Fabian Dudek - Isolated Flowers (2022) Hi Res

The new album "Isolated Flowers" by the quartet around Fabian Dudek documents the compositional development of the band leader and the growing together of the outstanding cloverleaf.

"We have significantly expanded our spectrum," Dudek states, "in terms of the joint development of my pieces as well as the spontaneous interaction in improvisations." From Dudek's point of view, both aspects are essential for the music. »Due to the corona restrictions, we were able to play fewer concerts in 2020/21 than planned. We rehearsed all the more and consistently dealt with details. This is extremely important, because even if my pieces are notated relatively extensively, we always enter uncharted territory when we play together. Depending on how others perceive what I have thought up, how they enrich my ideas with their own ideas and feelings, a new kind of language emerges.«

All pieces are formulated by everyone, Dudek sums up the communication at eye level. The equal nature of the band can lead to his compositional proposals being extensively redesigned or even discarded altogether. As an example, Dudek cites "I Can't," the comparatively most conventional track on the album, of which almost half of the original notation ended up in the bin. With a surprising result: »while I was writing the piece, I didn't think it would turn into a ballad.« Dudek names duality as a formative element of »Isolated Flowers«.
He thinks of the tension between intellect and emotionality, complexity and deep feelings that make playing together. And the influences that inspired him when writing and triggered moods between melancholy and rebellion. »I listen to a lot of new music and enjoy the »checked out« details, but I also like catchy pop. Straightforward rhythms, such as in soul, speak to me just as much as a complex pulse that you can feel but don't fully understand what's happening.«

The title track "Isolated Flowers" has a story that exemplifies Dudek's approach. »During the lockdown, I bought a camera, shot a series of nature photos and wrote texts in German about them. Then the translation machine turned my phrase "solitary flowers" into "isolated flowers." On the one hand it's even more romantic, on the other hand the machine has exacerbated the depressive feeling and made my mood even more mercilessly aggravated by the confinement at the time.«

But the record is by no means a pandemic album, emphasizes Dudek: "I'm just as concerned with other contemporary issues, such as climate policy, arms exports and migration." The confrontation between nature and industry is reflected in Pretty Ugly, whose title can intentionally be read in several directions. »The idea for this piece came to me while visiting a Roger Melis exhibition. One of his photos shows a beautiful landscape with a cement factory in the middle.« »Reality, The Hypocrite« transfers Dudek's anger about hypocrites in politics into expressive tones, Sick Days is also an artistic commentary on the times. "Here, the synthesizer, which waves and drifts out of tune over time, symbolizes a diffuse feeling of insecurity and powerlessness." Passion, determination, urgency: Fabian Dudek's explosive saxophone modulations repeatedly give the impression that he's blowing them soul out of the body. And that's the way it is. "I've been playing the saxophone for years and I can finally play the way I want to with this band," says Dudek. He cites Frank Gratkowski, with whom he is currently completing his master's degree, as inspirational sources, American saxophone pioneer Henry Threadgill, soul idiot James Brown and funk jazz legend Maceo Parker, trumpet virtuoso Ambrose Akinmusire and Charles Ives. »I enjoy putting the pieces of a puzzle together in new ways while composing.

But what ultimately counts is being in the moment instead of obediently following rules or stubbornly sticking to concepts. The compositional framework is only built to be used as a launching pad towards complete ecstasy.« It is obvious that the quartet repeatedly reached unleashed states during the two-day recording session in the Cologne loft. Accordingly, Fabian Dudek sees »Isolated Flowers« primarily as a reflection on the very time in which the album was made. It's quite possible that the pieces will sound different again, at least in part, at upcoming concerts. However, the basic attitude of experienced individualists will not change. The band led by Fabian Dudek lives out the freedom of contemporary jazz with juvenile verve and determined will to create. She creates wide arcs of suspense and a gripping intensity that leaves no one untouched.