Home Jazz Stemeseder & Lillinger – ANTUMBRA (PLAIST, 2024) ~ The Free Jazz Collective

Stemeseder & Lillinger – ANTUMBRA (PLAIST, 2024) ~ The Free Jazz Collective

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Stemeseder & Lillinger – ANTUMBRA (PLAIST, 2024) ~ The Free Jazz Collective

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In terms of earnestness, Christian Lillinger can’t be faulted – he
takes himself and his imaginative and prescient extraordinarily critically, leaving him huge open to
ridicule from anybody who chooses to not come alongside for his trip. Merciless
YouTube and Instagram feedback liken his drumming type to an epileptic match,
slandering his atonal music as “pretentious” and “shit.
Fortunately, he has developed a (velour) go well with of armour, ignoring the ocean of
up-turned noses, pushing relentlessly ahead, with no “hint” of a fuck to
be given.


Releasing one album after one other, quite a few collaborations, working his personal
label (PLAIST), taking part in and conducting “analysis” in places as numerous as
Cairo and Johannesburg, how Lillinger has any time left to coif his
signature pompadour in between is a thriller.

However, equally prolific keyboard/synth/electronics maestro Elias
Stemeseder shuns all types of social media, and opts reasonably to construct his
accolades within the shadows. Apart from taking part in in numerous ensembles amongst
the jazz scene in Germany, he has quietly collected esteemed titles reminiscent of
the Deutscher Jazz Preis Keyboardist of the 12 months 2023, and fourth place in
the El Intruso award for Keyboards, behind winner Jozef Dumoulin, (then
Craig Taborn and John Medeski).

Collectively within the final 12 months, Stemeseder and Lillinger have taken their duo
idea on the highway, performing and recording in a plethora of various
studios globally: Mexico Metropolis, Athens (Georgia), New York, Cerkno, Bezau,
Florence, and extra. Final 12 months the pair closed out Lillinger’s personal PLAIST
Competition in Munich with PENUMBRA: a polarising audio/visible assault on the
senses, full with vibrant, strobing visuals by Mr & Mrs (Katrin)
Lillinger. Not all patrons remained, to depart was their prerogative. Dwell,
loud, experimental sounds, rumbling bass tones, and flashing footage over
busy, sophisticated music. Not for the faint of coronary heart.
The second a part of the trilogy, UMBRA, consists of visitor collaborations,
the duo inviting Peter Evans (piccolo trumpet), Russell Corridor (bass), DoYeon
Kim (gayageum), and Brandon Seabrook (banjo, guitar) to contribute. This
sophomore album is extra of an outlier in that regard, launched on a
completely different label (Intakt), that includes cowl paintings that’s not in step with
the opposite two within the collection. However so far as the idea is worried, inside
an Umbra shadow one experiences whole occultation, not partial. There’s a
collective “wholeness” in standing behind the article and watching the sunshine
peek out from the edges, collectively.
It’s troublesome to know what to anticipate when the press launch for an album is
so wordy it virtually turns into redundant. Lillinger and Stemeseder have
tried to clarify what occurs whenever you take heed to ANTUMBRA however the learn
itself is so sophisticated, it prompts an uneasy feeling of trepidation. Talks
of “utopian imaginative and prescient,” “people musics,” and beats that must be

“unfailingly embodied whereas ambiguously gravitational”

conjures up expectations of “…wtf?”

However this shouldn’t be a deterrent to ANTUMBRA – its description is simply
as labyrinthine and trippy because the music itself. Relaxation assured, you don’t
have to totally perceive what’s going on so as to have the ability to totally get pleasure from
it.

By way of acoustic instrumentation (gayageum, banjo and lautenwerk) collectively
with artistic sampling and sound curation, Lillinger and Stemeseder have
elevated the manufacturing in methods beforehand unimaginable. It’s so removed from an
incoherent mish-mash; reasonably, a meticulously chosen mosaic, deeply
intense, for these ready to open their hearts. To not downplay the
unique, however ANTUMBRA is sonically and conceptually so nicely executed, it
makes the previous improvements of half one (PENUMBRA) sound like mere jam
classes as compared.

The bells and glockenspiel plinks that open Lux create a
kaleidoscopic, disjointed Fantasia, with Squarepusher-esque drums &
bass. It creates a very reverb heavy area with abrupt, current
drumming, that is heat, lush and expansive – you might be inside it, and it’s
taking place throughout you. All that’s left is to let it information you. Drums and
bells spontaneously drop out leaving solely a mere solo “pluck” – the
equal of an avant-garde trance breakdown. This weirdness is paired with
a well-known and exquisite piano, and proceeds with distortion: it’s epically
cinematic. There may be even time for a reverse-bass womp-fest in the direction of the tip
of the track, which has completely no proper to be as phat as it’s. And this
is only one of a myriad of songs. One track, a number of worlds.

Drop Shadow gives a unique kind of portal: Lillinger’s
impeccable drums main the way in which by means of musical corridors with “splashes”
of clustered, brilliant samples, accompanied by a carpet of unusually detuned
instrumentation. This culminates in a finale that conjures up photos of an
intergalactic visitors jam, full with imaginary whirring sirens and
stuttering automotive horns.

Album nearer Umbra Granularis one other piece that packs an infinite
punch for its 1:31 runtime. Gritty, thick, darkish electronics thoughtfully
paired with some sort of LSD-infused mandolin solo that appears like

That’s Amore

after the medication have nicely and actually kicked in.

The album paintings by Thissen and Katrin Lillinger is, due to this fact, utterly
acceptable: The mix of the sunshine supply hitting the pinnacle works
itself brilliantly into the “Antumbra” idea. From Bandcamp:

Antumbra


(pre-shadow; from Latin ante, „earlier than“, the area from which the
occulting physique seems fully inside the disc of the sunshine supply)

. Translation for many who don’t communicate excessive forehead?

“That’s some brain-bending stuff, man”

. However is the sunshine hitting the pinnacle, or is the pinnacle projecting the sunshine?
By way of the act of opening the thoughts enlightenment might be achieved. That is
not reserved for students. Give it a strive, see the way it makes you’re feeling.

Indulge your self within the full audio spectrum – the dynamic vary extends all
the way in which to the very peripherals of your audio system’ functionality. One doesn’t
merely sit and take heed to the noise, reasonably, one is consumed by it. It’s a
stunning type of give up, to be taken by the hand and trip-sitted by means of
an ever evolving “utopia”. Sonic worlds are offered as snapshots,
generally huge reverberant universes, generally tiny rooms with tiny blips
and faucets. It’s a superb mix of natural vs mechanic, and one which,
regardless of its bizarre total nature, feels viscerally harmonious. The truth that
all of it comes collectively and someway works is nothing wanting a triumph.

Christian, Elias – voll geil gemacht, Jungs.



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