This trio of European expats living in New York have put out a second album of music that plays on the tensions and surprises that arise from the meeting of composition and improvisation.
Based on trumpeter Heberer's composition code, which he calls Cookbook, the trio — Heberer, clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst and double bassist Pascal Niggenkemper — have concocted 12 pieces of musical culinary delight, with exotic titles like the opening siren call "Lockruf," and appetizing nouns like "Inselberg," "Mengenleere" and "Bogen" — mostly German-sounding, with some French, and a play on words like the onomatopoetic "Tätterrettät" or the powerful closer, "Zuname."
While there are some examples in the liner notes of the graphic scoring used to provoke the music here, Heberer tells us that more traditional notation is also used. The result is what the listener ultimately judges the musical concept by, and the impressions on this listener suggest a suave and minimalistic effect, for the most part, with sustained finesse playing from all involved for the duration of this 50 minutes plus side.
From the spare airiness of the opening clarinet intro, a line which very gradually gets supported by a swelling acro bass and a perky Harmon-muted trumpet, to the growling finale of guttural trumpet and rasping bass and bass clarinet, there is a wide palette of sounds, but the common thread would be precision and a delicate way with the musical conception of timbre and density, and a very open sense of form. You're neither boxed in nor overwhelmed by this music. It evolves organically in a way that keeps you guessing where the music is going and, as a result, almost continually delighted.
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