home catalog news contact otwo Live in Hamburg
Personnel
Dietrich Eichmann - piano
Jeff Arnal - percussion
LP edition of 200 - released in April 2007
Broken Research - BR 017 LP
Recorded November 17, 2004 - Christianskirche Hamburg, Germany* sold out
Selected Press
"Jeff Arnal & Dietrich Eichmann’s Live in Hamburg is a great duo performance for Brooklyn percussionist Arnal (maybe best known for work with Charles Gayle) and pianist Eichmann (a von Schlippenbach student who reportedly focused more on composition until recently). The session is super-active and outward reaching without ever slowing down very much. Very righteous playing, and these guys communicate at a pretty high level." BULL TONGUE By Byron Coley and Thurston Moore
"Violent uses of architectural space and the dream time acoustic – industrial sound from the duo of Berlin-based composer/pianist Eichmann and fantastically inventive and robust Brooklyn drummer Arnal. Sound as lassoed, tied and corralled by two absolutely precise musicians using a beautifully mechanistic pattern of improvisation. Mechanistic as complimentary and logical - eschewing the randomness typically associated with improvisation." brokenresearch
"The object of this review is a 35-minute LP released in 2007 in a limited edition of 200 copies. It comes from a concert held by Eichmann (piano) and Arnal (percussion) in November 2004 at Hamburg's Christianskirche, in the occasion of the Phenomorphonic Festival. The contents were totally improvised, even if they do possess all the qualities of a series of compositions, or maybe a single one divided in several movements. Scrutinizing the whole I couldn't manage to find a moment of "violence" throughout the performance; everything remains dynamically confined in areas where obscurity and ebullience seem to be the keyword for the musicians' approach to the context. Ever since the beginning, Eichmann stays for long spots in the lower region of the piano keyboard, basically offering a percussive contribution to the percussionist himself. The personalities - with their reciprocal relationships - start to come out more clearly as the time flows, when the two different instrumental voices begin showing unique characteristics in slightly changing settings. The rare solo spots don't modify the general sense of restraint that the music offers, and which is the reason at the basis of the good results obtained by the pair. Improvisational segments that sound quite introvert, circumspect in a way, certainly well planned, as absurd as this concept might appear. A release that, for want of a better description, "swims underwater" to gain our approval, successfully." Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes
Artist Bios
DIETRICH EICHMANN is one of the most versatile personalities in contemporary avant-garde music. His compositions have been performed on international festivals by renowned ensembles, as a pi- anist and improviser he is actively involved in many international collaborations, and he has been organizing the oaksmus studio concert series in Berlin and the attached CD label for several years. His roots in jazz and improvised music combined with his radical aesthetic approach to musical composition result in the unmistakable language of an unusual spirit. His major ensemble works of the last years bear witness, at last his concerto for Peter Brötzmann and the Ensemble Modern "Prayer to the Unknown Gods of the People Without Rights". But also his work as an improvising pianist and ensemble leader are increasingly taken note of, which is documented in several releases on Leo Records and brokenresearch – besides releases of his compositions on Wergo and oaksmus.
“Percussionist JEFF ARNAL’s balletic sense of time and imaginative deployment of colour have combined into a highly original concept." (The Wire) Arnal performs and collaborates with a wide range of musicians and choreographers in the U.S. and Europe. Recent performances include: Ausland (Berlin), deSingel (Antwerp), German Nordwestradio (Bremen), Hallwalls (Buffalo NY), Music at the Anthology (NYC) & Music Gallery (Toronto). He has received grants and fellowships from ASCAP, Brooklyn Arts Council, Meet the Composer and Art Omi International. His music can be heard on a number of independent record labels, including Transit (Clean Feed 2009 & 2005), Dog Day with Aaron Dugan (C3R 2007), Rogue States with Gordon Beeferman (Generate 2006), MEJA with Michael Evans (C3R 2006) and with Dietrich Eichmann (Broken Research 2007 & Leo 2004). Arnal holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies: Music Composition and Filmmaking from the University of Maryland and an MFA in Music from Bennington College.
Links
The Temperature Dropped Again: Eichmann & Arnal 2004 CD
www.dietrich-eichmann.de
www.generaterecords.net/JeffArnal.htmPhoto: DE / JA at Berlin Exploratorium 2009
