Die Hochstapler

Nowhere Street #15

Die Hochstapler
Louis Laurain (trumpet), Pierre Borel (alto sax), Antonio Borghini (double bass) & Hannes Lingens (drums)

May 5 | Doors 20:00 | Concert 20:30
KM28 | Karl-Marx-Straße 28, Berlin

Since forming in 2011, DIE HOCHSTAPLER has developed a seriously intuitive practice where each set is structured spontaneously, with the musicians orally learning and memorizing an ever-growing repertoire so that during a performance any one of them can suddenly introduce a new tune. The others can jump on board or shut it down. The quartet operates as a kind of societal experiment, using tunes as material for real-time conversation and deliberation.

The band recently released a pair of terrific albums to make its methodology explicit. “Beauty Lies” contains mostly miniatures—seconds-long fragments, pithy themes without elaboration, a few full yet concise readings of spirited post-bop and one ballad sung à la Chet Baker by the group’s trumpeter—that essentially serve as the raw material for the two extended suites featured on its companion album “Within.” Invoking the buoyancy of the great Ornette Coleman Quartet, the band swings and crashes, digging into certain themes while racing through others. The excitement comes from witnessing the band as they navigate that material in a kind of elaborate dance that gets the same jolt from a dead end or disagreement as it does from spontaneous accord.

www.diehochstapler.com

NOWHERE STREET is a concert series organized by music journalist Peter Margasak.

text: Berlin Jazzfest 2022