Arbenz X Postma / Jerjen / Barradas | Conversation #5: Elemental | April 29th, 2022

Release: April 29th 2022

For the fifth installment of his ambition Conversations project, award-winning Swiss drummer Florian Arbenzpresents the album Elemental (29th April) with Dutch saxophonist Tineke Postma, Portuguese Accordion virtuoso Joāo Barradas  and Swiss-Australian Rafael Jerjen on bass. 

Arbenz’s choices for Conversation #5 were selected for their unmistakably unique voices on their respective instruments. Arbenz himself says, “it doesn’t happen so often that I immediately get captured by a musician by just hearing him/her on a record. And I think this is a big link for me to Tineke, Joāo and Rafael.”

An improvised exploration of the realm between jazz and classical chamber music, the ensemble’s sophisticatedand open-minded sound is equally comfortable in either world. Strikingly vast in texture and feeling, the ensemble shifts rapidly between tight, syncopated grooves, flurries of virtuosic saxophone playing, passages melancholic openness, and powerfully dense accordion harmonies

With a slew of awards and world-class collaborationsunder their belts, the ensemble’s collective international reputation cannot be understated. 

From Postma’s appearances on two Grammy winning albums and Downbeat Magazine’s Rising Star for soprano saxophone award, Barradas winning the World Accordion Trophy (twice!), Jerjen’s National Emerging Jazz Composers Prize and Arbenz’s European Award for Culture, each member of the quartet is a powerhouse in their own right.

Line up

Florian Arbenz | drums, compositions
Joāo Barradas | accordion
Tineke Postma | saxophone
Rafael Jerjen | bass

Track Listing

Sin Tar-Danza
Small Talk
Reverie
Waking with a Start
Luna Volver
Shooting the Breeze
The Passage of Light
Prélude
Freedom Jazz Fugue

Cuttings