INTAKT
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ELLIOTT SHARP - MELVIN GIBBS - LUCAS NIGGLI
CROSSING THE WATERS
New Yorks Downtown-ästhetik wäre das Letzte, was ich mit LUCAS NIGGLI in
Dietrich Wappler, Die Rheinpfalz, 4. Mai 2013, Deutschland
Frank von Niederhäusern, Kulturtipp Nr. 10 / 2013, Schweiz
In diesem amerikanisch-schweizerischen Hochdruck-Trio vereinen sich das extravagante Blues-Feeling des Gitarristen Elliott Sharp mit den zündenden Funk-Ideen des Bassisten Melvin Gibbs und dem mitreißenden Drive des Drummers Lucas Niggli zu einer frisch improvisierten brodelnden Mischung.
Stefan Künzli, BZ Basel, 14.5.2013, Schweiz
Da det sveitsiske selskapet Intakt Records skulle vise seg fram på John Zorns klubb The Stone i New York i mars i fjor, var mye av poenget at sveitsiske band skulle få nyte det store jazzramplyset eller at de skulle få spille med amerikanske kolleger de kjente fra før. Trommeslageren Lucas Niggli ønska ei anne utfordring: Han ville gå på scena med to musikanter han hadde møtt tidligere, men ikke spilt med.
Michael Schaust, Jazzpodium, Juni 2013
Der Gitarrenwürger, Experimentalist, Grenzgänger und unbeirrbare Avantgardist Elliott Sharp hat sich für diese Aufnahmesitzung in Brooklyn Melvin Gibbs, den feinen Lyriker an der Bassgitarre, und Lucas Niggli, den Gottseibeiuns des modernen Schlagzeugs, eingeladen. Das Trio spielt hier das erste Mal in dieser Besetzung zusammen. Vielleicht ist auch deshalb die Neugier aufeinander so groß, sind die Ohren füreinander so offen. In dieser Konstellation dieser tollen Musiker kann man dann eh alles spielen, was der Gitarrengott eben so erlaubt und man sich selbst dazu noch gestattet. Brachialer Noise und fein strukturiertes Zusammenspiel, Wutattacken und sensible Interaktionen sind möglich und werden mit spielerischer Leichtigkeit, völlig unverkrampft und unprätentiös, in Szene gesetzt. Und, das darf man bei aller Beschreibungslust nicht vergessen, Sharp speist sein meisterliches Spiel mit dem Wissen und der Aneignung aller Spieltechniken (von Jimi Hendrix bis Sonny Sharrock), die ihm interessant erscheinen, und mixt daraus dann sein unvergleichliches Extrakt aus bohrenden Einzeltonsplittern und multitonalen Akkordgewittern. Vom Stück Flow Fever kann man sich jederzeit, ohne Arzt oder Apotheker bemüht zu haben, die Ohren reinigen lassen. Play it loud and enjoy it! Großartig.
Drawing on another tradition where jazz meets
Pachi Tapiz, Ruta 66 magazine, # 306, Spain
Kurt Gottschalk, The New York City Jazz Records, July 2013
Pirmin Bossart, Jazz'n'More, Schweiz, Juli-Aug 2013
David Cristol, Jazzmagazine, Juillet 2013
Wolf Kampmann, Jazzthetik,Juli-August 2013
The performer roster of Switzerland's progressive record label Intakt Records was showcased in 2012 at John Zorn's New York City venue, The Stone. Venerable Swiss drummer and longtime Intakt recording artist Lucas Niggli teamed with New York City-based guitarist Elliott Sharp and bassist Melvin Gibbs for a maiden trio concert, wasting no time at all capturing their synergistic output by cutting this album the following day. The results are gratifying, as the multifaceted drummer— known for pushing the envelope—attains equal ground with Sharp and Gibbs, known for honing their respective roots in Manhattan's renegade downtown scene and elsewhere. This trio takes care of business without dickering around, teeming with the musicians' aggressive interactions and swirling mobility. Sharp's distortion-laced sound platforms his complex chop-chords, speedy single note licks and sizzling harmonics. With Gibbs' deep bass and Niggli's rolling and tumbling polyrhythmic exercises, they discombobulate most semblances of conventional jazz-rock stylizations and slam the engine into overdrive amid a few restrained undertakings. "Flow Fever" begins as a fragmented and introspective workout assembled on loosely aligned, avant sub-themes. Moving forward, the band jazzes it up via a free-form blowout, where Sharp's maniacal extrapolations profess angst and yearning atop Niggli's punishing rolls, while Gibbs lays out a pliant bottom. But they diminish the intensity framed by Sharp's tinkling notes and programmatic rhythmical maneuvers due to his closed-handed chord progressions. Here, the trio fulfils its mission by exploring an extensive spectrum of possibilities and counter- arguments, functioning as a common denominator throughout this colossally mesmeric program.
Bjarne Soltoft, Jazznytt, Oslo, No, 4-2013
On retrouve justement Lucas Niggli avec le guitariste américain Elliott Sharp qui, depuis 35 ans à New York, se fait entendre — bruyamment ! — dans des univers expérimentaux, free, rock indépendant, noise, etc. Intéressé autant par les musiques électroniques que par le blues, il compose aussi pour des ensembles classiques et des quatuors à cordes. Ici, avec l'aide d'une rythmique puissante et lourde, il joue avec un son et un phrasé très rock assez post-hendrixien. Une musique assourdissante, mais forte et intense qui nous submerge.
There is no hideaway from the surges generated by this trio. Recorded in 2012 — immediately following their very first meeting at The Stone during a two-week Intakt festival — Crossing The Waters offers exactly what one demands and not a milligram more, an uncommon case of positive foregone conclusion. The music's supercharged matter produced the meltdown of Melvin Gibbs' amplifier after a few minutes of the concert; in this studio set, the smoke can still be inhaled. I might be afflicted by the just-received dreadful news about Ronald Shannon Jackson's passing, but in several occasions the semiliterate mind of this observer (and erstwhile drumming wannabe) was inclined to match Lucas Niggli's percussive projections with the late master's radical burnouts in the Last Exit heyday. Those big-boned figurations on the tom-toms' skins and that snapping snare are indeed among the most exalting properties of this stout congregation, oftentimes propelling the transonic mechanism towards the higher levels of lucid hostility. Amidst the thick roar-and-rumble of Gibbs' fibrous bass and the minatory missives forwarded by Elliott Sharp's nihilist fingerings (his harmonized and pitch-shifted axe occasionally impersonating a deranged mellotron), components directly linkable with galvanic varieties of punk-jazz and ultramodern blues do appear, typically masked as "intelligently convulsive" brandless clusters. Not that we are complaining. These gentlemen are unquestionably willing to gamble with acerbic clangor but the fundaments of their skill are solidified as enormous rock formations, with nary a moment of unkemptness. The timbral fullness of the whole is something to rely upon for extended stretches of mental body-building. A record driven by intellectual vigor that nonetheless sounds like a group of angered prisoners uttering obscenities from the insides of a tiny cellar. We could mention favored tracks such as "Kayak", whose grade of threat is almost unendurable. Even so, the point I'm ultimately making is as unglamorous as any simpleton's assumption: volume way up, if you enjoy being punched in the breadbasket.
Mark Keresman, Icon, Chicago, February 2015
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