Hazel Leach & The Composers' Orchestra Berlin - Postcard Collection (2018)

The Composers' Orchestra Berlin is an ensemble in which all musicians are not only improvising instrumentalists, but also the composers. Each piece tells a story, delivers a surprise and creates a space in which a huge variety of styles – classical European music, improvised music and jazz, world music, pop or Neue Musik – can be combined and united. There is no fixed line-up: the composers can select from the orchestra’s pool of players. The result is a creative platform for compositional experiments, opening up opportunities to develop a brand-new and innovative orchestral repertoire.

For her COB project "Postcard Collection" conductor Hazel Leach has explored the rhythms of the waltz, resulting in a huge collection of musical ideas from very different corners of the world – all based on the variations of the scheme of triple time. The release includes seven of these `postcards` inspired by music from Venezuela, Peru, Argentinia, Greece, Great Britain and Germany – all individually arranged and orchestrated for the COB's members.

"I quite enjoyed listening to this music even before I realized it is not primarily jazz. Just music, good music."
(Cadence Jazz Magazine, 2018 Annual Print Edition)