Written by The piano is the focus of this year’s Dobršská brána International Music Festival, with European artists or groups from at least seven countries represented in a weekend of first-rate concerts, ten altogether.
While the focus on piano may immediately conjure the likes of Keith Jarrett or Thelonious Monk, the selection of artists this year is a broader or more progressive one with some “pianists” who defy musical categorizations due to most imaginative and subtle incorporations of hi-tech and electronica.
This is mostly the case with Swiss pianist, composer and record producer Nik Bärtsch with his group Ronin, formed in 2001. The group’s name “Ronin” refers to freelance samurai warriors in medieval Japan, who served no master, but devoted themselves only to their martial art in practice. This ethic as a lifestyle for “free” musicians is key to the group, and they have described their own sound on their first recordings as “Zen ritual groove music” which is still an accurate term for current performances.
Nik Bärtsch with his group Ronin
Bärtsch’s Ronin combine chamber music, Jazz, Minimalism and improvisation with other influences from the Far East and beyond, explains in the briefest of terms their direction. Once they are in motion, it is trance-inducing. As recording artists for the ECM label, Ronin includes Sha (alto saxophone, bass-clarinet), Kaspar Rast (percussion and effects), and Jeremias Keller (electric bass). Bärtsch also “plays” or caresses the interior strings of his piano to alter the sound, as his personal touch. His approach to the instrument is diametrically opposite Cecil Taylor’s or Aki Takase’s aggressive free-jazz piano assaults.
Another pianist, keyboardist and composer hard-to-categorize, is Benjamin Moussey, from France, who has recorded and performs regularly as a soloist as an ECM artist; and for his performance at Dobrs, which is set for a small Baroque church, it may be a serious piano-only event, showcasing his finesse and previous studies in classical piano (at Strasbourg Conservatory), then in Jazz piano in Paris (at Paris National Superior Conservatory). However, Moussey transforms into a futuristic musical wizard as soloist when he plays the piano modulaire (a modular system with synth components and cables galore). And it should not be out of the question, that he could combine options for this show.
Benjamin Moussey
On the same program for Saturday, with headliner Bärtsch’s Ronin preceded by Moussey, Aki Rissanen performs as a trio with trumpeter Verneri Pohjola and drummer Robert Ikiz. Pohjola is a leader in his own right, but they will be performing Rissanen’s 2023 album “Hyperreal” (Edition Records). Rissanen (born 1980) studied classical piano in Finland, jazz and improvised music in Paris, at the same Conservatory as Moussey, and he holds an MA in Jazz from Finland’s Sibelius Academy. As a composer playing piano and synthesizer with effects, Rissanen’s sound is a progressive jazz, or more distinctively it is as slow-moving as a free-born iceberg in its mysterious grandiosity and luster.
Friday’s headliner, Helge Lien, from Norway, stands out in contrast to the most progressive tendencies of his Scandinavian peers by having a traditional and melodic approach influenced by Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans. A highlight in his oeuvre is a cover of Freddy Hubbard’s jazz standard “Little Sunflower,” from Lien’s 2006 album “To the Little Radio.” Then at least one significant Scandinavian influence for Lien is E.S.T., the phenomenal Esbjörn Svensson Trio from Sweden. Thus, Lien will be performing appropriately with his own trio that consists of Johannes Eick (bass) and Knut Aalefjaer (drums).
The festival has several other noteworthy artists throughout the two-day festival including the Berlin-based Magda Mayas duo featuring Australian Tony Buck (from The Necks) on percussion; the Ignacy Wisniewski Duo from Poland; the Pablo Held Trio (from Germany); then the Nikol Boková Trio, the Marek Novotný Sextet, and the Tomáš Hrubiš duo from the Czech Republic, otherwise called Czechia.
Ignacy Wisniewski
Magda Mayas as a composer and improvisational artist on piano with Tony Buck (improvisational and jazz drummer/percussionist extraordinaire) has a duo that is engaging, experimental, ethno-influenced and esoteric; Ignacy Wisniewski Duo is led by a jazz pianist and composer using effects with Tomasz Chlya, a violinist, uniting two virtuosos for an improvisational and experimental jazz project; as an offering to traditionalists , Pablo Held has a hard-driving piano jazz trio with Robert Landfermann (double bass) and Jonas Burgwinkl (percussion), reminding one that Modern jazz is always in vogue.
From the Czech scene, Nikol Boková is established as a young composer and classical music pianist, who also has several award-winning jazz recordings, that do not shy away from her classical influences nor techniques; instead she embraces both worlds to create a lyrical and uplifting jazz in trios or quartets. She will be performing with her trio consisting of Martin Kocián on double bass and Micha? Wierzgo? on drums; the Marek Novotný Sextet is referred to as the Crossover Sextet Project with two female vocalists combining a jazz pop, Czech folk and classical sensibility to the compositions. This group includes Novotný (piano), Pavel Hrala (violin/viola, vocals), Tomáš Hobzek (percussion), Anna Kalhausová (cello, vocals), Max Makagonov (double bass, vocals), and Josefina Cermáková (vocals).
The Saturday afternoon performances on a hill and lawn beside a Gothic bell tower at previously Celtic ruins tend to be the most surprising. This year features the Tomáš Hrubiš Prismatic Project with Hrubiš on organ, and analog synthesizer, and Martin ?ech on drums. With this project, Hrubiš merges a darker ambient, neo-psychedelia, and trance in a mysterious and spiritual concoction for the local genius loci.
Perhaps more broadly European in scope and variety this year than ever before, this festival is a haven for jazz, classical and experimental music connoisseurs to congregate in an authentic, charming and pastoral village setting in the South Bohemian hills, with first-rate artists for its two-day event.
The Eighth Annual Dobršská brána International Music Festival 2024 will be on Friday and Saturday, August 16th & 17th.
Tony Ozuna is a senior lecturer for the School of Journalism, Media & Visual Arts at Anglo-American University in Prague.
Last modified: July 19, 2024
