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Andrew Baker
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Andrew Baker I think this group touches on everything I really enjoy; the spacious, the spiraling walls of sound and melody, the sporadic. The energy is just right there unfolding in a linear fashion.
Harnik fits right in with these chicago musicians.
Many different formations of duos and trios throughout these pieces. The quartet really brings it all to ecstatic places.
I'm really grateful for this music.
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1.
OHRENKRATZER 20:33
2.
MIMIKAKI 16:23
3.

about

Better late than never!

This newfound quartet was conceived in 2019, as a way to celebrate Austrian pianist Elisabeth Harnik’s 50th birthday in 2020. For the occasion, Harnik called on several longtime collaborators from Chicago with whom she’d connected at the Umbrella Music Festival back in 2008, on her first visit to the city. Since that time, she’s continued to stoke the fires she started there, not only in various collaborations with these three musicians, but also with Chicago legends like Ken Vandermark, Michael Zerang, and Renee Baker. And this new configuration – Earscratcher – was fully primed to celebrate her milestone with a May 2020 European tour.

For obvious reasons, that May tour was postponed until October 2020. Then May 2021. That didn’t quite work out either. Finally, in May of 2022, the coast was clear. Fourth time’s a charm? As you can tell from this recording, made on the first concert of that tour, the band was ready to break the reins by then.

Individually, Harnik’s astounding ability to draw unimaginable sounds from her instrument pairs well with the limitless sound generator into which alchemist Lonberg-Holm consistently transforms his cello. Daisy is the rare percussionist who can pivot logically from momentum and drive to texture
and touch, giving the band a similarly panoramic vista from which to explore. With that pastoral breadth in mind, Rempis decided to challenge himself by limiting his arsenal for this tour to his first horn – alto. Because of that, you might hear the obvious connection between this band and the
small groups led by Cecil Taylor in the 60’s and 70’s featuring Jimmy Lyons, whose fleet and angular lines are undoubtedly a touchstone for Rempis.

When these four combine as Earscratcher, we sometimes end up with swirling spirals of sound that twist up ribbons of tension into a cyclone, and sometimes find ourselves in the eye of that storm, swaddled in a wash of patient and centered calm. Two poles that in this context have an endless set of routes in between, conjured up during an outing that was definitely worth the wait.

credits

released January 17, 2023

Dave Rempis – alto saxophone
Elisabeth Harnik - piano
Fred Lonberg-Holm – cello/electronics
Tim Daisy - drums

Recorded May 7th, 2022 at Alte Gerberei,
St. Johan in Tirol, Austria
Recorded by Markus Massinger
Mixed by Fred Lonberg-Holm
Mastered by Dave Zuchowski
Artwork and cover design by Lasse Marhaug
Produced by Dave Rempis

Special thanks to Hans Oberlechner and Karin
Girkinger

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Dave Rempis / Aerophonic Records Chicago, Illinois

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