INTAKT RECORDS – REVIEWS

TIM BERNE – HANK ROBERTS – AURORA NEALAND
OCEANS AND

Intakt CD 403 / 2023

Cover Web:TIM BERNE – HANK ROBERTS – AURORA NEALAND OCEANS AND Intakt CD 403 cover Stephen Byram

 

TIM BERNE, Jg. 1954 und eine Institution des NowJazz, und HANK ROBERTS, Jg. 1955 und mit seinem Cello immer wieder bei Bill Frisell zu finden, in Arcado oder Gordon Grdina's The Marrow, sind einander seit den 80ern vertraut.

Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy Newsletter, July 2022 (DE)


The surprise release of a Sun of Goldfinger + Aurora Nealand performance wasn’t the beginning of Tim Berne’s collaboration with the multi-talented multi-instrumentalist Nealand, nor is it even the latest. Following closely on the heels of MYSTIC by the Sunny Four comes Oceans And (Intakt Records), a studio set Berne recorded with Nealand and Hank Roberts.

S. Victor Aaron, Something Else, April 19 2023 (EN)


Oceans And offers another unique experience, as described in the introduction. Jazz? Yes, but only partially. Jazz is its foundation and its impulse, but it is expressed in a much broader sense of the word. Of course, what else can you expect from artists that have gathered a saxophone, an accordion, and a cello?

Paul, Best Of Jazz, April 24 2023 (EN)


There are a lot of new and forthcoming recordings to rattle off this week, and it’s close to impossible to select one or two highlights. But it’s ingratiating to hear saxophonist and composer Tim Berne entangled with a longtime fellow traveler, cellist Hank Roberts, and a newer collaborator, Aurora Nealand, in the chamber-gnarl featured on Oceans And, new on Intakt.

Steve Smith, Night After Night, April 21 2023 (EN)


Längst nicht immer ist Kunst im Allgemeinen und Musik im Speziellen, was beim ersten Blick, beim ersten Hören gleich gefällt. Andersherum stellt Sperrigkeit auch noch kein Kunstattribut dar, entscheidend ist die Substanz. Von Tim Ber- ne und Hank Roberts sind wir uns einiges an Grossartigem gewohnt - auch in gemeinsamen Projekten.

Steff Rohrbach, Jazz N'More Magazine, April 2023 Switzerland (DE)


Now approaching veteran status, saxophonist and composer Tim Berne has amassed a substantial body of work primarily under his own leadership—no mean achievement for someone often characterized as leaning toward left field.

John Sharpe, The New York City Jazz Record, April 2023 (EN)


So much new music to explore. The always interesting Sexmob debuts The Hard Way, Tim Berne hooks up with Hank Roberts and Aurora Nealand, saxophonist and composer and historian Allen Lowe has two new ones, there's a pair from Australia, a trio led by pianist Helen Svoboda and the group Tripataka, English pianist Alexander Hawkins' Carnival Celestial, plus the duo of saxophonist Stanley Jason Zappa and drummer Simo Laihonen return with Dance Of The Moving Goal Posts recorded live in Helsinki. Lots more good stuff for you. Enjoy!

Maurice Hogue, All About Jazz, May 08 2023 (EN)


Tim Berne, an alto saxophonist with unpredictable musical temperament and a more-precise-than-brittle tone, teams up with master cellist Hank Roberts (a longtime partner), and multi-reedist/accordionist/vocalist Aurora Nealand (second musical experience after having joined forces with the duo Trapper Keaper in 2019). These musicians, owners of an excellent instrumental sound and big ears, put a spin on a unique post-modern trio that intrigues and captivates at every turn.

Jazztrail, April 19 2023 (EN)


Tim Berne, an alto saxophonist with unpredictable musical temperament and a more-precise-than-brittle tone, teams up with master cellist Hank Roberts (a longtime partner), and multi-reedist/accordionist/vocalist Aurora Nealand (second musical experience after having joined forces with the duo Trapper Keaper in 2019). These musicians, owners of an excellent instrumental sound and big ears, put a spin on a unique post-modern trio that intrigues and captivates at every turn.

Peter Margasak, Nowhere Street, May 15 2023 (EN)


Every time Tim Berne brings his work to a new timbre or ensemble, it makes you stop and examine. “Something is going on here. Something new.” This is literally true, of course, but really what’s going on is that the new timbral elements or ensemble configuration allows you to see a new angle of Berne’s work. Berne’s work contains Whitmanesque “multitudes,” and it’s a joy to still be discovering these.

Gary Chapin, The Free Jazz Collective, April 21, 2023 (EN)


A far softer less abrasive side to Tim Berne here on a studio album of group co-composed pieces recorded last summer. That may be a shock to those who love - and we do - the harsher, more scalding side of the alto saxophone icon's approach to jazz and improvised music. Quite a shift from say the blistering Mars, 'The Latter' in its mystery seems to prep us for a journey into the unknown.

Stephen Graham, Marlbank, 21 Apr 2023 (EN)


Nouveauté. Loin des phrasés acrobatiques exigés par les architectures piégées auxquelles nous a habitué Tim Berne, le présent disque releve de 'improvisation collective et privilégie la recherche de couleurs.

Franck Bergerot, Jazz Magazine Franch, June 2023 (FR)


For the prolific, singular alt.iazz saxophonist- composer Tim Berne, trying something new is nothing new. The chamber trio assembled here, which finds the Brooklyn-based musician alongside a contemporary of his, the veteran downtown-scene ex-Bill Frisell cellist Hank Roberts, and the maverick accordionist/multi- reedist Aurora Nealand, offers a kind of sonic experimentation that, for the most part, is closer to European avant-chamber music than it is jazz.

Selwyn Harris, Jazzwise Magazine UK, June 2023 (EN)


Wegen Leuten wie Tim Berne wird der Jazz immer das bleiben, was in von anderen Genres grundlegend unterscheidet: eine Mu- sik voll rauer Schönheit, radikal, roh, unpo- pulär, kompliziert, tiefgründig, klar, mutig, geheimnisvoll, nachdenklich und faszinie- rend. Zum Glück! Mit dem neuen Trio des amerikanischen Saxofonisten mit der Akkor- deonistin und Multinstrumentalistin Aurora Nealand und dem Cellisten Hank Roberts hat Berne die perfekte Crew um sich ge- schart, um einfach in See zu stechen und voll gespannter Erwartung der Dinge zu harren, die da passieren können.

Jazzthing Magazine, June 2023 (DE)


Bei diesem mutigen Triounterfangen zwischen dem höchst produktiven New Yorker Avantgardisten Tim Ber- ne, Cellist Hank Roberts und der Mul- instrumentalistin Aurora Nealand an Akkordeon, Klarinette und Stimme handelt es sich her um zeitgenössi- sche Musik als um Jazz.

Pat Youngspiel, Concerto Magazine, Austria June 2023 (DE)


Tim Bernes Kreativität scheint unerschöpflich. Seit rund vierzig Jahren gründet er immer wieder neue Bands, initiiert Projekte und Kooperationen, und mit Intakt scheint er nun endlich ein Label gefunden zu haben, das mit seiner Produktivität Schritt zu halten gewillt und in der Lage ist. »Oceans And« ist bereits das sechste Album. das seit Anfang 2020 unter Bernes Namen oder mit ihm als Co- Leader auf dem Zürcher Label erschienen ist.

Reinhold Unger, Jazz Podium Magazine, June 2023 (DE)


Wegen Leuten wie Tim Berne wird der Jazz immer das bleiben, was in von anderen Genres grundlegend unterscheidet: eine Mu- sik voll rauer Schönheit, radikal, roh, unpo- pulär, kompliziert, tiefgründig, klar, mutig, geheimnisvoll, nachdenklich und faszinie- rend.

Reinhard Köchl, Jazzthing Magazine, Germany June 2023 (DE)


Forty-four years separate the release of Tim Berne’s first LP, The Five Year Plan, and this uncategorizable trio recording. The alto saxophonist has never been shy about mixing classical sounds and shapes into elbows-out jazz pieces of often-epic link, but he’s never done anything quite like Oceans And.

dusted magazine, June 30 2023 (EN)


It’s refreshing to hear an artist tweak their established approach; when it happens, all sorts of micro revelations tend to appear, broadening an audience’s view on the subject at hand. Might be best to use a cap-lock on the word “established” when referencing saxophonist Tim Berne; after several decades of work and well over 50 albums released, his position as a shrewd improviser, daring composer, and recombinant bandleader couldn’t be more solid. The language he’s fashioned during all these achievements is instantly recognizable, a clever take on thematic development that usually snoops around a tune’s most intriguing corners before delivering an intricate fanfare that often seems to be at its boiling point. When his music is truly successful, a performance can be as exhaustive as it is exciting.

Lament For A Straight Line, Jim Macnie's Music Blog, Aug 07 2023 (EN)


 

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