Euphorium_freakestra: Free Acoustic Supergroup

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 Gunter Baby Sommer. Other releases found the ensemble hosting musicians such as Thomas Lehn, Barry Guy, and Bertrand Denzler, playing both acoustic and electric music.

Sommer is back for this outing, which also includes trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, bassist Barre Phillips, and spoken word artist Friedrich Kettlitz. Schwerdt has paired musicians by instrument, Smith with Axel Dorner, Sommer with drummer Christian Lillinger, Phillips with bassist Michael Haves, the saxophonists Urs Leimgruber and Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, and Schwerdt himself at the piano.

Free Acoustic Supergroup was captured at the 2009 Euphorium Festival in Leipzig. Like Derek Bailey's Company Weeks, this free improvised collective draws musicians from across the globe with the countries Germany, Switzerland, and the United States represented. Kettlitz' elocution (in German) opens the discs, and it recalls the Dada and Futurist recordings of Kurt Schwitters and Richard Huelsenbeck. His spoken recitations are the introductions to various improvisations and appear to spark the subsequent improvisations. Although there are ten members of this Supergroup, each leaves plenty of space for their colleagues. For the most part, the music is presented in pairs, the same instruments—trumpets, saxophones, basses, and drums—in conversation or a cross pollination between a reed and a brass instrument, et cetera. Clearly, the musicians are listening to each other, and their deep concentration is apparent in the cohesive nature of this freely improvised music. Unlike many large free ensemble recordings, this does not devolve into chaotic hubbub. Even when all the musicians are engaged at once, there is a self-possessed cohesiveness to the sound.