Electric Trio:
Will anyone shout "Judas!" when listening to the new Kimmig-Studer-Zimmerlin Electric Trio, like the spectator heard on The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert, the double live album of Bob Dylan's controversial performance in Manchester in May 1966? Interrupted during the resolutely electric second half of the concert, the singer's reaction was unequivocal: "Play It Fuckin' Loud!" he shouted to the accompanying musicians from The Hawks.
Today, in a different context, the KSZ trio takes up the electrification challenge. Their latest CD, Black Forest Diary, sounds like a true statement of artistic independence. Admired for the singularity of their acoustic approach to sound, the trio unveils here a gestural and instrumental space that makes use of amplification, but is above all totally electrified. Transducers and effects pedals progressively unfold a multi-dimensional space, a 360-degree music, where our perception is constantly called into question: we are sometimes in front of the sound, sometimes above it, sometimes below it, sometimes in total immersion. The intimate and the faraway coexist, the urban superimposed on vast wilderness, the history of sound and its geography infinitely diffracted. With a rare common spirit, the musicians of the Kimmig-Studer-Zimmerlin Electric Trio
Jacques Demierre, liner notes "Black Forest Diary"
Further outstanding communication came from violinist Harald Kimmig, bassist Daniel Studer, cellist Alfred zimmerlin and pianist Philip zoubek, who over two long takes fleshed out a fascinating hour of free improvisation. Shifting between contemporary classical music (at times veering into darker, George Crumb-like territories) and jazz (as when Studer rubbed a drum brush across his instrument), every extended technique felt natural and inevitable and proved the humility of a quartet willing to be nothing more than the sum of its parts.
Klaeng Festival Köln, Tyran Grillo, The New York City Jazz Record, 1. 2019
The skill and subtlety displayed in this concert was, frankly, amazing, with a recurring sense of “how did we get here?” due to the incredibly organic way they gently massaged and manoeuvred musical sounds and materials. Anyone with doubts concerning the veracity of improvisation in comparison to pre-composed music would have had them instantly dispelled. It was a real privilege to see the musicians in such complete control of their instruments, displaying utmost technical and compositional maturity yet with an omnipresent sense of play.
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Simon Cummings,2016
Trio KSZ feat. John Butcher, das in seiner kräftigen Kammermusik mit enormer Drive und einem kongenialen Zusammenwirken von Streichern & Saxofon für viele zum Höhepunkt der Konfrontationen 2015 avanciert.
Freistil 62, 2015
Harald Kimmig, violin
Harald Kimmig is improvising musician and performance artist. In his work he explores sounds and musical and other artistic forms by means of improvisation and their connections with other arts. In addition to cooperation with the trio Kimmig Studer Zimmerlin he gives concerts in various formations. With his ,Human Factory' he realizes performances as a soloist as well as in collaboration with writers, visual artists and dancers. Guests were a.o. the writer Annette Pehnt, the visual artist Axel Malik and the dancers Lilo Stahl, Hideto Heshiki, Michael Schumacher u.v.a.m. In December 2016, his new production ,Interface' will have its premiere. On behalf of the ‚Netzwerk Neue Musik Baden-Württemberg’ Harald Kimmig is Composer in Residence of the city Villingen-Schwenningen in 2016. He teaches improvisation at the Musikhochschule Trossingen ', the TIP (Schule für Tanz, Improvisation und Performance), Freiburg and is a regular guest teacher at the Music Academies of Basel and Bern a.o.
Daniel Studer, bass
Master of arts in Music Pedagogy, guest composer at the Elektronisches Studio in Basel, composition with Johannes Schöllhorn.
His focus lies on improvisation and mixed forms of improvisation and composition. He participated in various projects involving space – and projects with live electronics; further fields of interest are music and language, music and dance. The constant exploration of his instrument has led to performances as a soloist, too.
He has been teaching improvisation since 1993 at different music schools so at the Bern University of the Arts.
2011 award from the city of Zurich (Werkjahr der Stadt Zürich).
Alfred Zimmerlin , violoncello
was born 1955 and studied musicology and ethnomusicology at Zurich University, music theory, and composition (Hans Wüthrich and Hans Ulrich Lehmann). His ample oeuvre as a composer comprises pieces for piano, chamber music, vocal music, orchestral music, electronic music, music theatre, and works for radio and film. As an improvising cellist, Zimmerlin has taken part in various formations in Europe and the US, so he is an active member of KARL ein KARL, improvising and composing in cooperation with Peter K Frey and Michel Seigner, of Kimmig-Studer-Zimmerlin and of various other "working bands" of free improvised music. Alfred Zimmerlin’s work as improvising musician and composer are available on numerous recordings. His artistic activities have been awarded with several prizes. He also is professor for free improvisation at the University of Music – FHNW Basel/Switzerland.
