Dark and commanding double bass exploreations by two of the best. Having performed as a duo live in at nyMusikk in Oslo, they then recorded this album of freely improvised bass interactions the next day in the studio at Gråmølna in Trondheim.
The bassists first met at the Molde Jazzfestival in 2011, where Duch played a solo recital and a concert with Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, while Léandre had a guest spot with improv quartet SPUNK. After hearing Duch's solo album Edges from 2010, the two got to know each other and planned a collaboration. "The music will be freely improvised and bass's sound possibilities will be explored to the fullest" they planned, and so it is.
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Joëlle Léandre / double bass
Michael Duch / double bass
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Tracklisting:
1. The Gramolna Duo 1 - 7:01
2. The Gramolna Duo 2 - 9:13
3. The Gramolna Solo (JL) - 8:31
4. The Gramolna Duo 3 - 7:37
5. The Gramolna Solo (MD) - 6:59
6. The Gramolna Duo 4 - 9:03
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Recorded by Oscar Gronberg at Gramolna, Trondheim, Norway on November 1st, 2013.
Available as 320k MP3 or 24bit FLAC
Michael Francis Duch (1978) was born and raised in Trondheim, Norway, and plays the double bass. He completed his project “Free Improvisation – Method and Genre” as research-fellow at the University of Trondheim (NTNU) late October 2010, where he has been doing research on Free Improvisation and the use of Improvisation in Experimental Music. Duch has been involved in around 70 recordings released in various formats, and has played solo-concerts various places in Norway and Sweden, and also Reykjavik, Athens, Madrid, Vienna, Glasgow, Huddersfield and London. Michael Francis Duch plays in a trio with Rhodri Davies and John Tilbury, the improvquartet LEMUR with Bjørnar Habbestad, Hild Sofie Tafjord and Lene Grenager and various other constellations. Other collaborations include Pauline Oliveros, Mats Gustafsson, AMM, Christian Wolff, Tony Conrad, Joëlle Léandre, amongst others.
French double bass player, improviser and composer, Joëlle Léandre is one of the dominant figures of the new European music. Trained in orchestral as well as contemporary music, she has played with l’Itinéraire, 2e2m and Pierre Boulez’s Ensemble Intercontemporain. Joëlle Léandre has also worked with Merce Cunningham and with John Cage, who has composed especially for her – as have Scelsi, Fénelon, Hersant, Lacy, Campana, Jolas, Clementi and about 40 composers.
As well as working in contemporary music, Léandre has played with some of the great names in jazz and improvisation, such as Derek Bailey, Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, Evan Parker, Irene Schweizer, William Parker, Barre Phillips, Pascal Contet, Steve Lacy, Lauren Newton, Peter Kowald, Urs Leimgruber, Mat Maneri, Roy Campbell, Fred Frith, John Zorn, Mark Naussef, Marilyn Crispell, India Cooke and so many others…
She has written extensively for dance and theater, and has staged a number of multidisciplinary performances. She got the DAAD at Berlin, is welcomed as artist resident at Villa Kujiyama (Kyoto). In 2002, 2004 and 2006, she is Visiting Professor at Mills college, Oakland, CA, Chaire Darius Milhaud, for improvisation and composition. Her work as a composer and a performer, both in solo recitals and a part of ensembles, has put her under the lights of the most prestigious stages of Europe, the Americas and Asia.
