Peter Hollo
What an absolute beauty this album is! Subtle, emotive jazz piano trio, with just enough field recordings and electronics to take it somewhere else. And a simple, open-hearted Broadcast cover is the icing on the cake.
Favorite track: Echo's Answer.
The Swiss trio divr debuts on We Jazz on 2 February with their new album "Is This Water". divr is Philipp Eden on keys, Jonas Ruther on drums and Raphael Walser on bass, and they play largely acoustic improvisations which loop without ever quite repeating. The new album is mixed & post-produced by Dan Nicholls (of Y-OTIS).
“We play in multi-directional time. You could hear three different timings, but on the other hand it’s together. We land in the same place. It’s not done with maths, it’s more about entering a flow”, say the band members, based in Basel (Eden) and Zurich (Ruther, Walser), the city where they all met more than 15 years ago.
“It’s a free approach to playing time. We don’t refer to a straight metre. But play around it. We never repeat something exactly, it develops with every turn, there’s always a small difference.”
Their music is elegant in its intricacy while covering a wide dynamic range. Opener "As Of Now" begins with languid chords on the piano, bass and drums skimming over the surface offered by Eden. Later comes a rush of energy, the piano briefly switching into more jagged terrain before peeling back. From there the album journeys through different intensities, rising and falling in smooth arcs as if you’re hearing their conversation move from gentle pleasantries to more heated discussions.
"Is this Water" presents a band who's heading into a direction of their own, crafting pieces out of improvising together and tapping into a natural brand of instant composition. Nicholls' edits and post production give the music another layer, one drawing from field recordings and layered textural ideas. Together, the elements form a sound that feels personal, organic and forward-reaching at the same time.
credits
released February 2, 2024
Philipp Eden, piano
Raphael Walser, double bass
Jonas Ruther, drums
Composed by divr except "All I Need" by Radiohead & "Echo's Answer" by Broadcast, "Supreme Sweetness" based on a composition by Gus Arnheim, Charles N. Daniels, Harry Tobias.
Recorded at "The Zoo“, Bern on February 2-5, 2022
Recording: Felix Wolf & Wolfgang Zwiauer
Mixing/Post-Production: Dan Nicholls
Mastering: Andreas [LUPO] Lubich at Loop-O Mastering
Original artwork by Emma Souharce
Design by Matti Nives
With the support of:
Dr. Adolf Streuli-Stiftung
Kanton Zürich - Fachstelle Kultur
Stadt Zürich - Popkredit
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