Sometimes in music, things that belong together take time to find each other and grow. “For years, I’ve admired the work of the ARTE Quartett, and always thought how perfectly this ensemble would suit my compositions,” says Andreas Schaerer. Andrea Formenti of the ARTE Quartett adds, “We always had the idea in mind to create a program with a singer.” In 2011 Schaerer and ARTE performed for the first time at the Alpentöne Festival in Altdorf, Switzerland, playing a piece composed by Kaspar Ewald.

Andreas took this opportunity to suggest to the ARTE guys, a collaboration. Picking up the offer, they commissioned Andreas to write a composition and ‚Perpetual Delirium’ was born. It’s a work that is a harmonic, complimentary and inspiring musical fusion of the sound of the ARTE Quartett and Andreas Schaerer’s voice. Since their inception in 1995, Beat Hofstetter, Sascha Armbruster, Andrea Formenti and Beat Kappeler have reached a unique position with the ARTE Quartett travelling between the worlds of contemporary classical music, free improvisation and jazz. The four have kept fathoming stylistic borderlands and worked closely with a rich mix of composing performers such as Urs Leimgruber, Terry Riley, Michael Riessler, Lucas Niggli, Tim Berne, Fred Frith and Pierre Favre.

Now Andreas Schaerer, the 37 year old singer, composer, bandleader and co-founder of the Berner Jazzwerkstatt follows this impressive line of musicians. Using the term ‚singer’ in Andreas’ case is an understatement. Really he is a vocal acrobat who enriches the international jazz scene with his daring feats. Coloraturas, crooner singing, wild scats, rap, and colourful sound painting - there is nothing he won’t try to master or include in his repertoire.

He retains this versatility in his duo with the drummer, Lucas Niggli, and in a trio with guitarist, Peter Rom and trumpet player, Martin Eberle. Here he unfolds his experimental approach to improvisation, whereas he exposes the humorous side of his artistry with his internationally high-flying sextet, Hildegard Lernt Fliegen, who recently won the BMW World Jazz Award.

In the project, ‚Perpetual Delirium’, Andreas focuses his attention on ‚classical’ composition and sound, as well as, issues around intonation. For almost a year, he studied the characteristics of the individual playing style of the four musicians and their saxophones. As a result he managed to integrate the wide range of his inimitable vocalising with the equally colourful spectrum of the saxophones.

Andreas refers to and engages with music history in order to model a new cosmos of sound. Gregorian chant, ‚free-tonal’ passages, phrases remembering György Ligeti or serial patterns, Baroque counterpoint and interlaced fugue themes, dramatic opera gestures (“Artediem”), melodies from the Romantic era, bluesy scat singing, soul riffs, free improvisations and Alpine sounds with Caribbean rhythms (“UGG”). In “Zirzensisches Mittelstueck” Schaerer’s full vocal orchestra opposes the cutting riffs made by the rest of the band whereas he hovers in the background, behind Far Eastern arabesques in “Sampfampfe”. Despite the many influences the ship stays on course, led by rhythmic and dynamic structures. Various surprises are there to shape a new story.

Not to be underestimated is the contribution made by the groove- and improvisation-experienced bass player, Wolfgang Zwiauer. He adds a vibrancy that enriches Schaerer’s compositions with rhythmic and harmonic variations. Notably the bass and vocal beatbox merge to create a rhythm section of another kind with Zwiauer’s powerful chord play and sparkling solos played on his five-string French bass guitar with the extended upper range.

“If we ask musicians from outside to play along with us, it is because we are looking for new impulses, stylistically, but also in many other ways. It always helps to loosen up and re-invent what we consider a hermetic quartet world”, says Beat Hofstetter with Beat Kappeler adding, “Andreas has excelled our high expectations.” Maybe in this sense this lucky alliance really will become a “Perpetual Delirium”.

Oliver Hochkeppel, Munich, July 2014
Translated by Beat Hofstetter & Debra Richards

andreasschaerer.com

arte-quartett.com