Shelton/Tarwid/Jacobson/Berre







From the vibrant improvised music scene of Copenhagen comes a new quartet with Aram Shelton, alto saxophone, Grzegorz Tarwid, piano; Tomo Jacobson, bass, and Håkon Berre, percussion. Their music, involving an instant-compositional mindset, reflects their diverse backgrounds in music and life. Their first album 'Hopes and Fears' was released by the Polish imprint Multikulti Project in September, 2017.


Aram Shelton is an improviser and composer who performs on saxophone, clarinets, and live electronics. He focuses on creative music grounded in and influenced by the rich history of avant-jazz and free improvisation; his writing and playing has been documented through more than two dozen albums to date through Delmark, Clean Feed, Not Two, Cuneiform and Singlespeed Music. From the United States, he's been an integral member of the creative music communities in the Bay Area and Chicago, and recently moved to Copenhagen.


Grzegorz Tarwid is one of the most exciting young Polish pianists of recent years, listed alongside Sebastian Zawadzki or Kuba Sokolowski. His stage credits include performances with Zbigniew Namysłowski or Tomasz Dąbrowski, recently with Wojciech Jachna (with whom he playes in awarded trio Jachna/Tarwid/ Karch), Kuba Więcek (they both work in a band INTO INTERLUDE) and the well-known German bassist Robert Landfermann. He has also performed in a number of countries including Germany, Ukraine and Latvia. He is now based in Cologne, Germany.


Tomo Jacobson is a Polish-born double bass player based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He focuses his efforts on free improv and other creative musics. With over a dozen albums to his credit, he is mostly known for the projects he is a leader, or co-leader to, namely MOONBOW (ILK Music - 2016), MOUNT MEANDER (Clean Feed - 2016), or IL SOGNO (coming in 2017), as well his solo double bass work (recording 12 solo albums in 2017), and free improv encounters with acclaimed musicians like John Tchicai, Andrew D'Angelo, Lotte Anker, Adam Rudolph, Rasul Siddik, Frank Gratkowski, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Sun Araw, and many others. Tomo has performed in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Estonia, Poland, Italy, Cuba, Belgium, Czech Republic, Portugal, Los Angeles and New York.


Håkon Berre is Norwegian drummer and composer, currently living in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he works as a freelance musician and educator. Being an active member of the record label & musicians collective Barefoot Records, Håkon has contributed on over 20 recordings, as well as being one of the co-founders. Håkons playing is characterized by an inventive and energetic drumming, using a rich palette of sounds from a wide diversity of trash and objects, and sometimes also incorporating real-time electronics. This can be heard on a discography spanning 35 CD's and LP’s, and has also brought him to numerous clubs and festivals all around the world with musicians like Peter Brötzmann, Phil Minton, Axel Dörner, John Tchicai, Peter Friis-Nielsen, Sture Ericson, Liudas Mockunas and Susana Santos Silva.



Releases:







Shelton/Tarwid/Jacobson/Berre were released by the Polish imprint Multikulti Project in September, 2017. You can buy it on CDs from Multikulti Project's website, from their bandcamp, or directly from Tomo (you can contact me through the contact section of this website).


Album Reviews:

“In one word it is a Marvel.”

(Greg Drygała - HiFiCritic Vol 12 No 3 - UK)


"Słucha się go jednak jak koncertu zespołu, dla którego istotniejsze od wymyślania konceptów i perfekcjonizmu w komponowaniu, jest niepowtarzalny charakter wynikający z improwizacji. W przypadku "Hopes And Fears" wszelkie obawy co do jakości tego typu przedsięwzięć powinny zostać szybko rozwiane."

(Piotr Wojdat - Polish Jazz - Poland) ​


“Individual and unique sound, different playing manner, creative and inventive musical decisions – all these elements gently fit together in their collective improvisations.”
(Avant Scena) ​


'Tune of the day' : Nov 8, 2017 at a Jazz Noise


“Fantastic stuff!!!”

(Maciej Lewenstein - Polish Jazz Recordings and Beyond - Poland)


“Bezwzględnie warto sięgnąć po to nagranie i niejednokrotnie zanurzyć się w nim po sam koniec nosa.”
(Andrzej Nowak - Spontaneous Music Tribune - Poland)


"Dostajemy muzykę pełną barw, twórczego niepokoju, brzmieniowych nieoczywistości."

(Tomasz Janas - Kultura Poznań - Poland)