4tet-Different Song: step into the future

Musicians:

Yang Jing: Pipa/Guqin
Michel Wintsch: Piano
Baenz Oester: Bass
Norbert Pfammatter: Drums/Percussion

One of the more arresting qualities of current improvised music is the speed with which musicians accept and interact with new materials, the possibilities for exchange and growth in direct relationship to the skills and openness of the musicians. The music of Different Song is a fine example of those possibilities, a coming together of musicians of different cultures resulting in work that is genuinely new, at once a wedding of distinct cultures and the individual talents of its members. Yang Jing is a traditionally trained virtuoso of two ancient Chinese instruments: the pipa, a fretted plectrum instrument related to the lute, is associated with flights of great technical bravado; the more contemplative guqin, an ancient 7-string relative of the zither that is associated with the philosophers Confucius and Laozi and the poet Tao Yuanming. In Different Song, Yang shares her musical vision with three distinguished members of the Swiss jazz and free improvisation communities: pianist Michel Wintsch, bassist Bänz Oester and drummer Norbert Pfammatter.

Recorded at studio "le silo", Renens, Switzerland
Recording engineer: Antoine Petroff
Edited & Mixed by Michel Wintsch
Mastering: Christian Guggenbühl
Cover design: Gerhard Faerber
Liner Notes: Stuart Broomer
Booklet design: Leo Recordings

Published 2012 by:

Leo Records, UK

Song titles:

Supported by: SüdKulturFunds, Asiamusic.ch