Home » Jazz Articles » Christian Lillinger
Jazz Articles about Christian Lillinger
Euphorium_freakestra: Free Acoustic Supergroup
by Mark Corroto
Thanks to pianist and director Oliver Schwerdt, the Euphorium_freakestra is and always has been a glorious experiment in organized disorganization. The double CD Free Acoustic Supergroup is the ensemble's seventh release. Schwerdt's experiments began with the single disc Ðal Ngai (Euphorium Records, 2004) and eventually the group's 3-CD Grande Casino (Euphorium Records, 2018). Ðal Ngai included the guest artists Friedrich Schenker and Günter Baby Sommer. Other releases found the ensemble hosting musicians such as Thomas Lehn, Barry Guy, and Bertrand ...
Continue ReadingPunkt. Vrt. Plastik: Zurich Concert
by John Sharpe
Over the course of the five years since its inception, Punkt. Vrt. Plastik, the trio of Slovenian pianist Kaja Draksler, Swedish bassist Petter Eldh and German drummer Christian Lillinger, has become one of the premier bands on the European circuit. Definitive proof arrives in the shape of Zurich Concert, the threesome's third album, recorded at the 2021 unerhört!-Festival in the titular Swiss city. Although all but one of the selections appear on the outfit's first two releases, they present differently ...
Continue ReadingBig Bad Brötzmann Quintet: Bambule!
by Glenn Astarita
This set finds legendary free jazz innovator Peter Brotzmann leading his Big Bad Quintet, along with fellow German improvisational champions, keyboardist Oliver Schwerdt, drummer Christian Lillinger, bassist John Eckhardt and fabled British bassist John Edwards to round out a sweltering session, teeming with notions of turmoil, and enduring interchanges. Brotzmann is like a turbo-charged bulldozer flattening all the unwieldly routes throughout these two extended tracks. As the German translation of the album moniker infers, a non-violent prison protest. ...
Continue ReadingWollny - Parisien - Lefebvre - Lillinger: XXXX
by Phillip Woolever
This unique group effort by a progressive team of virtuoso improvisers doesn't always hit the mark of inspired mastery, but the project certainly expands such possibilities. The album is culled from a four-night stand at Berlin's well-known A-Trane club which produced around eight hours of recorded material. The intriguing, unpredictable package presented here clocks in at around 45 minutes. The opening track “Somewhere Around Barstow" pops with multiple-sourced seeds which literally set a stage for the chaotic chops ...
Continue ReadingBig Bad Brötzmann Quintet: Karacho!
by Mark Corroto
Good free jazz is like a trip to a carnival with its exotic and unfamiliar sights and sounds. Even for an experienced listener, the surprise of great instant composing never grows old. A prime example is Karacho! by the befittingly named Big Bad Brötzmann Quintet. Like visiting the carnival, there are innumerable sound experiences encased within an all-embracing vibe, not disparate parts that fail to integrate. Recorded in 2017 at the naTo club in Leipzig, Germany, pianist Oliver ...
Continue ReadingChristian Lillinger: Open Form For Society
by Mark Corroto
German drummer and über composer Christian Lillinger might be best known for his ensemble Grund which has released several outstanding recordings since 2009. He can also be found in good company with musicians like Peter Evans, Samo Šalamon, Luís Lopes, Pascal Niggenkemper, Tobias Delius and Achim Kaufmann, to name but a few heavy hitters with whom he is associated. His Open Form For Society (OFFS) project plays a sort of futuristic chamber music that draws from musique concrète, avant jazz, ...
Continue ReadingKaja Draksler / Petter Eldh / Christian Lillinger: Punkt.Vrt.Plastik
by John Sharpe
Three outrageously talented up-and-coming players on the European scene join energies on a program of spiky attitude based around rhythmically dynamic foundations. German drummer Christian Lillinger and Swedish bassist Petter Eldh may be best known as the potent bedrock of the Amok Amor Quartet which featured trumpeter Peter Evans. Now they fulfill the same function in a new co-operative trio with Amsterdam-based Slovenian pianist Kaja Draksler, who reveals a more wayward side than manifest on her ambitious octet release Gledalec ...
Continue Reading
