Jazz Articles about Bertrand Denzler

Bertrand Denzler Cluster: Y?

by Robert Spencer
September 1, 1999

I put this one on, and I thought, “Hmmm. Unusual instrumentation. Vibes? Marimba? Xylophone? And what's that? Synthesizer? Or some other kind of electronic thingy?" Turns out to be a prepared piano, a la John Cage's groundbreaking sonatas of the late Forties, and here masterfully deployed by Benoît Delbecq, who also plays a standard piano. But the prepared piano has a fascinating and much-varied sound, aided by the bass of Hélène Labarrière, who so intertwines with it that together they ...

Bertrand Denzler Cluster: Y?

by Glenn Astarita
June 1, 1999

Among the crop of new releases from the audacious and very much avant-garde Leo Lab records is something by a band, which calls itself “Bertrand Denzler Cluster”. Y? was recorded live on 2 tracks by Radio DRS at Jazzfestival Schaffhausen, Switzerland, May 4, 1998.

Tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler along with his Quartet are at times fiercely energetic, loud, dissonant or serve up kaleidoscopic-like interludes and conversational group interplay. The title track and opener “Y?” clocks in at 21 minutes and ...