CD Review: maTrigal, Between Homes

I first found out about this band, and this recording when drummer Max Schwarz wrote to introduce himself and the trio, telling me “We believe that our upcoming release may be of interest to you.” He was right. Between Homes, maTrigal’s full-length debut for Svitzer Music, is a record that rewards exactly the kind of curiosity that made me open that email in the first place.

maTrigal is Gottfried Tadashi Forck on cello, Raphael Gamper on acoustic guitar and Maximilian Wolfgang Schwarz on drums, percussion and electronics, three players who met as students at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock and founded the group in 2019 with a stated aim of fusing contemporary classical music, electronic pop and world music. That is a lot of territory to claim, and plenty of bands who make such claims deliver something considerably narrower. maTrigal do not. Having already put out two EPs, Age of the Golden Dragon and Transition Void I-III, and built a touring profile across Germany, Austria, Italy and France, they arrive at this debut album sounding fully formed.

What strikes me first about Between Homes is the sound and production, which are of the highest quality throughout. Recorded at Watt Matters Studio in Bielefeld with Henning Strandt as sound engineer and Jakob Böttcher producing, the record sits in a space that could easily have tipped into over-production given how many layers are at play here, cello, guitar, drums, live electronics, synthesizers, sampling, and yet it never does. These three players are so tightly integrated with one another that individual roles blur; it is often genuinely difficult to tell where cello ends and processed guitar begins, or where a programmed texture gives way to Schwarz’s kit.

The album opens with TGD4, which lays down a hypnotic, Eastern-inflected rhythmic bed. I particularly admired the way the drums weave in and out of the loops here, and how the cello’s pizzicato bassline locks into the groove rather than simply decorating it. Circular follows with a groove that is deceptively complex, hiding a shuffle feel beneath its effects-driven surface; Sebastian Lange’s saxophone appears here as a guest voice, used with restraint rather than as a lead instrument. The title track, Between Homes, is the clearest statement of the album’s thesis, a cinematic intro giving way to a solid triplet groove with the same Eastern tonal flavour heard on the opener. The title earns its place: there are multiple musical homes audible within the track, and the whole record lives somewhere between them.

Photo by Philippe Haumesser

Days of Rain shifts the palette again, still groove-driven but with a multi-ethnic character that sets it apart from the tracks around it. Nami opens on a rhythmic dialogue between pizzicato cello and guitar, a bed that Schwarz then works around rather than over. Dualities is the most sonically dense piece on the record, its groove matching its harmonic complexity. Balafon, the album’s sole outside composition, comes courtesy of Kevin Seddiki and carries a distinct Irish flavour that fits the record’s cross-cultural instincts without feeling like a detour. Dr. Cow is brief but makes its impression felt. Connected opens on strong melodic material before pushing into more avant-garde, sound-design-oriented territory, and Disarray closes the album by picking up where Connected leaves off, functioning as a fitting epilogue that gathers up everything that came before it.

Photo by Johannes Schirbock

The band describe their aim as “previously unheard music,” and on the evidence of these ten tracks I would not dispute the ambition, even if I would resist the word groundbreaking. What they have actually achieved is more useful than novelty for its own sake: a genuine musical flow across an album that moves between experimental jazz fusion, folk and world music elements, West and North African rhythmic and melodic influence, electronica and the occasional rock-inspired interlude, without ever settling into pastiche of any one of them.

I recommend this one highly. Once it is released on 21 August, it will stay firmly at the top of my personal playlist, and if you are up for groove-driven contemporary jazz, you should do the same.

Between Homes will be released on 21st of August 2026 on all platforms through Copenhagen based label Svitzer Music. The first single Nami was released on 24th of June 2026. The second single Days of Rain will follow on 07th of August 2026.

Personnel:
Gottfried Tadashi Forck, cello | Raphael Gamper, acoustic guitar | Maximilian Wolfgang Schwarz, drums, percussion & electronics | Sebastian Lange, saxophone (Circular) | Kevin Seddiki, composition (Balafon)

Release Date: 21 August 2026
Format: CD | LP | Streaming
Label: Svitzer Music (Copenhagen)

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