Dark

HORNSTROM

Two trombones, bass and drums - that suffices completely! No piano or guitar. Nobody misses them, not for a second! Astounding with this somewhat idiosyncratic formulation, Hornstrom has surprised and thrilled every listener with this fresh, unconventional four man orchestra for the past 11 years. With the richness of their sound of their current album ''Dark'', the ideal of the band, the members of which used to like wearing bath caps and called themselves ''proficient swimmers'', is inevitably ascending to provisional heights. Because Klaus Heidenreich, Tobias Wember, Silvio Morger, and Markus Braun have actually succeeded with ''Dark'' in creating something like a comprehensive quadrature of a circle: combining the highest degree of compositional diligence with the unconditional desire for improvisational freedom as well as the greatest possible virtuosity in the handling of the isntruments with a casual portion of humor, which can sometimes also take refreshing self-mocking twists. All factors that Hornstrom purposefully but never audibly cramped acquired during its quite long existence in addition to a number of awards. The eight songs - all self-compositions by the trombonists Wember and Heidenreich - meander somewhere on the edges of modern jazz, rock, minimal music, and drum'n'bass without wanting to join the general trend of cross-bordering. It just happens, more consistently than ever. To mold clear musical structures with sober and at the same time elegiac elements into a homogeneous band sound is the declared goal, Tobias Wember stated. It need not be a contradiction by any means if the guys of Hornstrom place the development of the four individuals in the foreground precisely in this mature collective.

Price: $25.98

In stock
ships in 3 to 5 days