FLUX with Christina Fuchs - soprano sax and clarinet, bass clarinet Florian Stadler - accordion celebrates wonderful improvisations.
FLUX
Christina Fuchs - soprano sax, clarinet, bass clarinet
Florian Stadler - accordion
Using acoustic instruments, the two protagonists of jazz-based improvisational music develop a discourse on the possibilities of contemporary interplay. Delicate counterpoint and prancing polyrhythms sound effortlessly alongside raw towers of sound, vehement chord clusters and simple vocals.
When Christina Fuchs and Florian Stadler founded the duo FLUX in 2018, the Bonn accordionist and the Cologne saxophonist, clarinettist and composer were still experimenting with the various forms and possibilities of composed and electro-acoustic music. Over time, the two like-minded musicians found a new orientation towards purely analog improvisational music.
Their new album Roots & Rhyzomes (JazzHausMusik 312 in co-production with Deutschlandfunk) will be released on 19.4.2024
"Two people and a big, empty room. That's always the beginning. Then there is something. Not always directly perceptible. More like a hunch. Like a shimmer in the air. Then someone dares to take the first step. Or both start moving at the same time. Perhaps surprised at what the movement was. Or that the second person has the same impulse. The hunch begins to take shape. An idea sounds in the room. Like rain hitting the invisible and making it visible. The idea changes. In the end, two people are searching, listening to each other, influencing each other, perhaps even changing their own approach completely, as the other person's interpretation corresponds more to the truth."
Each of the two musicians has his/her own roots, to which he/she refers when playing and improvising. The term rhizome, however, does not mean root, but underground branches, interweavings, cross-connections, growths. A rhizome stands for a subterranean (musically here rather above-ground flowing) access of two systems, individuals to each other, a starting point for creative, freely improvised structures.
Concert dates:
16.3.24 Aachen Klangbrücke
21.4.24 Hanover, Tonhalle
28.4.24 Cologne, LOFT
06.7.24 Cologne, O-Ton, workshop concert/video production
24.8.24 Cologne, St. Gertrud
08.9.24 Bonn, Zentrifuge
15.9.24 Wangelin, Wangeliner Garten
06.11.24 Wuppertal, LOCH
17.11.24 Düsseldorf, KIT-Cafe
Press:
The first thing that strikes you is the pure, beautiful sound of the instruments. The selectivity, the tonal balance, the reproduction of the sound space, the placement of the instruments - all this is close to perfection. The richness of the sound details and melodic ideas is also impressive. In the compositions without unnecessary haste we find subtle chamber music and beautiful melodies, interwoven with wonderful improvisations.
Jacek Bruns Jazz-fun 4/2024
Roots and Rhyzomes, these are approaches to fibers and interweavings in the substrate. With soprano sax, clarinet & bass clarinet - CHRISTINA FUCHS, with accordion - FLORIAN STADLER. As flux, as with "Calliope" (2018), but this time not with an eye and ear for birds, but with a floral dérive. And in addition to beautiful finds to look at, also some edibles. Or are the two more interested in the scent, the taste? The tongue tickling 'rhubarb', 'wasabi', 'ginger' in a tonal analogy? But with the very first notes of the accordion, they take me to the ferns and ivy, the lilies and anemones of the sound world. With the wild and fragrant melodies of the bright and dark singing and croaking reeds, the tickling chirps, the babbling, jellyfish, trills and twitching staccato of the Hohner reeds [BA 123 rbd].
Rigobert Dittmann | Bad Alchemy 3/24
