András Dés Quartet - Unimportant Things (2024)

The percussionist András Dés, who has been living in Vienna for five years, has formed a quartet with two Austrian musicians, Martin Eberle and Philipp Nykrin, and his old bandmate Márton Fenyvesi, who is now also based in Vienna, to capture the essence of European jazz: diversity, openness and the power of listening to each other.
Unimportant Things concludes a trilogy of albums that András Dés has recorded in various line-ups for BMC Records. The common feature of the three albums, which are based on very different concepts and moods, is that they all contain a good dose of spontaneity, in that rather than inserting improvisational sections into his compositions, the bandleader has linked them together with transitions. The eight compositions on the new album are thus transformed into a single musical flow, which had to be divided into tracks by artificial boundaries after recording.
Martin Eberle and Philipp Nykrin are established members of the Austrian jazz scene (though several threads link them to BMC), and while the trumpeter pushes his instrument to the limits with rhythmic precision, wild gesticulation, or timbres that imitate human speech, the pianist's playing is also extremely broad, whether in terms of the softness and hardness of tone or the transparency and density of the accompaniment. Márton Fenyvesi shows how at home he is in the world of traditional jazz and rock guitar playing and further captivates with his unique electronic timbres.