Label: Intakt Records, 2022
Personnel - Charlotte Greve: alto saxophone; Manuel Schmiedel: piano; Marc Muellbauer: bass; Moritz Baumgärtner: drums.
Release marks the anticipated return of the German Lisbeth Quartett to the studio albums, 13 years after its debut, Grow (Double Moon Records, 2009), and ceasing a five-year hiatus since its latest release, There is Only Make (Traumton Records, 2017). This work, the first for the European Intakt label, generates more elegance than turbulence through eight impeccably written pieces - seven by saxophonist Charlotte Greve and one by bassist Marc Muellbauer - that gain an extraordinary poetic nature in the hands of four musical narrators.
“Full Circling” is an impassively quiet solo-less piece whose mantric roundness purposely eschews heaviness. The next two tracks demand close listening. “Bayou” is an old song, revisited with a drum recital upfront. Comfortable behind the kit, Moritz Baumgärtner keeps his thing going after pianist Manuel Schmiedel echoes a 12-beat-cycle piano figure with class and groove. Saxophonist and bassist function in parallel, but it all shifts in texture and tempo with astonishing candor. There’s solo piano introspection before Greve’s heartfelt statement announces the curtain-close of a journey that suddenly returns to a streamlined rhythm in the last 30 seconds. Then it's Muellbauer’s “Le Mistral” that arrives, almost touching on a medieval troubadourism and expanding with incisive chordal work, pulsing bass lines that feel as loose as gripping, and tight complex lines delivered in unison by piano and saxophone. A magnetic alto solo with significant discursive range is brought before the main theme.
The emaciated “Ellipsis” spreads both emotional honesty and intimacy, trailed by a beautiful melody that sails across the enchanting accompaniment with lightness. It includes elementary bass pedals, cymbal scintillation, and modal piano intersections characterized by harmonic nuance. With “Arrow”, the trio shows some rhythmic bite, pressurizing the atmosphere with a rock-hard collective commitment, fine solos, and an exciting finale.
Before the short, intangible “Outro” that concludes this strong body of work, there’s the title track, which has Baumgärtner weaving exquisite details and throwing syncopated responses against the serene instrumentation that surrounds him. The last third of the song welcomes an insistent bass pulsation that doesn’t spoil the appealing nature of the song.
This quartet synthesizes their influences in an original way, and the result is a strangely affecting album to be savored many times with a guarantee of newly discovered elements at each listening.
Favorite Tracks:
02 - Bayou ► 03 - Le Mistral ► 04 - Ellipsis