Label: Unit Records, 2025
Personnel - Julius Gawlik: tenor saxophone, clarinet; Evi Filippou: vibraphone; Phil Donkin: bass; Jim Black: drums.
Emerging German saxophonist Julius Gawlik, a member of the prestigious NDR Big Band, has been developing his voice through several groups, including Jim Black & The Shrimps, Evi Filippou’s inEvitable, and the Jochen Ruckert Trio. Having already made a mark on the Berlin scene with these projects, it was more than time for Gawlik to release his debut album as a leader—fronting a tight yet open-minded quartet with Filippou on vibraphone, Phil Donkin on bass, and Black on drums. These bandmates help him sharpen the breadth of his stylistic palette.
“There Are No Ugly Dogs” begins in a quiet, nearly whispered mode, with saxophone and vibraphone fused in heady melodicism over an understated bass–drums pulse. The sound progressively expands as Black injects inventive, often displaced beats that generate a sense of sophisticated bemusement. After an energizing vibraphone solo, Gawlik narrates both inside and outside the changes, orbiting tangentially and weaving his well-developed language like a spider spinning its web. The piece culminates in a multiphonic-psyched vamp.
“You Wish” is more contemplative yet mysterious in tone—evoking the atmospheric aura of Andrew Hill—with Donkin’s bass work coming to the fore in the final third. “Glow” touches abstraction, propelled by brushes and melodically defined by clarinet, whereas “Chicago” maintains a constant fluidity following a stop-start motion that shapes its opening.
Shape-shifting with extraordinary complexity, “Fuchs” launches a rampant swinging drive with polyrhythmic impact. Despite the uptempo convergence, Gawlik’s tenor improvisation remains focused, lucid, and indisputably rousing. Navigating transitions with dexterity, the quartet slips into an alternative-rock posture that calls for some of Black’s most exuberant kit work. The enchanting closer, “TSCH”, carries an almost balladic touch—harmonically rich and melodically alluring. Gawlik first moves in tandem with Filippou before departing into a high-flying solo that is both riveting and affecting.
Gawlik’s music is to be taken seriously—rooted in creative idioms and supported by an accomplished tone on both saxophone and clarinet. His narratives are unpredictable, full of intriguing turns as he and his bandmates search for contemporary musical frameworks. It’s an outstanding debut.
Favorite Tracks:
01 - There Are No Ugly Dogs ► 03 - Fuchs ► 06 - TSCH