A down-and-dirty literal English translation of the Frankfurter Rundschau review
“It´s a new kind of creative process and alchemy when I bring such different musicians together, listen to the results and then present them online. What joy!” The current possibilites of the internet seem to give Hayden Chisholm wings in his new roll as curator and festival director.
His partner, cellist Adrian Brendel, expains more: “It all grew out of the classics, though I was always keen to go beyond the normal boundaries.” For 12 years, Brendel has run a summer music festival in Plush, a small village in the south west of England. There, it’s the music that is always put first, before trends and fads. With the expansion into other genres Chisholm is also now running the proceedings.
He invited colleagues from vastly differing musical worlds, musicians that would never engage in stylistic fusion for any superficial reason, but ones “very active” in their fields, dedicated to exploring and testing the limits of their genres from within, and sometimes to even daring enough to collaborate spontaneously with other musicians present at the festival. This kind of concentration is one of the driving principles of the concerts presented on the internet platform “Plushmusic.tv” where the first concerts from Loft were already up for viewing during the festival.
The festival began with a homage to Mauricio Kagel. Adrian Brendel, Claudia Aimone-Marsan, and Paolo Alvares interpreted the first two Piano Trios, and Alvares performed “mm51”, which describes the struggle of a pianist with a metronome. The musicians structured Kagel’s subversive marches through musical worlds with piercing intensity. This new amalgam of traditional material was presented in an upmost convincing manner. To close the evening, the pianists Alvares and Nabatov delivered an exuberant session on the two grand pianos of the Loft.
Nabatov opened Friday evening with his own adaptions of the compositions of Jazz pianist Herbie Nichols from the 1950’s. He lent the pieces a mature rhythmic and pianistic forming, one which Nichols due to his difficult circumstances could only ever dreamt of attaining. Nabatov thus opened the way for the motto of the second half: “Out of Finity”. The trumpeter Franz Hautzinger and saxophonist Chisholm opened up worlds of aesthetic oplulence with their study of microtonal sounds in an extremely reduced volume, bordering on silence and demanding intent concentration. Bassist Dietmar Fuhr and drummer John Schroeder completed the Quartet. They avoided using amplification and thus went strongly against the trend of the usual jazz scenario in clubs and concert halls.
Saturday’s first concert began with cellist Claudio Bohorquez and guitarist Goran Krivokapic, two musicians who belong at the very top of their fields. Gareth Lubbe, solo violist of the Liepzig Gewandthaus Orchertra, then dived into two “first encounters” with pianist Philp Zoubek and percussionist Rhani Krija. Previously unheard Klangwelten filled with prepared pianos, overtone singing, and new techniques for viola, blended wonderfully with the trance rhythms of the Gnawa musician.
Chisholm had the final say on the Sunday. Firstly with his trio (bass: Phil Donkin, drums: Jochen Rueckert) under the title “Neo-Cool” which already hints at his intention: linear polyphonic works which do gather their strength form the usual expressive parameters of jazz, but rather from the texture of finely woven lines. The final accent was set by him with a duo with the Portuguese singer Lula Pena. Her evocative alto voice is rightly praised by critics as “the voice of new Fado”.
The engagement of all the musicians led to an extremely high level of playing, each pushing the limits of their respective métier through to the magical roots of their craft, far removed from any commercial intentions. Chisholm invited musicians whom he knew were prepared for this and he is adamant on maintaining this bench mark at all costs for future festivals.
Lastly, Brendel mentions “the magic of the place”: In Plush it is a small country church, in Cologne the third floor of a factory building, the “Loft” of flautist Hans-Martin Mueller where once hats were made. The audience sat closely to the musicians without the separation of a stage. This provided for an immediate communication between musicians and audience which is only possible in such an intimate space without irritating amplification.
