Deeper Green by Christof May

Christof May

Deeper Green

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Records
UPC: 0608917341027
Catnr: CR 73410
Release date: 09 October 2015
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Label
Challenge Records

UPC
0608917341027

Catalogue number
CR 73410

Release date
09 October 2015

"["]..The various wind instruments, played by May, taking the listener on an enlightened and almost esoteric music journey.""

Music Emotion, 01-12-2015

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

This recording mainly consists of free improvisations by the instrumentalists which were later merged into one big suite of about one hour of music. The only written musical component is the theme of lonely woman by Ornette Coleman. Later on, poems by Emily Brontë, recited by singer Susanne Abbuehl have been recorded an merged into the suite.

After his first album “Maygus” which appeared as Vol. 20 of the german Jazzthing Next Generation series, which contained quite some free improvisation, Christof May decided to go deeper into this approach of creating music and spend more time recording extemporized material in a studio situation under perfect working conditions.

For this project, May invited his proven sidemen Florian Zenker, Bob Wijnen and Eric Hoeke together with new bass player Jens Loh and Norwegian trumpet legend Nils Petter Molvær to the Wisseloord studios in Hilversum/ The Netherlands. Seven hours of spontaneously emerged music were recorded along with some written music. Big credits go to drummer/sound wizard Eric Hoeke for his ever surprising loops.

Inspired by the concept of “spoken word” as the next step, Susanne Abbuehl selected and recorded some poems by Emily Brontë that fitted the overall intense atmosphere of the music.

In a long and diligent editing process, May, together with co-producer Florian Zenker composed the suite as it is. The mix was performed by Jan Eric Kongshaug, founder of the well known Rainbow Studio in Oslo and co-creator of the legendary ECM-sound.

The result is this unique publication, “Deeper Green”, combining the ad lib soundtrack of an extraordinary studio gathering and the beautiful language of Emily Brontë with the creative act of forming a one hour journey through very different musical spheres in an outstanding sound quality and design.

Freie Improvisation vs. formale Struktur. Geht das? Christof May tritt auf seinem neuen Album Deeper Green den Beweis an: Aus Improvisationen der Instrumentalisten entstand eine große Suite von circa einer Stunde Dauer. Einzig ausnotiertes Element war dabei das Thema aus Lonely Woman von Ornette Coleman. May komponierte dabei aus den Aufnahmen einer Studiosession in Hilversum mit Florian Zenker, Bob Wijnen, Eric Hoeke, Jens Loh und Nils Petter Molvaer in der Produktion die Suite gemeinsam mit dem Co-Produzenten Florian Zenker. Im weiteren Prozess fügte Susanne Abbuehl rezitierte Texte basierend auf Gedichten von Emily Brontë hinzu, die die verschiedenen musikalischen Sphären perfekt unterstreichen.

Artist(s)

Christof May (born 6 April 1970 in Radolfzell, Baden-Württemberg) is a German jazz musician who performs on the clarinet and saxophone.

May studied jazz saxophone with John Ruocco at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague from 1992-1998 and classical clarinet with Ab Vos from 1998-2002. He earned a Master’s Degree in Music there.

From 1995 on, he worked as a sideman with Susanne Abbuehl, Michel Portal, David Liebman, Claudio Puntin, Samuel Rohrer, Florian Zenker, Amina Figarova, Erik Ineke and Trygve Seim. With Abbuehl, May can be heard on the ECM-records productions April and Compass. He toured through Europe, Africa und North America, playing a.o. in Cape Town, Maputo, Montreal, Portland, Oregon, Oslo, Paris, Rome and other European cities. With the Dutch radio orchestra Metropole Orkest, he worked a.o. with Kenny Werner and Bob Malach and recorded CDs with drummer Terry Bozzio, amongst others. In the classical field, he worked with the symphony orchestras of Krefeld-Mönchengladbach, Aachen and Duisburg in Germany.

His debut Maygus was inspired by the music of Miles Davis from the 1970s. The name of the project refers to the 1974 released record Dark Magus.[1] The band’s first CD was released in November 2007 as Vol. 20 of the series “Jazzthing Next Generation”, in a cooperation of German magazine Jazzthing and the jazz label, Double Moon.

Composer(s)

Christof May

Press

["]..The various wind instruments, played by May, taking the listener on an enlightened and almost esoteric music journey."
Music Emotion, 01-12-2015

"...Christof May invited Nils Petter Molvaer on the trumpet for his newest album. This move abolutely crowns the repertoire."
Concerto, 01-12-2015

"You want to deliver yourself up to this album again and again, without ever being able to see through its last secret."
Jazzthetik, 01-11-2015

"The legendary sound engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug is responsible for the fabulously good sound"
Jazzthing, 01-11-2015