Cologne Jazzweek: FIELD feat. Marc Ducret

Uli Kempendorff (saxophone, clarinet) Jonas Westergaard (bass) Peter Bruun (drums) Marc Ducret (guitar) Søren Kjærgaard (piano)

FIELD is the name of a quartet nominally led by Berlin saxophonist Uli Kempendorff, but which sees itself as a cooperative working on an equal footing. In any case, it is a band that often transforms complex structures and seemingly insurmountable textures into emotionally dense and eloquent improvisational music. "Windows" is a six-part suite by FIELD drummer, the Dane Peter Bruun, which has its world premiere at the Cologne Jazzweek.
"Windows" are to be understood metaphorically in Bruun's composition, when the musicians adopt different rhythmic perspectives with their improvisational approaches in order to work on the existing material and at the same time set it in motion through parallel processes. French guitarist Marc Ducret, a long-term partner in Bruun's research project on the subject of "rhythm design", will also be taking part. With his expressive and energetic playing on the electric guitar, he adds dynamically differentiated sound processes to this close-knit foursome.

Further information

Venue:

Stadtgarten

The first concert in the newly built Stadtgarten concert hall in the mid-1980s launched a program unlike anything Germany had seen: an independent, artistically driven concert series devoted to contemporary improvised music. It was guided neither by attendance figures nor by public subsidies, yet it guaranteed musicians minimum fees and was run on professional terms. The conditions mattered just as much: an acoustically optimized, street-level concert space offering a strong setting for audiences and performers alike. Operations were financed through the adjoining hospitality business, the Stadtgarten restaurant and beer garden, a model that drew attention well beyond Germany.

Today the Stadtgarten Köln ranks among Europe's internationally recognized venues for contemporary and improvised music. The American magazine Down Beat features it regularly in its listings; it has received Germany's federal APPLAUS venue program award several times, including "Venue of the Year" in 2016, followed by the German Jazz Prize in the same category in 2022. More than 400 events across the full spectrum of contemporary music now take place there each year. Its international standing rests above all on the high proportion of demanding, experimental programming.

A programming mission of this kind depends on reliable public support. The venue's 30th anniversary in September 2016 opened that prospect: through a partnership between the City of Cologne and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, programming work is being substantially strengthened, and from 2017 onward the Stadtgarten Köln is being developed step by step into a "European Center for Jazz and Contemporary Music" – with the goal of becoming one of Europe's leading music centers.

more info

More dates at Stadtgarten: