Author: thomas lüscher

“If my grandmother had wheels, she would have been a bike.”

I put my wheels back on, got my fingers lubricated and the coffee machine pre-heated to 93° Celsius.

Nachdem am 14. März eigentlich das zweite Konzert mit dem neuen Album von LarkinLüscher hätte stattfinden sollen, ein Jahr nach der CD-Taufe im Februar 2020, musste auch dieses leider abgesagt werden. Als wir den Titel für das Album wählten, wussten wir noch nicht, dass er bestens das momentane Weltgefühl beschreiben würde: Never stops at all. Vielleicht mit Fragezeichen?

Die vertonten Texte mögen viel zu bewirken, gerade der Song “Hope is the thing with feathers” von Emily Dickinson:

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Wenn ihr schon nicht an unsere Konzerte kommen könnt, so kommen wir zu euch nach Hause. Flachgepresst zwar, aber schillernd: Wir verschenken 5 CDs an 5 Personen. Mit Widmung, falls gewünscht. 🙂
Einfach das Kontaktformular aufrufen, Name und Adresse eingeben, und wenige Tage später drehen wir Runden in eurem CD-Player.

On October 18th, the new album of Sarah Chaksad’s Orchestra named “Tabriz” got released on all major and minor channels.

We recorded it under the direction of Guillermo Klein at Bauer Studios in Ludwigsburg, Germany. A perfect place for Big Band recordings, and many milestones in the history of Jazz have been taped there.

All of the compositions by Sarah show here wide interests in different styles and colours of music. I got to know her more than ten years ago in a HipHop Band! Unbelievable, no? You won’t hear any of this, but be prepared for a journey that lets you expercience many shades in the spectrum of endless possibilities in music. I am glad to be part of this trip, aight?

Daniela and I met for the first time in 2015 to play a few familiar songs in my practice space in Zürich. We didn’t know each other, but it seemed obvious to both of us to share some time by playing tunes we knew, since we both emerged from the tradition of jazz. 
Little we knew back then, that this first encounter would lead to a deep and sincere cooperation, creating music that we both love and feel from the bottom of our hearts. 

After our first program “Dear Ella”, which we performed a lot in very different places, we wanted to do “our own thing”. Not to be special, but to indulge in transforming our own thoughts and life experiences into sonic realm. Based on poems by writers like Emily Dickinson, E.E. Cummings, Sara Teasdale, we started sketching and composing music that transmits and supports what the lyrics already provided. This process sometimes forces you to momentarily relinquish your own identity in order to absorb and inherent the beauty of poetry. 

Maybe it is of interest to see and hear, how this process evolved in a tune based on Emily Dickinson’s poem “Hope is the thing with feathers”, which she wrote in 1861/62 and got published the first time in 1891. Here are her words:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land – 
And on the strangest Sea – 
Yet – never – in Extremity, 
It asked a crumb – of me.

It is about a bird, representing hope, that everyone carries inside her or his life. A yet subtle but strong inner voice, that can be heard even under most difficult circumstances. The bird is doing this not by using wise words, but by singing a tune: without words. And to me, this has such a deep meaning. I tried to compose music, that transcends the used notes, sounds, melodies and words to become something non-rational, light and profound. How suitable, the word “light” representing both meanings of being not heavy and illumination at the same time!

If you listen to our recording of this song, you can hear when Daniela is singing “and never stops – at all” around 00:49, I chose to represent the never ending stream of hope (or light) by using a unexpected harmony in the piano part, that in my perception lifts and lightens (pun intended) and keeps the song going. Nothing too dramatic, but I think it came out quite nice. 

If you want to follow or even play the song, here’s the music:
(Download PDF)

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