Enjuti - Schönheit durch Zerbrechlichkeit (2016) [Hi-Res]

To get right to the point: Enjuti combine rock emphasis and jazz ideas with current electronic sounds. To further understand the individual charisma of the quartet, it takes a few more words. Almost catchy melodies meet surprising harmonic changes and roving passages. Straight grasping beats disintegrate into broken rhythms or intermit completely for a while. Abstract sounds spurt out from effect and looper pedals or are formed by manipulations inside the piano. Meandering motifs, clear riffs and complex structures meet, merge together and unleash tremendous bursts of energy. The love of freedom of the four musicians manifests itself in a constant tension between cleverly worked out compositions and pointed improvisation, whereby the latter generally refrains from traditional solos and seldom drifts off into complete dissonance. When playing live, also the originally quite compact pieces can stretch to unforeseeable trips with hypnotic intensity. Enjuti’s dramatic composition is as unconventional as fascinating: fine, barely audible single notes gradually grow into powerful, at times drone-like monolithic walls of sound, which eventually dissolve time and space and transfer the fascinated audience into other spheres.

Who would have thought that an encounter at the Landesjugendjazzorchester Hessen [State Youth Jazz Orchestra of Hesse] could lead to such an individual, progressive quartet? During a tour through China with this big band in 2010, the four instrumentalists got to know each other more intensively. A little later they founded Enjuti in Cologne. They perceived their partly quite differing personal backgrounds and musical inclinations as a perfect basis. They had and still have the conviction in common, that music should be more than nice acoustic wallpaper. Enjuti arouse emotions, can provoke and polarize and challenge the zeitgeist.

Andreas Völk was born 1989 and as the main composer of the pieces he is at least formally somewhat of a primus inter pares of the cloverleaf. He is originally from the Hessian city Marburg and at the age of 10 he began learning guitar. After finishing high school he studied at the college in Osnabruck, among others with Frank Wingold. A workshop there led to the first encounter with pianist Laurenz Gemmer, who for his part studied with Hubert Nuss and completed his master’s degree with Florian Weber. Gemmer’s performance impressed him deeply, Andreas Völk remembers, “especially when he beat on the body of the piano and listened carefully to the emerging sounds.” The next “sign” for collaboration was that Gemmer unexpectedly came along as a sub on the aforesaid China-tour of the big band.

According to Völk, the connection of the two musicians, with an age difference of 9 years between them, stems from their wide-ranging taste in music and a fondness for spontaneity. As a guitarist he is most notably influenced by progressive rock and crossover, Völk says, and names bands like Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against The Machine. At the same time he developed a predilection early on, for playing existing compositions against the grain, for improvising and rearranging. Of course he masters common jazz phrasing; variable tonal colors definitely suit him more though, than fret board frenzy. Music has always been a substantial form of expression and communication for Andreas Völk; even his bachelor thesis revolved around the phenomenon, how waves of sound can trigger emotions. In Laurenz Gemmer he especially values his broad horizon, which reaches from classical to modern music, including contemporary improvised music and interdisciplinary forms like Dance Theater. Gemmer’s creative will also fascinates the listeners, particularly in Enjuti’s magical concerts with their spectacularly wide arcs of suspense.

Andreas Völk, guitar & effects
Laurenz Gemmer, piano
Kenn Hartwig, double bass & effects
Thomas Sauerborn, drums & things

Tracklist:
01. Enjuti - Die Grenze des Falls (9:46)
02. Enjuti - Alabyss Iri (9:55)
03. Enjuti - Hate (14:03)
04. Enjuti - Dalein (11:09)
05. Enjuti - Juniti (7:18)
06. Enjuti - Mila (5:49)