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Independent music since 1986.

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423: STEMESEDER LILLINGER QUARTET feat. PETER EVANS and RUSSELL HALL. Umbra II

Intakt Recording #423 / 2024

Peter Evans: Trumpet, Piccolo trumpet
Elias Stemeseder: Piano, Lautenwerk, Compositions
Russell Hall: Double bass
Christian Lillinger: Drums, Compositions

Recorded October 9, 2023, at Rudy Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, New York.

Original price CHF 12.00 - Original price CHF 30.00
Original price
CHF 30.00
CHF 12.00 - CHF 30.00
Current price CHF 30.00
Format: Compact Disc
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It is impressive how, over the last three years, the Austrian keyboard instrumentalist Elias Stemeseder and the German percussionist Christian Lillinger have developed a remarkable artistic partnership, which has already found expression in a series of different recordings. Expanding into a quartet with Peter Evans and Russell Hall, they reveal further facets of their collaboration on Umbra II. Unlike its production-heavy predecessor Umbra, the music on Umbra II is entirely acoustic and the band’s sound has a classical feel. This album, which has the strongest and most direct connection to the jazz tradition to date, was recorded at the venerable Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. “The duo are always looking ahead, whether that means bringing in new collaborators, embracing novel techniques, or adding new tools to its instrumental arsenal. Umbra ll represents one leg of an ongoing journey. Here’s hoping the destination always remains elusive”, writes Peter Margasak in the liner notes.

Album Credits

Cover art: Katrin Lillinger
Graphic design: Paul Bieri
Liner notes: Peter Margasak
Photos: Maureen Sickler/Don Sickler (Group), Sabrina Santiago (Duo), Christian Lillinger (Studio impressions)

All compositions by Elias Stemeseder (AKM) and Christian Lillinger (GEMA). Recorded October 9, 2023, at Rudy Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, NY, by Maureen Sickler. Mixed and mastered April 4 and 5, 2024, by Michael Brändli, Christian Lillinger and Elias Stemeseder at Hardstudios Winterthur, Switzerland. Produced by Elias Stemeseder, Christian Lillinger and Intakt Records.

Customer Reviews

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J
John Sharpe
All About Jazz Blog

Austrian pianist Elias Stemeseder and German drummer Christian Lillinger capture the Zeitgeist in a nervy, occasionally anxiety inducing, pairing under the moniker Umbra. Although extant as a duet, they often supplement the numbers with like-minded collaborators, and on Umbra II trumpeter Peter Evans and bassist Russell Hall take to the full on interaction like ducks to water. Unlike their debut recording, this time out they swear off the electronics for an all acoustic outing, although, truth be told, such is the highly charged nature of the discourse that abstinence proves almost irrelevant.

All 13 cuts, on an album that challenges the capacity of a CD, are credited to the two principals. Structures, however, often seem predicated on percussive dynamics rather than melodic or harmonic confluences, despite boppish unisons or ballad feels asserting themselves at various junctures. As such, it is Lillinger with his hyperactive glitchy approach to meter who perhaps offers the most pertinent access point. Stemeseder is harder to get a fix on. At times he issues forth in that marvelous flow that illuminated his tenure with drummer Jim Black's trio, but thenn affirming his allegiance to a wider span of genres, he also adopts more jagged trajectories, staccato shards and sparse rhythmic chords abounding.

Evans nimbly handles whatever is thrown at him. He is ridiculously fluent, his lines showing no visible means of support as they swoop and soar, assuming warp speed at the slightest provocation. He first demonstrated an affinity with Lillinger in the quartet Amok Amor, and he reinforces that connection here, whether in a lurching stutter or being disarmingly tuneful. Hall, as his track record with the likes of drummer Tyshawn Sorey and pianist Emmet Cohen attests, is another one averse to remaining in the same lane. He branches from solid foundation to meditative rumination, but never missteps.

All four mesh in an empathetic display that both dazzles and exhausts. It should come with a health warning: strong caffeine needed before broaching. This is dime turning elevated to a fine art, executed with a devil-take-the-hindmost insouciance.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/umbra-ii-elias-stemeseder-christian-lillinger-intakt-records

J
John Sharpe
All About Jazz Blog

Austrian pianist Elias Stemeseder and German drummer Christian Lillinger capture the Zeitgeist in a nervy, occasionally anxiety inducing, pairing under the moniker Umbra. Although extant as a duet, they often supplement the numbers with like-minded collaborators, and on Umbra II trumpeter Peter Evans and bassist Russell Hall take to the full on interaction like ducks to water. Unlike their debut recording, this time out they swear off the electronics for an all acoustic outing, although, truth be told, such is the highly charged nature of the discourse that abstinence proves almost irrelevant.

All 13 cuts, on an album that challenges the capacity of a CD, are credited to the two principals. Structures, however, often seem predicated on percussive dynamics rather than melodic or harmonic confluences, despite boppish unisons or ballad feels asserting themselves at various junctures. As such, it is Lillinger with his hyperactive glitchy approach to meter who perhaps offers the most pertinent access point. Stemeseder is harder to get a fix on. At times he issues forth in that marvelous flow that illuminated his tenure with drummer Jim Black's trio, but thenn affirming his allegiance to a wider span of genres, he also adopts more jagged trajectories, staccato shards and sparse rhythmic chords abounding.

Evans nimbly handles whatever is thrown at him. He is ridiculously fluent, his lines showing no visible means of support as they swoop and soar, assuming warp speed at the slightest provocation. He first demonstrated an affinity with Lillinger in the quartet Amok Amor, and he reinforces that connection here, whether in a lurching stutter or being disarmingly tuneful. Hall, as his track record with the likes of drummer Tyshawn Sorey and pianist Emmet Cohen attests, is another one averse to remaining in the same lane. He branches from solid foundation to meditative rumination, but never missteps.

All four mesh in an empathetic display that both dazzles and exhausts. It should come with a health warning: strong caffeine needed before broaching. This is dime turning elevated to a fine art, executed with a devil-take-the-hindmost insouciance.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/umbra-ii-elias-stemeseder-christian-lillinger-intakt-records

Reviews in Other Languages

W
Werner Siebert
Jazz Podium Magazine

Die dritte Zusammenarbeit von Stemeseder/Lillinger betitelt sich erneut mit einer Variation des Begriffs >>Umbra<< (nach >>Antumbra» und »Penumbra«) und schickt uns wieder in solare Sphären, nachdem zuvor duettisch-akustisch-elektronisch Reisen in die Mitte der (Sonnen-) Finsternis (Antumbra) und im Gegenzug direkt an die Sonnen-oberfläche (Penumbra) unternommen wurden. Nun also der Kernschatten >> Umbra«, in einer Version römisch Zwei, den es zu erhellen galt mit diesem glitzernden, orbitalen Quartett-Leuchtturm. Schluss mit interplanetarem Meta-Geschwafel: Elias Stemeseder und
Christian Lillinger entschieden sich bei dieser Einspielung für klassische Besetzung (Piano, Schlagzeug, Trompete: Peter Evans, Kontrabass: Russell Hall) und klassische Location im Rudy van Gelder Studio legten die Masterminds gemeinsam erarbeitetes Kompositionsmaterial vor und spielten alles in First Takes ein. Heraus kommt durchweg Spannung, muskulös Pulsierendes, hingetupft Berührendes, Interaktion in totalem Einvernehmen. Impuls wird auf Impuls gestapelt, geschriebenes Material umschweiflos fortentwickelt in transpersonalen Ideenfluss. Evans, Schlagwerkarbeit in Stakkati verschleudernd, setzt dann wieder gleichsam weiche und raue Farben, nimmt das Ensemble mindestens genauso mit, wie die Kompositionen ihn auf die Reise schicken. Faszinierend. Wie auch Lillingers perkussiver Austausch mit und Vorantreiben der Trompete. Inspiration für den Tag im Tonstudio war ein Foto des Coltrane-Quartetts. Hier, zum Glück, scheint das kein Bild eines übergroßen Schattens der Historie zu sein. Sondern Kraftquell für Explorationen, deren Kraft und Sensibilität berühren.

G
Guido Festinese
Audio Review Magazine

Dietro un'apparenza di svagata, rapsodica leggerezza, quasi un divagare libero nella deriva di frammenti di temi, si nasconde una forza possente, la pregnanza di un gruppo che, sotto la guida dell'austriaco Elias Stemeseder e del tedesco Christian Lillinger, autori di tutte le composizioni create all'impronta, mostra di essere perfettamente strutturata. Questa registrazione tutta acustica effettuata nei gloriosi studi di Rudy Van Gelder a Englewoos Cliffs, culla di infiniti capolavori del jazz moderno, si impone al primo ascolto con una rilevanza assertiva immediata. E il merito, forse, è nella scelta accorta, sagace quasi, che il pianista Stemeseder e il batterista Lillinger hanno operato su due lati imprescindibili nel reggere l'equilibrio di forze del quartetto: il basso puntuale e imperturbabile di Russell Hall, anche quando la temperatura emotiva della musica è assai elevata, e, soprattutto, la formidabile prestanza del trombettista Peter Evans dal New England, da molti anni con base fissa a New York. Evans, che alterna alla tromba anche la pocket trumpet che amava usare Don Cherry, è un talento non comune. Ha un fraseggio ispido e ricco di tratti aguzzi costruito su lacerti di brevi, ficcanti frasi in legato che sembrano quasi brandelli di un'immaginaria conversazione con qualcuno, con frequenti sottolineature espressive di certe parole. Perfetto, in ogni caso, per la trama di punteggiature ora rade, ora fittissime, del piano di Stemeseder, in una sorta di andamento sinusoidale, salite e discese, e per valorizzare il gioco di luci dei metalli dalla batteria di Lillinger; quasi un "frattale percussivo", per rubare la definizione al critico Peter Margasak. Gran disco.

G
Guido Festinese
Audio Review Magazine

Dietro un'apparenza di svagata, rapsodica leggerezza, quasi un divagare libero nella deriva di frammenti di temi, si nasconde una forza possente, la pregnanza di un gruppo che, sotto la guida dell'austriaco Elias Stemeseder e del tedesco Christian Lillinger, autori di tutte le composizioni create all'impronta, mostra di essere perfettamente strutturata. Questa registrazione tutta acustica effettuata nei gloriosi studi di Rudy Van Gelder a Englewoos Cliffs, culla di infiniti capolavori del jazz moderno, si impone al primo ascolto con una rilevanza assertiva immediata. E il merito, forse, è nella scelta accorta, sagace quasi, che il pianista Stemeseder e il batterista Lillinger hanno operato su due lati imprescindibili nel reggere l'equilibrio di forze del quartetto: il basso puntuale e imperturbabile di Russell Hall, anche quando la temperatura emotiva della musica è assai elevata, e, soprattutto, la formidabile prestanza del trombettista Peter Evans dal New England, da molti anni con base fissa a New York. Evans, che alterna alla tromba anche la pocket trumpet che amava usare Don Cherry, è un talento non comune. Ha un fraseggio ispido e ricco di tratti aguzzi costruito su lacerti di brevi, ficcanti frasi in legato che sembrano quasi brandelli di un'immaginaria conversazione con qualcuno, con frequenti sottolineature espressive di certe parole. Perfetto, in ogni caso, per la trama di punteggiature ora rade, ora fittissime, del piano di Stemeseder, in una sorta di andamento sinusoidale, salite e discese, e per valorizzare il gioco di luci dei metalli dalla batteria di Lillinger; quasi un "frattale percussivo", per rubare la definizione al critico Peter Margasak. Gran disco.

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