NEAL PRESENTS
KAUFMANN / GRATKOWSKI / DE JOODE
MON JAN 27, 8PM
$20 GENERAL ADMISSION
$15 CONCESSION
In early 2002, Achim Kaufmann, Frank Gratkowski and Wilbert de Joode first got together as a trio at a small venue in Amsterdam. Since then, the three musicians have been touring and performing internationally.
The trio’s music has been completely improvised from the outset, created in the moment. There have never been any rehearsals prior to concerts, premeditated structures or concepts – a fact that frequently flummoxes listeners, critics or even fellow musicians, as the three often manage to evoke the impression that their music could indeed be adhering to compositional presets. Kaufmann/Gratkowski/de Joode combine the transparency of early 21st century chamber music – silence, the moving into and out of noise regions, textural juxtapositions, the relics of almost tonal harmony surging up then evaporating just as quickly– with the energy, the rhythmic momentum and unpredictability of jazz and other rhythmically more aggressive musics.
“The three spontaneously weave compact pieces full of intricate, multi-threaded interaction. (...) The group can construct spare, riveting music from the quiet hush of bristling detailed textures. They can also shape improvisations that build to a full-bore rush of heated intensity. But what stands out most is how they do this with such a highly-developed group sound... “
Michael Rosenstein, Signal to Noise (review of kwast)
