{"product_id":"cd-iii-2024","title":"III (CD) \/ Evelyn Kryger","description":"\u003cp\u003eCD in hangpack \/ Release 26.01.2024\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLess is more. Usually, anyway. After all, every child knows that. Far less popular than \"more\" is the realization that \"more\" can also be more. The quartet Evelyn Kryger from Hanover, Cologne, and Hildesheim impressively demonstrates on their new album \"III\" that you can put everything you have into a project and end up getting even more out of it than you expected. And that's a good thing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut first things first. After their live album \"Live At JazzBaltica 2021,\" saxophonist Christoph \"Cito\" Kaling, keyboardist Arne Dreske, bassist Jonas Holland-Moritz, and drummer Hannes Dunker had to cope with the departure of violinist Rebecca Czech. Should they now look for a new violinist after the initial painful loss to fill the void appropriately? Or would perhaps another instrument set a new accent? The four convinced artists chose a different path. They rethought their entire band concept and consistently started over.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"III\" is a radical new beginning without abandoning the core competencies acquired along the way. Four individualists who distil a logical flow of events from the contrasts of their personal experiences, preferences, and working methods, which ultimately transcends any definition and always leads to different goals than initially aimed for. Without having planned it this way, Evelyn Kryger has created a monumental overall work, an epic sound film that bears the hallmarks of a concept album. The dramaturgy, sequence, and sound direction only emerged during the immediate work on the album.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOnly the casting was carried out according to precisely defined criteria before the start of production, and this is the decisive difference from all previous albums by the band. This time, they did not rely on a fixed line-up that would be heard on the entire album and then go on tour, but surrounded themselves with a variable host of guests who provided individual timbres and nuances, moments of tension or changes of direction in the different songs. Guitarist Omar Gudjonsson, well known from the Icelandic post-rock band ADHD, had long been envisioned as a guest by the guys from Evelyn Kryger. Brazilian rapper Laíz sets unusual vocal accents, combining the flow and urgency of hip-hop with the power and force of Latin American rhythms. Trumpeter Tom Trabandt and saxophonist Richard Häckel, like Evelyn Kryger, come from the jazz scene in Hanover. Venezuelan percussionist Nené Vásquez contributes to the rhythmic accentuation. Last but not least, the familiar sound of the violin should not be missing from Evelyn Kryger's overall picture. In the American Roland Satterwhite, who plays in the Berlin jazz-rock band Tolyqyn, among others, they found the right voice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMany names, but here it's not about quantity, but about precision. Because - and this is Evelyn Kryger's great achievement - none of these contributions sounds like a gimmick or stands out particularly from the album's sound. Each fits into the logical flow of the overall concept as if it had always been part of the band. A higher degree of integration is hardly conceivable, as if the band were the valley and the guests the river flowing through the valley. Evelyn Kryger consciously works with contrasts that are always brought together to form a unity. None of the songs in this context can be imagined even a fraction differently than it is presented here.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe stylistic diversity of the CD is as great as the list of performers. The spectrum ranges from jazz and prog rock, through soundtrack-like passages, pop influences, Latin grooves, folkloric colourings to the precision and density of classical music and the detached openness of jam rock. There are no boundaries between these moments. In every song, a new cornucopia of wonderful melodies pours out. Similar to the best moments of Return To Forever, the Pat Metheny Group, Nils Petter Molvaer, or ADHD, all these influences and backgrounds merge into a harmonious whole that no longer requires categorization. Because one thing is clear from the first note and continues to the last measure: This is always and exclusively a statement by Evelyn Kryger. The band benefits from a special feature that saxophonist Cito Kaling already formulated on the occasion of the last album \"Live At JazzBaltica 2021\": \"We are a band of individualists who nevertheless have a very homogeneous band sound. We all bring our instruments from jazz, without really functioning like a jazz band. Our characters and personal playing styles interweave within the band to form a common sound.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFar removed from any stylistic-musical definition, \"III\" acts like a film. Voices become characters, songs become scenes of a plot with an open ending, sounds become backdrops, grooves become guardrails of storylines. One sits spellbound in an imaginary cinema seat and follows the narrative imagery that Evelyn Kryger unleashes before the seeing ear. Every splash of colour, every beat, every note, and every sung word makes sense in this world of overflowing impressions. \"III\" is grand, but it has to be exactly that grand to achieve this overwhelming effect. The cover, designed by Hanoverian artist Anna Abramovich, also contributes to the album's final audiovisual effect; as a pentagon, it is a work of art in itself, independent of the music.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCaution with superlatives, but Evelyn Kryger's fourth album, titled \"III,\" is one of the most complete musical treasures of recent years. This is not simply a studio production, but in the very best sense a performance. Without wanting to engage in further name-dropping here, it doesn't need to shy away from comparison with the great concept albums of rock and jazz history. If we want to change the cultural playing field here, then Evelyn Kryger has qualified for the Champions League with \"III.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eText: Wolf Kampmann\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hey!blau GmbH","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45063261192456,"sku":"MB-351413","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0623\/1641\/3151\/files\/EK_III_Hangpak_01.jpg?v=1704810022","url":"https:\/\/shop.plattenfirma-to-go.de\/en\/products\/cd-iii-2024","provider":"Hey!blau GmbH","version":"1.0","type":"link"}