grischa lichtenberger’s music stands for broken rhythms, for high-density manipulations that emphasize the digital and fractal nature of its working process. a mindset that grew closer to contemporary jazz in recent years. since free jazz, this genre also sought to overcome musical standards and looked for possibilities of an individual artistic expression. within this context, the collaboration between lichtenberger and jazz saxophonist philipp gropper as well as the resulting album are documents of this development. it also offers both musicians the opportunity to expand their familiar environment by breaking with expectations.
the foundation for »re: phgrp« were pieces from the album »consequences« by philipp gropper’s band PHILM which lichtenberger reinterpreted without giving up their original character. he rather looked for figures, subjects and reference points in the compositions to reflect and condense them. as »consequences« was recorded with all the instruments in one room at the same time (like a classical jazz recording from the 1950ies), the extraction of individual instruments was a challenge which lichtenberger took up with shifts, distortions and rearrangements of the original temporality of the material. except for a few synthesizer sounds and an additional piano recording, he remained largely true to the source material, even though the tracks develop their own unique voice throughout the album.
»re: phgrp (reworking ›consequences‹ by philipp gropper’s philm)« will be released in cooperation with whyplayjazz in a limited edition of 500 CDs on october 25, 2019. the cover was screen printed and shows a compositional notation by grischa lichtenberger. the album marks the beginning of an encounter between lichtenberger and gropper that promises to continue in joint improvisational concert situations and further recordings in the future.
