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In Cahoots, Frank Gratkowski, Robert Landfermann, Philip Zoubek, Dominik Mahnig, LOFT
Photo: In Cahoots feat. Ingrid Laubrock © Guido Schiefer

LOFT

In Cahoots feat. Ingrid Laubrock

Frank Gratkowski - Holzblasinstrumente & Komposition Philip Zoubek - Piano & Synthesizer Robert Landfermann - Bass Dominik Mahnig - Schlagzeug very special guest: Ingrid Laubrock - Saxophon

Frank Gratkowski - Holzblasinstrumente & Komposition Philip Zoubek - Piano & Synthesizer Robert Landfermann - Bass Dominik Mahnig - Schlagzeug very special guest: Ingrid Laubrock - Saxophon

(english: see below)

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Das Quartett Gratkowski-Zoubek-Landfermann-Mahnig gründete sich 2016 und spielte zunächst frei improvisierte Musik. 2020 veröffentlichte die Band die CD Torbid Daylight, und spielt seit dem unter dem Namen In Cahoots Kompositionen von Frank Gratkowski.

https://gratkowski.com/projects/in-cahoots-feat-ingrid-laubrock/ Seit 2023 stößt regelmäßig die wunderbare NewYorker Saxophonistin Ingrid Laubrock dazu, im November 2025 erschien das Album Frank Gratkowski's In Cahoots Feat. Ingrid Laubrock,  aufgenommen im April 2024 im LOFT. https://ingridlaubrock.com/ Nach einem Gastauftritt beim Elbjazz-Festival im Juni in Hamburg sind die fünf Musiker*innen Anfang Oktober 2026 erneut auf Tour in Europa - und legen natürlich einen LOFT-Stop ein.

„Beneath the subatomic particle level, there are fibers that vibrate at different intensities. Different frequencies. Like violin strings. The physicists say that the particles we are able to see are the notes of the strings vibrating beneath them. If string theory is correct, then music is not only the way our brains work, as the neuroscientists have shown, but also, it is what we are made of, what everything is made of. These are the stakes musicians are playing for.“ T-Bone Burnett

Klingt so: https://youtu.be/EnagoEZIjeE
Frank Gratkowski - woodwinds & composition Philip Zoubek - piano & synthesizer Robert Landfermann - bass Dominik Mahnig - drums very special guest: Ingrid Laubrock - saxophone

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The quartet Gratkowski-Zoubek-Landfermann-Mahnig was formed in 2016 and initially played freely improvised music. In 2020, the band released the CD Torbid Daylight, and since then has been playing compositions by Frank Gratkowski under the name In Cahoots. Since 2023, the wonderful New York saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock regularly joines the group; in November 2025, the album Frank Gratkowski’s In Cahoots Feat. Ingrid Laubrock was released, recorded in April 2024 at the LOFT. https://ingridlaubrock.com/ After a guest appearance at the Elbjazz Festival in Hamburg in June, the five musicians will be back on tour in Europe in early October 2026 - and will, of course, make a stop at the LOFT. „Beneath the subatomic particle level, there are fibers that vibrate at different intensities. Different frequencies. Like violin strings. The physicists say that the particles we are able to see are the notes of the strings vibrating beneath them. If string theory is correct, then music is not only the way our brains work, as the neuroscientists have shown, but also, it is what we are made of, what everything is made of. These are the stakes musicians are playing for.“ T-Bone Burnett
Further information

Venue:

LOFT

The LOFT in Cologne's Ehrenfeld district is exactly what its name suggests: a spacious loft on the top floor of a former perfume factory. Since 1989 it has been home to the city's musical avant-garde as well as a scene hub and a jazz laboratory for students.

Over those decades it has grown into a respected stage for improvised music, contemporary music, and jazz, with a reputation reaching well beyond Germany. Most of the Cologne jazz musicians who have made their mark nationally and internationally in the past thirty years took their first career steps here, among them Nils Wogram, Hayden Chisholm, Angelika Niescier, Frank Gratkowski, Robert Landfermann, Pablo Held, and Sebastian Sternal.

The Cologne Triennale, WDR, and Deutschlandfunk stage concerts and recordings at the LOFT, and the venue has been invited to the Moers Festival five times. Its own label, 2ndFloor, releases selected recordings, and more than 1,000 live and studio productions made in the LOFT studio have appeared on other labels. Supported by the association 2ndFloor e. V. and the collective jungesloft, it presents over 200 events a year.

Top-tier instruments – including a Steinway D grand, one of the finest concert pianos in any German jazz club – a professional recording studio with award-winning engineers, and the room's distinctive atmosphere have drawn many prominent guests, from Lee Konitz, Steve Lacy, and Peter Brötzmann to Kurt Rosenwinkel, Marilyn Crispell, and Jim Black. Still, the programming focus remains on supporting Cologne's own musicians.

Since 2009 the LOFT has received the NRW venue programming award every year, an honor that specifically recognizes work with emerging regional artists. In 2016 the British Guardian named it one of the ten best jazz clubs in Europe, and at the German Jazz Prize it was voted "Club/Venue of the Year" in 2021 and again in 2023 — a category decided not by the expert jury but directly by the more than 1,300 members of the German Jazz Union.

more info

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