Georg Graewe Franz Koglmann Quintet - West of the Moon (2019)

Handsemmel Records' most recent project, whose world premiere took place at the Jazzfest Vienna, July 2019, features a cooperation which transcends genres, crosses borders and even oceans. Viennese trumpet- and flugelhorn player Franz Koglmann and Vienna-based German pianist Georg Graewe have put together an all-international ensemble and created a musical program that owes to European modern classical music as well as to US-American jazz. Koglmann pays tribute to Cool Jazz a long-lasting passion of his by arranging and alluding to Westcoast classics, without sentimentality and in an unmistakably contemporary fashion. Graewe has adapted compositions originally written for GrubenKlangOrchester and Sonic Fiction Orchestra for this new setting, and has added three brandnew pieces. The result of this effort is a highly focussed, almost aphoristic album that neither shuns sharp contrasts nor fragile moments of unabashed sonorous beauty. Nonetheless it offers five musicians with a distinct personal sound and style ample scope for improvisation.