photos Cristina Marx

Solo

Matthias Müller – trombone

In his book Into the Maelstrom David Toop claims that there is no solo. „Every sound meets the flaring acoustic space, encounters its own shadow in the higher-pitched resonation of electronic feedback, communes with ensembles of the multiple self, doubles back into its own maker even in the moment of its emergence, cries out to the listener who is performer and the hypothetical listener, the invisible ear which will at some point absorb and decipher the mystery, the arresting physicality, of these concise but strange communications.“
In spite of Toop’s statement, Matthias Müller calls Solo Trombone his first official solo album. Like many solo albums Müller’s performance is an oscillation between his band efforts (e.g. with Foils Quartet) and the evolution of his very own introspective vocabulary. Here he crosses different borders than with his groups and tries to map territories he hasn’t been before in these environments. Particularly with his use of extended playing techniques he has developed a spare yet eloquent language.
Müller transforms the fragility and vulnerability of the solo situation into excitement. […] Müller is in a permanent dialogue with his instrument, he absorbs the atmosphere and vice versa, he listens and responds.
Is this a solo album? Who cares if the music is that good. (Martin Schray, freejazzblog, May 24, 2017)