Signal Quintet: North American Tour a success
The North American tour of the International Experimental Jazz ensemble Signal Quintet, spanning six engagements in just as many days, has been met with a highly positive audience reaction: "I think everyone (the group, the audiences) was satisfied", Jason Kahn (mainly responsible for percussion treatments within the band) said upon his return to his current homebase Switzerland - an impression confirmed by a review of their performance at the "Festival Musique Actuelle" by the renowned "All About Jazz" magazine, which called the concert " the most succesful of its kind this year" and remarked that the opening 45-minute piece "told a story and found the quintet members speaking with a clear and unified voice."
Currently consisting of the cream of the crop
of the Swiss sound-art scene (Günter Müller, Tomas Korber, Norbert
Möslang, Christian Weber) and aforementioned Kahn, this is one of the
few acts which can deliver on stage what the merrits of the individual
members would suggest on paper. When asked about the possibility of the
Signal Quintet appearing in Europe, Jason replies: "I agree, this is a
good group; the problem is, it is so expensive to bring to the stage.
with five people everything starts to cost a lot (the hotels, the
travel, not to mention the fees)... We basically can only play at
festivals." And yet, he certainly won't rule out the chance entirely,
even though the group has just disassembled into its components again.
Part of the optimism can be down to the current album debut of the group, which has just been released on Kahn's "cut" imprint. "Yamaguchi"
consists of three performances at the Center for Arts and Media by the
same name and has once again been realised with the support of the Pro
Helvetia foundation and the city of Zürich/Popkredit. All the
ingredients of the Quintet's live act are perfectly represented
here: Sonorous drone resonances, ominous contrabass slaps, rustling
waves of white noise and looped pulsations. Certainly a good way to
introduce yourself to the unique sound of this band.
Homepage: ://cut fm
Source: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=25780#1
Photo Credit: Martin Morisette
CD Feature/ Günter Müller: "Reframed"
CD Feature/ Cross Border Trio: "New Directions"
CD Feature/ Edoardo Ricci & Thollem Mcdonas: " SONOCONTENTODISTAREQUA"
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