Kaja Draksler - In Otherness Oneself (2022)

Kaja Draksler states that “as a person who speaks and understands different languages, I have an impression that my identity is multifaceted, I have to lose something in myself in order to let the “spirit” of a new language inside me. So in this way I am constantly becoming in otherness myself.”

In building this album pianist and composer Kaja Draksler worked on developing specific musical languages for each piece. She attempted to restrict herself to maintaining each language although as she points out “leakages” did take place, and the pieces somehow ended up influencing each other, as spoken languages do. Kaja refers to voodoo as an inspiration. Her intention is to take possession of the rhythm, pulse and melody and at the same time to allow the music to take possession of her. In that way she is influencing the context but also she lets the context have an influence on her. She is one of those musicians who are able to work out the paradox of combining composition and open improvisation sometimes within the same piece. Aware as she is that both structure and freedom can be as much a burden as an asset, she uses those parameters with brillance.

The title of the album comes from a line in the poem Aquoueh R-Oyo. by
Cecil Taylor, and Kaja’s objectives for this body of work resonates further with the poem: “to relate instantly, and build concomitant,” “to capture dark instinct,” or, “to play what one hears.” Draksler referencing the Afro American heritage as a European artist educated in the tradition of experimental Jazz is testimony to the complexity of her ‘languages’ and her awareness of her position in that cultural lineage. In 'In Otherness Oneself' Kaja Draksler creates languages and lets her identities speak.