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Maxime Bender « Universal Sky » – Fall & Rise (CamJazz)

Mixing contemporary post-bop with elements of soul-jazz (and a totally unexpected cover of a Bruce Springsteen tune), Maxime Bender’s Universal Sky make unashamedly contemporary music that majors on melody and flow. Individual, but recalling Wayne Shorter, the leader’s tenor and soprano saxophone works over beds of guitar, organ and drums that stay harmonically open, mobile and always graceful. In a period where self-written music is the norm rather than an exception, these tracks stand out in not drawing overdue attention to the writing process, preferring to deliver a strong, accessible musical message.

Under the supervision of music producer Ermanno Basso, Fall & Rise was recorded in September 2021 by Charles Stoltz at Holtz Sound Studio in Tuntange, Luxembourg, mixed in March 2022 by Stefano Amerio at Artesuono Recording Studio in Cavalicco (UD), Italy, and mastered by Danilo Rossi.

Release on September 16th 2022

Line-up:
Maxime Bender, tenor & soprano saxophone
Manu Codjia, guitar
Jean-Yves Jung, organ & piano
Jérôme Klein, drums

Source: Brian Morton, CamJazz
Maxime Bender was supported by Kultur | lx – promotion support

Gilles Grethen Quartet – State of mind (Double Moon Records/Challenge Records)

The sophomore album State of Mind of the quartet around guitarist and composer Gilles Grethen further develops the band’s sound situated between traditional and modern jazz. This time however, the 4 musicians are joined by 11 strings, which results in a constant dialogue: between the quartet and the string orchestra; between swing, modern jazz inspired by Mark Turner or Kurt Rosenwinkel, and experimental soundscapes; between composed parts and free improvisation. But Grethen not only explores new sounds in his compositions, but also – from contemplation to delirium and delusion to transcendental experiences – different states of mind.

The pairing of the quartet with an orchestra is the logical next step in Gilles Grethen’s artistic work, which focuses on composition and arrangement for a wide variety of ensembles, from jazz duos and big bands to symphonic orchestras and film music.

Release on October 21st 2022

Source: Stephanie Baustert Management
Gilles Grethen Quartet was supported by Kultur | lx – promotion support 

Alena Baeva – Wieniawski, Dobrzynsky & Kurpinski: Orchestral Works (NIFC)

On the occasion of the Chopin and His Europe Festival in Warsaw on August 28^th 2019, the Orchestra of the Eighteen’s Century and violinist Alena Baeva performed Wienawski Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor under the baton of Jose Maria Florenci. The performance, that was actually recorded, has just been released on Fryderyk Chopin’s Institute label NIFC. Already praised, BBC Music Magazine named it “Recording of the month”.

“This [recording] was one of the most memorable experiences of my life”, Alena Baeva says, who had to adapt her musical technique to perform the Concerto. Discover all the details on the recording here.

“The sheer musical brilliance of Alena Baeva’s collaboration with the Orchestra of the 18th Century under the baton of José Maria Florêncio makes their performance of the [Wieniawski] Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor essential listening.” – BBC Music Magazine

Listen here.

New Talent : Veda Bartringer – The Butterfly Effect

The result of Veda Bartringer’s personal research, the Veda Bartringer Quartet was born in 2021. After her jazz studies at the Conservatoire de Bruxelles, she gathered all the ideas she nurtured during this time in her self-written compositions. Thanks to her knowledge of classical and jazz guitar, lyrical chant and piano, she seeks to include her numerous points of view in her tracks and to play with these different elements. Veda plays a contemporary jazz featured by a strong feminine sensitivity, still not so well represented in this music style. Musicians Julien Cuvelier, Boris Schmidt and Maxime Magotteaux joined her in this sound journey and have been helping Veda to enter more deeply in these different worlds.

For her first EP called The Butterfly Effect, the musician took her impressions on the nature as a basis to create sound images out of them. As the guitarist grew up in a little town near the forest, she always felt a strong connection to the environment. The principal motive of the record is the image of the butterfly, which represents renewal and inspiration.

The quartet will present its EP on September 2022 at neimënster.

Sascha Ley, In Between (JazzHausMusik)

Way beyond her home country Luxembourgian vocalist and performer Sascha Ley is well-known for her original and undogmatic projects. As a renowned actress, multilingual singer, poet and improviser, she treads her musical paths in the field of jazz, free improvisation, imaginary folklore and contemporary music light-footedly and far away from any mainstream conventionality.

Sascha Ley describes the musical structure of her first solo album for JHM, “In Between”, as follows: “Here, using sonorous and textual collages in the manner of a personal notebook, I deal with present and nostalgia, dreams and wishes, free spaces and finiteness, intuition and change.” Her distinctive sound coloring enables Sascha Ley to present an immense vocal bandwidth in a multitude of sound variations: voice and small instrumentation being sometimes theatrical, sometimes minimalistic, always searching for musical and condensing solutions in the realm of experience; things between lines and times, beginning and end, of life and experience, emotions, intellect and opposites which allow to live, experience and grow.

Sascha Ley is not only a stupendous vocalist but also produces dreamlike, suggestive soundscapes within her sound experiments as an instrumentalist, performer and interpreter of extraordinary texts. The use of extended vocal and instrumental techniques, as well as her amazing narrative artistry, leavethe listener simply amazed at some points on “In Between”. She invited French musician Jean Pascal Boffo as a guest on some tracks; in his studio Amper he supervised the recordings and edited the improvised vocals live.

Sascha Ley has trained with Shelley Hirsch, Meredith Monk and Sainkho Namtchylak. Other current projects include her duo with double bassist Laurent Payfert (JHM 267) and collaborations with Georg Ruby, both as a duo and with his project VILLAGE ZONE (JHM 279).

CD release concert on October 9^th at neimënster Abbey. (More information here)