Two long-standing duos--Isabelle Duthoit on clarinet & voice and Franz Hautzinger on quarter tone trumpet plus Chicago percussionists Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang, both on percussion and frame drum--joined together in 2020 for a European tour, recording this wildly informed homage to the Mesopotamia city Uruk live at Artacts in Alte Gerberei, St. Johann, Austria.
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Isabelle Duthoit-clarinet, voice
Franz Hautzinger-quarter tone trumpet
Hamid Drake-percussion, frame drum, voice
Michael Zerang-percussion, frame drum
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UPC: 9120036683594
Label: Trost Records
Catalog ID: TROST 219LP
Squidco Product Code: 32170
Format: LP
Condition: Sale (New)
Released: 2022
Country: Austria
Packaging: LP
Recorded live at Artacts, in Alte Gerberei, St.Johann, Austria, on March 7th, 2020, by Charles Wienand and Markus Masinger.
"Two duos firmly anchored in improvised music -- Duthoit/Hautzinger and Drake/Zerang -- explore what ritual music can mean in the present time. They moan and groan, sigh and sing in the jungle of their soul. Melodies between tradition and contemporary music in all their extremes ventures forward into a poetry full of sound noises."-Trost
"Uruk is the free-improvising quartet comprised of two duos - partners in life and music, French vocalist-clarinetist Isabelle Duthoit and Austrian trumpeter Franz Hautzinger (who plays here the quarter-tone trumpet) and long-time comrades, master percussionists Michael Zerang and Hamid Drake, who began collaborating as a duo already in 1990 and since then perform the winter solstice concert in Chicago. The quartet was recorded live at Artacts Festival in St. Johan, Austria, in March 2020 during a short European tour.
Uruk was one of the most important cities in ancient Mesopotamia, and the debut album of Uruk offers four timeless and imaginative rituals that navigate freely between ancient traditions and contemporary, free music. This short set begins with the title piece and sounds like an irreverent shamanic ritual. Duthoit vocalizes enigmatic and urgent spells and incantations in a wordless lingo as if she was possessed by ancient magic. Her vocalizations were immediately abstracted into intoxicating melodies by Hautzinger while Drake and Zerang introduce hypnotic rhythmic patterns on the congas and frame drums. The following "Enkidu", titled after a legendary figure in ancient Mesopotamian mythology, a wartime comrade and friend of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, suggests another kind of mysterious ritual, beginning as free-form improvisation but gently the brief breaths of Hautzinger and the sensual moans, sighs and cries of Duthoit match the sparse percussive patterns of Drake and Zerang, then the interplay transforms into a poetic and seductive groove, with Drake adding his own wordless chants.
"Gilgamesh" begins as a twisted meditation comprised of subtle noises produced by the extended breathing techniques of Hutzinger, the pixie-like vocal juggling of Duthoit, and subtle percussive touches of Drake and Zerang. Later it morphs into an exotic and hypnotic, snake-charming melody, led by Hautzinger and Duthoit with her urgent and wild pixie-like songs. The final "Inanna Ishtar", titled after the Akkadian goddess of war and sexual love, completes this sensual ritual with a touching, traditional African song sung by Drake, and beautifully ornamented by Hautzinger, Duthoit on the clarinet, and Zerang. This is one of the performances that you wish to experience in person, to feel the magical healing vibrations of these sonic rituals close as possible to the four inspiring musicians."-Eyal Hareuveni, The Free Jazz Collective
Also available on CD.Get additional information at The Free Jazz Collective
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Isabelle Duthoit "Classically-trained Isabelle Duthoit works with various ensembles and composers, primarily in the world of free improvisation. Using her voice, she has developed a unique singing technique, and to that end has sung in improvised solo settings and in duet with Phil Minton. In 2008, she was a resident at the Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto (Japan) to perform a solo vocal performance in relation to the sound world of Noh and Bunraku theater. From 1995 to 2005, she has been committed to the creation and improvised music by creating Fruits Festival Mhère "fields of improvisation" with Jacques Di Donato. Since 1997, she has taught clarinet and improvisation at the Conservatoire Departmental Evry in Essonne, France." ^ Hide Bio for Isabelle Duthoit • Show Bio for Franz Hautzinger "Detours often lead to more thrilling goals because they open up new perspectives. Franz Hautzinger has taken long and bendy detours and turned to many dead ends, he has spent years without instrumental activity and has made a hopeful new start. All this, those victories and defeats, this "History from the Total Crash to 'Emergency Individualism'", as he himself described it, made Franz Hautzinger the highly profiled musical personality that he is today. Born on March 11, 1963 in Seewinkel, Burgenland, a Hannibal Marvin Peterson concert at Jazzgalerie Nickelsdorf was the young trumpeter's "awakening experience". He studied at the Jazz department of today's Art University in Graz from 1981 to 1983 until lip palsy forced him to take a six year total break from trumpeting. After moving to Vienna in 1986 he started in 1989 to explore the trumpet in his very own and un-academic way. He became attached to the circles around Christoph Cech and Christian Mühlbacher, played in the Big Band "Nouvelle Cuisine" and the octet "Striped Roses"; the CD "Zong of se Boboolink", which he recorded with saxophonist Helge Hinteregger and which was influenced by sampler collages was the first personal CD statement. His 10 month stay in London provided new ideas and contacts, amongst others Kenny Wheeler, Henry Lowther, John Russel, and Steve Noble. Hautzinger assimilated the stimuli in very different ways: in "Regenorchester" ("Rain Orchestra") with its changing instrumentation, in the quartet with Helge Hinteregger, Oren Marshall and Steve Noble as well as in the trio "Speakers' Corner" with guitarist Martin Siewert and drummer Wolfgang Reisinger. The conscious decision to avoid electronic sound sources but to still comprehend the development of digital music on the trumpet - the quarter tone trumpet purchased in 1997 - were decisive stages for the creation of Franz Hautzinger's sensational solo trumpet CD "Gomberg" (2000) on which he presented this new until then unheard cosmos of sound that he had developed on his instrument. Hautzinger positioned himself with "Gomberg" at the front line of the international improvisation avant-garde; collaborations and CD records with Derek Bailey, the "AMM" veterans Keith Rowe and John Tilbury as well as Axel Dörner, Christian Fennesz or Otomo Yoshihide, and Sachiko M followed. The step into the world of decelerated sound microscopy and from 2003 on the re-discovery of musical sensualism, the confrontation of his trumpet sounds with groove and tunes ("Regenorchester XI" and XII) can be considered as important stages in his development. Franz Hautzinger teaches at the Vienna Music University since 1989, is a member of the Berliner Ensemble "Zeitkratzer" since 1999 and received comissions from Klangforum Vienna amongst others. He is a globetrotter whose unmistakeable musical signature is known from Vienna to Berlin, London to Beirut, or in Tokyo, New York, and Chicago. Franz Hautzinger has shown that even in times where postmodernism is history an instrument can still be reinvented."-(Andreas Felber, translated by Astrid Donaubauer) ^ Hide Bio for Franz Hautzinger • Show Bio for Hamid Drake "Hamid Drake (born August 3, 1955) is an American jazz drummer and percussionist. He lives in Chicago, IL but spends a great deal of time touring worldwide. By the close of the 1990s, Hamid Drake was widely regarded as one of the best percussionists in jazz and avant improvised music. Incorporating Afro-Cuban, Indian, and African percussion instruments and influence, in addition to using the standard trap set, Drake has collaborated extensively with top free-jazz improvisers. Drake also has performed world music; by the late 70s, he was a member of Foday Musa Suso's Mandingo Griot Society and has played reggae throughout his career. Drake has worked with trumpeter Don Cherry, pianist Herbie Hancock, saxophonists Pharoah Sanders, Fred Anderson, Archie Shepp and David Murray and bassists Reggie Workman and William Parker (in a large number of lineups) He studied drums extensively, including eastern and Caribbean styles. He frequently plays without sticks; using his hands to develop subtle commanding undertones. His tabla playing is notable for his subtlety and flair. Drake's questing nature and his interest in Caribbean percussion led to a deep involvement with reggae." ^ Hide Bio for Hamid Drake • Show Bio for Michael Zerang "Michael Zerang was born in Chicago, Illinois, and is a first-generation American of Assyrian decent. He has been a professional musician, composer, and producer since 1976, focusing extensively on improvised music, free jazz, contemporary composition, puppet theater, experimental theater, and international musical forms. Michael has collaborated with contemporary theater, dance, and other multidisciplinary forms and has received three Joseph Jefferson Awards for Original Music Composition in Theater, in collaboration with Redmoon Theater, in 1996, 1998, and 2000. As a percussionist and composer, Michael has over eighty titles in his discography and has toured nationally and internationally to 34 countries since 1981, and works with and ever-widening pool of collaborators. Michael founded and was the artistic director of the Link's Hall Performance Series in Chicago from 1985-1989 where he produced over 300 concerts of jazz, traditional ethnic folk music, electronic music, and other forms of forward thinking music. Michael has been a Board Member of Links Hall Since 1989. He continued to produce concerts at Cafe Urbus Orbis from 1994-1996, and at his own space, The Candlestick Maker in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood, from 2001 - 2005. Michael has taught as a guest artist at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in performance technique, sound design, and sound/music as it relates to puppetry; rhythmic analysis for dancers at The Dance Center of Columbia College, Northwestern University, and MoMing Dance and Arts Center; courses in Composer/Choreographer Collaborations at Northwestern University; music to children at The Jane Adams Hull House. Michael currently tours and holds workshops in improvisational music, and teaches private lessons in rhythmic analysis, music composition, and percussion technique. ^ Hide Bio for Michael Zerang
11/20/2024
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11/20/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
11/20/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
11/20/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
SIDE A
1. Ame 08:12
2. Enkidu 11:39
SIDE B
1. Gilgamesh 11:34
2. Ianna / Ishtar 07:05
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