Jazzpop, die immer überrascht, und oft angenehm. Wie allerdings die Gruppe den bayrischen Noch-Ministerpräsidenten Stoiber mit einer Bahnhofs-Eröffnungsrede zum unfreiwilligen Rapper ("Bombay"), das ist matürlich furchtbar gemein. Und ziemlich witzig.
    Ralf Stiefel, Westfälischer Anzeiger
| © 2008 | impressum | kontakt | english |