Home » Jazz Musicians » Samuel Rohrer
Samuel Rohrer
Samuel Rohrer: Codes of Nature
by John Eyles
Born into a musical family in Bern, Switzerland, in 1977, Samuel Rohrer began playing piano at age seven and drums at fourteen. After studying arts and music in Bern and Boston, he moved to Berlin in 2003 and was soon issuing recordings. Since then, he has worked with an impressive array of talented musicians, including Eivind Aarset, Oren Ambarchi, Laurie Anderson, Jan Bang, Sidsel Endresen and Nils Petter Molvaer. However, although such names indicate how well-connected Rohrer is, they are ...
read moreSimin Tander: Unfading
by Henning Bolte
The newly formed quartet of German-Afghani vocalist Simin Tander with Swiss-Swedish electric bass guitarist Björn Meyer, Tunisian violinist Jasser Haj Youssef and Swiss drummer Samuel Rohrer from Berlin is a remarkable force field of igniting, merging and amplifying energies, temperaments and temperatures. Tander herself has provided 12 compositions here and three times her own lyrics as a mature mark of class. Tander's voice fluctuates between confidence and yearning, joy and grief, and oriental and occidental spheres. Her singing ...
read moreSimin Tander: Unfading
by Ian Patterson
Simin Tander's evolution has been fascinating to behold since her impressive debut Wagma (Neuklang Records, 2011), which featured pianist Jeroen van Vliet, bassist Cord Heineking and Etienne Nillesen on drums. The German/Afghan singer's whispered gravitas and keening lyricism on jazz-filtered chanson, Latin American balladry and her poetic originals was captivating enough, but her non-syllabic vocal improvisations signalled an original artist, unbound by convention. That same line-up delivered the even stronger Where Water Travels Home (Jazzhaus Records, 2014), with Tander expanding ...
read moreSamuel Rohrer: Continual Decentering
by Henning Bolte
Berlin-based Swiss drummer Samuel Rohrer's solo album Continual Decentering is a follow-up to his quartet work Dark Star Safari (2019) with Jan Bang, Eivind Aarset and Erik Honoré and to his previous solo album Range of Regularity (2017), both released on his own Arjunamusic label. With drums, percussion, modular synthesizers and assorted electronics Rohrer created a sophisticated, richly orchestrated variety of music on the cutting edge and interchange of acoustic and electronic sounds. The result is thirteen pieces anchored by ...
read moreDark Star Safari: Dark Star Safari
by John Eyles
The birth of the quartet Dark Star Safari (named after a 2003 Paul Theroux travel book) dates back to a December 2017 session at the Candybomber studio in Berlin, initiated by Swiss drummer Samuel Rohrer who invited along two Norwegians--sampler and keyboardist Jan Bang and guitarist Eivind Aarset--having previously played with them at gigs including Norway's annual Punkt festival. The open improvisations resulting from the session were examined and then used as the basis of further manipulations. Bang made two ...
read moreKlaus Gesing, Bjorn Meyer, Samuel Rohrer: Amiira
by John Eyles
The trio of Swiss drummer & percussionist Samuel Rohrer, Swedish bass guitarist Björn Meyer and German reedsman Klaus Gesing first came together in 2013 when they released their only previous recording, open_source_music. Before they joined forces, each of the three had had years of experience on the road playing various styles of music. On coming together, their stated intention was to dissolve the borders between improvisation and composition, with the music on that debut recording demonstrating that they lived up ...
read moreSusanne Abbuehl: April
by Craig W. Hurst
The music on Susanne Abbuehl's recent ECM release April draws on diverse musical sources that result in a product that extends beyond that which is usually expected from a recording labeled as jazz. The music of Abbuehl and her fellow musicians at times resembles music more closely akin to an impression of the spare and angular sounds of early 20th century German Expressionism, or modern avant-garde music. Overall, there is a delightfully haunting cool edge to the music on April ...
read more