Urs Leimgruber - ss, ts
Alexander Schubert - elec, v
Oliver Schwerdt - p, perc, org
Christian Lillinger - dr, perc

01 aurona arona (8’43)
02 fladanne cllltk (4’50)
03 oud shhd aiier (5’54)
04 begen bginn fllt (8’41)
05 etherlorbien (9’30)


Format: CD
Price: 12,99 €
Ordering: oliverschwerdt@euphorium.de

Reviews:

O único disco aqui analisado que não conta com a presença de Ernesto Rodrigues é uma co-edição partilhada entre a portuguesa Creative Sources e a alemã Ahornfelder. O quarteto Ember junta Urs Leimgruber, Alexander Schubert, Oliver Schwerdt e Christian Lillinger e este é o seu segundo registo, depois de Oullh d'baham (Euphorium, 2006). O jovem baterista Lilinger tem dado nas vistas, pois não pára de exibir o seu fulgurante pulsar enérgico: além da vintena de projectos que mantém (não é exagero, confirmem o seu MySpace), acaba de editar um aplaudido Grünen (Clean Feed) e colabora com nomes grandes como Joachim Kühn ou Gunter Sommer. O saxofonista Leimgruber também tem estado em destaque, uma vez que além de fazer parte do excelente Quartet Noir acaba de editar também na Clean Feed um disco em duo com o gigante Evan Parker, Twine. Alexander Schubert (electrónica) e Oliver Schwerdt (piano, percussão e orgão) esforçam-se por estar à altura dos parceiros de projecto. O resultado é uma improvisação com aproximações à estética “free jazz”, com uma adicional componente electrónica. Apesar de momentos de contenção sonora (faixas 2, 3 e 5), este Aurona Arona afirma-se globalmente afastado da reverência ao silêncio que marca boa parte do catálogo CS. Apesar da diferença, este disco deverá contudo ser saudado como lufada de ar fresco, por acrescentar cores vivas à label lusa. E que mesmo assim não destoa do pantone geral da editora. É por estas e por outras que, mesmo que poucos saibam, esta é uma das melhores editoras especializadas do mundo.
BODYSPACE Nuno Catarino (http://bodyspace.net/artigos.php?rub_id=164 [20110107]) (20101018)

Mit der Gruppe Ember spielte Urs Leimgruber 2006 die CD 'Oullh d'baham' ein. Zwei Jahre später nahm man eine Live-CD auf, die nun erschienen ist. Wo 'HIN' herumtastet, prescht 'Aurona Arona' voran. Die zweite CD der Gruppe ist viel dichter als der Erstling, es ist eine wirkliche Gruppenplatte. Urs Leimgrubers Spiel wird hier von Alexander Schuberts Elektronik aufgesogen, Christian Lillingers Schlagwerk umschwirrt und Oliver Schwerdts Tastenritten geerdet. Es kracht und rockt ('Auruna Arona'), es krabbelt und köchelt ('Oud Shhd aiier') und am Schluss des Abenteuers wird dann der Schatz gefunden: in 'Etherlorbien' erhebt sich eine schimmernde, schroffe Klangfläche. Danach ist alles gesagt.
JAZZPODIUM, Torsten Meyer (Jazzpodium. Stuttgart (Oktober 2010, 59. Jg.) (201010) [JAZZ PODIUM], S. 74

Não fosse a intervenção de Alexander Schubert e teríamos em "Aurona Arona" um grupo representativo da música improvisada com matriz jazzística, não estranha ao que normalmente faz o saxofonista suíço Urs Leimgruber e até o baterista alemão Christian Lillinger, conhecido por nunca se afastar demasiado de métricas e pulsações. A música ouvida tem o cerebralismo quente que habitualmente associamos a Leimgruber, mas também o tipo de exploração detalhística que é tão característico da electroacústica. Só isso (o que, de qualquer modo, já é muito) o diferencia, pois de resto nada acrescenta a trajectos musicais, o do pianista Oliver Schwerdt incluído, que já deram mais brilhantes frutos. Com estudos em neuro-informática, ciência cognitiva e composição multimédia, Schubert tem sido desde sempre um cultor da combinação de instrumentos convencionais e "live electronics", sobretudo em contexto de associação da escrita com a improvisação, incidindo o seu trabalho tanto na programação e no "design" de "software" específico para tais propósitos como no desenvolvimento de formas de notação electrónica. O que se conclui pela audição de "Aurona Arona" é que não terá havido partituras durante as gravações, e sim um labor composicional dos registos improvisados, em estúdio, e até que uma boa parte dos elementos electrónicos foi introduzida complementarmente. Schubert seccionou as improvisações, retirou os típicos momentos de busca improvisacional para ficar apenas com os materiais passíveis de "formatação" e converteu as estruturas emergentes em "temas". A este nível, esta é uma música em que o improviso surge não como "composição imediata", mas como matéria-prima para uma "composição à posteriori". Interessante, sem dúvida, ainda que os puristas da música improvisada possam considerar tal procedimento um atentado.
Rui Eduardo Paes (http://rep.no.sapo.pt/ [20100929]) (20100827)

Het Duitse Ahornfelder slaat de handen in elkaar met het Portugese label Creative Sources om het tweede album van het eclectische improvisatiegezelschap Ember op de markt te brengen. Hun debuut ‘Oullh d’baham’ uit 2006 op Euphorium gaf al een indicatie: Ember is een niet vast te pinnen improvisatiegezelschap dat invloeden haalt uit free jazz, hedendaags klassiek en electro-akoestische collages met een noisy inslag. Voor ‘Aurona Arona’ gaat het kwartet nog minutieuzer te werk dan op het debuut. De vier gingen aan de slag net voor een concert en speelden een set van drie uur, waaruit de vijf beste stukken werden geselecteerd die nadien door bandleider Alexander Schubert in de studio verder werden bijgewerkt. Bedoeling van het nadien bijwerken van de stukken, en de keuze om fragmenten te kiezen uit een veel langere set, was om de momenten van zoeken naar elkaar, van proberen, van stilte, uit te filteren en alleen de essentie over te houden. En daar is Ember met glans in geslaagd. Verwacht echter geen gemakkelijk te verhapstukken lappen gefriemel. Ember staat vooral voor noisy gooi- en smijtwerk dat verschillende luisterbeurten nodig heeft om zijn geheimen stilaan prijs te geven.
GONZO CIRCUS (#101), Patrick Bruneel (http://www.gonzocircus.com/reviews?l=&r=7866&srch=aurona [20110107])

Aurona Arona is actually a live follow-up to a fine earlier CD with the same personnel from 2006. Moving force behind Ember and other differently constituted improvised ensembles is keyboardist/percussionist Oliver Schwerdt, who has also recorded with German drummer Günter “Baby” Sommer. However during the two years that separate the Ember discs, Alexander Schubert, who still plays percussion and electronics, has morphed from being a guitarist to a violinist. Furthermore drummer Christian Lillinger has moved to Berlin and now works as part of the Hyperactive Kid trio as well as the bands of clarinetist Rolf Kühn and trombonist Gerhard Gschlöbl.// Varied experiences such as these are noticeable in Lillinger’s playing on the Ember CD. With the pieces evolving quickly and cerebrally, the drummer must be instantaneously prepared to patch together an accompaniment encompassing variegated patterns and resonations culled from bass drum bumps, snare drums rattles and rim shot strokes on one hand, as well as cymbal shrieks and clatters and vibraphone or marimba-like pings with the other.// Timbre exploration from the other musicians is in the forefront from all sides as well. For starters there are Leimgruber’s emotional bleats, multiphonic tongue fluttering, circular breathing and nearly soundless reed expansions. Schubert not only adds skittering fiddle spiccato, but also electronic shimmy and/or granular whooshes to every one of the five tracks. These meandering voltage clangs exist as blurry undercurrents to all the improvisations as well as providing commentary on Schwerdt’s playing. Additionally and on his own, Schwerdt’s distinctive playing ranges from calming, low-frequency patterning to kinetic and metronomic keyboard runs plus electrified harpsichord-like tone fanning and electric organ-like reverberations. Often hard objects are pressed against the piano’s inner strings producing stretches, stops and slides.// For instance, pulsating dual keyboard chording characterizes “Etherlorbien”. Yet these tones appear at the same time as the internal strings clatter percussively. Those unexpected rebounds are the result of hard balls being mashed against or soft mallets striking the wound strings. Simultaneously Lillinger contributes distanced drum beats and cymbal shakes, while Leimgruber’s narrowed trills make up a broken-octave interface that may include additional abrasive scrapes along the outside of his horn. When the piano line downshift to mock-serious processional chording, cymbal squeezes signal the tune’s finale.// Elsewhere, contrapuntal timbral slurs and splatters are inflated. But the ensemble cooperates so well that the result is as much a product of Schubert’s patched shimmies and Lillinger’s percussive prestidigitation as Leimgruber’s tongue-and-air strategies. The pianist fans his keys and plucks internal strings, the drummer exposes ratamacues and rumbles and the saxophonist’s parts range from strident vibrations and peeping split tones to double-tongued polyphony. During the course of “Begen Bginn Fllt” for instance, voltage pitch changes and granular whooshes from Schubert, high-frequency piano syncopation, the drummer’s nerve beats and rim shots, plus bird-twittering from the reedist produce an unmatched textural improvisation. By the final variant, inchoate nonsense syllables mouthed by one or more of the players are added to further thicken the improvisational interface. [...] July 23, 2010
JAZZWORD, Ken Waxman (http://www.jazzword.com/review/127163 [20100806]) (20100723)

On Aurona Arona, the quartet ember brings Leimgruber together with electronics and organ and piano and violin, as well es drums (Alexander Schubert, Oliver Schwerdt and Christian Lillinger, respectively). Things get almost wacky here, with the Monk-ian syncopation exaggerated on the exotic instrumentation. As always with Leimgruber however, this is never for the sake of novelty. Crosscurrents and undercurrents abound, leaving assorted artifacts of sound in their circulation.
ALL ABOUT JAZZ NEW YORK, Gordon Marshall (All About Jazz. New York (June 2010, Nr. 98), (201006) [ALL ABOUT JAZZ], S. 23

This German quartet’s second effort is mysteriously remote. The hard etching of strings on Etherlorbien proceed with a certain level of caution, while meandering with frantically organic improv percussion (nods to Christian Lillinger). But somehow when Oliver Schwerdt’s sweetly corrupted piano rises the goings-on seem just fine, bringing a hint of awkward mellow into a field of crazy lines. And it all ends abruptly with a big silence, leaving generous space for contemplation. Behind the seamlessly woven knobs/wires of Alexander Schubert, who pieced the record together, the twisted lips of Urs Leimgruber’s sax fluff the tight Begen Bginn Fllt forming a cacophony of out-there jazzy atonality. The four play in a uniquely universal voice, turning their instruments towards a rhythmic conversation. Quiet moments throughout emphasize an assimilation of human interaction, its power dynamics rising to the occasion in curious hot spots, and whispering with solace, reflection. This is where free jazz meets the street, out in the open, acting on playful impulses and a sense of co-joined individuality. The title cut may call upon impressions of futuristic lounge music played in a deconstructed casino of sorts, zip-locked with hints of humor and audacity. It tiptoes and clomps, rattles and beams you up at the same time. And once all plays out its a big bad ball of brazen bravado. Play loud!
TONESHIFT, TJ Norris (http://toneshift.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/ember-aurona-arona/ [20100602])

Urs Leimgruber, der wieder mit OM umeinander wirbelt, gibt auch in EMBER furiose und spitze Töne von sich. Aurona Arona (cs 167) wird angetrieben vom jungen Schlagzeuger Christian Lillinger (Hyperactive Kid, Grund, Schmittmenge Meier, Vierergruppe Gschlößl, Wanja Slavin), der Eisenacher Oliver Schwerdt, Jahrgang 1979, Lillingers Partner im New Old Luten Trio, spielt Piano und Alexander Schubert, Ahornfelder-Macher, ebenfalls Jahrgang 1979 und wiederum Schwerdts Partner in trnn, Electronics. Zusammen machen sie Electroacoustic Improvisation, die herzerfrischend spritzig daher kommt. Es ist Powerplay mit nur geringem mentalem Vorbehalt, dafür mit hörbarem Spaß an kakophonen Splashes und Crashes. Schuberts impulsives Gezwitscher und Lärmen erinnert an Thomas Lehn (was definitiv ein Kompliment ist). Lillinger, mit Jahrgang 1984 der Youngster, übrigens ein Lehrling bei Baby Sommer, lässt als knatternder, flickernder Tausendsassa rundum die Fetzen fliegen. Leimgruber, schon vor Lillingers Geburt ein erfahrener Grenzgänger, tiriliert mit dem Soprano, röhrt und spotzt gelegentlich auf dem Tenor, fiept aber bei ‚Oud shhd aiier‘ auch so mikrominimal, wie man ihn etwa beim Quartet Noir kennt. Dennoch kann nicht ernsthaft die Rede sein von "minimal, poly-rhythmic pieces that are a mix of free jazz and contemporary chamber music". Das ist bloßes Understatement für die mitreißendste Musik, die ich seit Jahren auf CS gehört habe.
BAD ALCHEMY, Rigobert Dittmann (Bad Alchemy, Würzburg (Heft 66) (201006) [RIGOBERT DITTMANN], S. 26

Eine zersplitterte Präsenz raschelnder Kleinteiligkeit, versiffte Stimmsamples und elektronische Abfallgeräusche vermischen sich zu einem leisen digitalen Knusperfunk, der sich jeder Abfahrt verweigert und genau darin Intensität findet. Ähnlich verfrickelt, aber mit vorwiegend akustischen Werkzeugen und einem Leim aus nervöser Anspannung, bastelt sich das Deutsch-Schweizer Quartett Ember auf Aurona Arona (Ahornfelder/A-Musik) einen Papierzerknüller-Freejazz feinsten Korns. Vorsicht: Diese unscheinbaren Klänge haben scharfe Kanten.
GROOVE, Frank P. Eckert (Groove (Mai/ Juni 2010), S. 90)

Urs Leimgruber (soprano, tenor sax), Alexander Schubert (electronics, violin), Oliver Schwerdt (piano, percussion organ), Christian Lillinger (drums, percussion). Rambunctious, gabby and scratchy free jazz, just the kind I have really short patience with! I really don't think I'd have enjoyed this 20-30 years ago had it been issued on Emanem, less so today. Drummer Lillinger has some nice moments and the last track points toward one way out of this thicket, too late. I'm sure it will satisfy some tastes, but not mine.
JUST OUTSIDE, Brian Olewnick (http://olewnick.blogspot.com/2010/03/even-dozen-new-releases-from-creative.html [20100602])

Le dernier disque de cette fournée de l’étiquette Creative Sources (pour les chroniques des autres, consultez les entrées des derniers jours) met en vedette un quatuor allemand. Sous le nom d’Ember se cache un quatuor d’improvisation libre dont le membre le plus connu est le saxophoniste Urs Leimgruber. Il est accompagné d’Alexander Schubert aux électroniques, du pianiste Oliver Schwerdt et du batteur Christian Lillinger. De l’improvisation minutieuse, plutôt cérébrale mais bien menée, avec un apport intéressant des électroniques. Rien de phénoménal, mais un concert honnête (en avril 2008). De toute façon, Leimgruber s’associe très rarement à des projets médiocres.
The last CD from Portuguese label Creative Sources’ latest shipment (just go back a few days for my reviews of the other titles) features a German quartet. Behind the name Ember hides a free improvisation quartet whose best known member is saxophonist Urs Leimgruber. He plays here with Alexander Schubert on electronics, pianist Oliver Schwerdt, and drummer Christian Lillinger. Meticulous, rather cerebral, but consistent free improvisation, with a strong contribution from the electronics. Nothing phenomenal, but a honest live performance (from April 2008). In any case, Leimgruber has very rarely associated with mediocre projects.
MONSIEUR DELIRE, Francois Couture (http://blog.monsieurdelire.com/2010/04/2010-04-16-ember-ercklentzneumann-c.html [20100602])

Ember is quartet of Urs Leimgruber (saxes), Christian Lillinger (drums, percussion), Oliver Schwerdt (piano) and Alexander Schubert (electronics, violin). Leimgruber is a veteran improvisor from Switzerland. The other three musicians all come from Germany and represent a younger generation. "Aurora Arona" is their second album. Their debut "Oullh d'baham" saw the light in 2006 on Euphorium. Every now and then the four musicians meet to play and record.
On "Aurora Arona" we find them in a three-hour session before a concert during the Ahornfelder Festival in Leipzig in 2008. Recordings were edited by Alexander Schubert, resulting in an album that is a mixture of live and studio-work. The guiding idea behind this procedure was to "produce an album that would not fall into the often seen structures of improvised concerts with the long bows of searching for material but rather to have distinct and clearly separated pieces with precisely structured parts." This kind of information often puzzles me. Can I detect what is live and improvised, and what are manipulations afterwards. At the end I often skip this question as irrelevant, and consider the music on the CD simply for what it is, in whatever way it came into being. The music on "Aurora Arona" has aspects of free improvised music, noisy soundcollages and electro-acoustic treatments. The atmosphere of free improvised music is the most dominant, guaranteeing the lively and communicative nature of this music. It really boils from time to time, like in the cacaphonic parts of the opening track "Aruna Aurora" and "Begen bginn filt". The closing piece "Etherlorbien" moves towards the other side of the spectrum, and is a lenghty meditative soundimprovisation. An engaging but no sensational work.
VITAL WEEKLY, Don Mulder (http://www.vitalweekly.net/733.html [20100602])