Unter dem auf Ornette Colemans Klassiker von 1959 verweisenden Albumtitel “The Shape of Jazz to Come” bringen das Solistenensemble zeitkratzer und die schwedische Sängerin Mariam Wallentin, die sich vor ein paar Jahren auf einem Festival kennenlernten, ein Album mit Jazzsongs heraus. Die Songs, die aus verschiedenen Traditionslinien stammen, wurden 2018 beim Krakauer Festival Sacrum Profanum live aufgenommen. “The Shape of Jazz to Come” erscheint Mitte Juni beim hauseigenen Label zeitkratzer Productions.
Jazzbezug gibt es bei zeitkratzer zuhauf: “Saxophonists Frank Gratkowski and Hayden Chisholm both won independently the German Radio SWR Jazz award; the French horn virtuoso Hild Sofie Tafjord grew up with Jazz, as her father and uncle are members of the famous Norwegian jazz group Brazz Brothers; Hilary Jeffery toured with numerous jazz musicians, as did the drummer Maurice de Martin who spent his early years in the New York downtown scene; Reinhold Friedl studied piano with Alexander von Schlippenbach, and Ulrich Phillipp is a known improviser who toured with Charles Gayle… and zeitkratzer is joined by a second bass player: Martin Heinze, member of  the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

The idea for THE SHAPE OF JAZZ TO COME arose when zeitkratzer met the outstanding Swedish singer Mariam Wallentin at a festival in France. Her strikingly flexible voice is so emotional, and her musicality and technical skills are overwhelming: it perfectly joins zeitkratzer’s sound and contributes extensive solos. Wallentin is most known for her solo and duo projects Mariam the Believer and Wildbirds & Peacedrums but also as a Jazz musician: she is a member of Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra and has previously been awarded the Swedish Jazz Prize.

zeitkratzer & Mariam Wallentin together present a tribute to great Jazz musicians from Sweet Emma Barrett to Muhal Richard Abrams. Zeitkratzer’s most diverse sound and noise experiences from their projects with Merzbow to Xenakis, Stockhausen to Lou Reed, Keiji Haino to Terje Rypdal are now confronted with Jazz: a tribute to the good old harsh and dirty jazz & blues sound!”