“Wasted & Wanted”

It was on 4th of November 2011 that Michael Wollny’s [em] first introduced “Wasted & Wanted” to the public at Berlin Jazz Festival, and the premiere was celebrated euphorically. After the concert Die Welt called them “the most attractive band in German contemporary jazz” with an intensity that “seems to be borrowed from punk rock”.

Four pieces on the album were not written by band members Wollny, Kruse or Schaefer, but nevertheless they seem like tailor-made for the trio: their interpretation of the funeral march from the Symphony no 5. by the musical innovator Gustav Mahler is a dusky and almost claustrophobic ballad. They also construct their very own version of Heinrich Heines’s poem “Ihr Bild”, that was set to music by the German classical composer Franz Schubert in 1828. Wollny’s interpretation of Luciano Berio’s “Wasserklavier” is a dreamy interlude, while “Das Modell” by the German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk begins mysteriously and rises into a bubbling climax.

Four pieces of the Berlin concert have been added to the studio album on a limited bonus CD. In addition to Wollny’s “Wasted & Wanted”, Schaefer’s “Blank” and Kruse`s “Metall”, “Tanz der Vampire” is a homage to the great Polish jazz musician and film music composer Krzysztof Komeda.

Michael Wollny’s [em] have been highly acclaimed ever since their debut album “Call It [em]“ was released in 2005, and the German newspaper Die Zeit even called them “the world’s most exciting piano trio”. Their album “[em] live at Jazzbaltica“ from 2010 received the Echo Jazz award for “Best Ensemble National”.

CD-1

1. Wasted & Wanted – 03:35 (Wollny, Michael)
2. Symphony No. V, Mov 1: Trauermarsch – 03:36 (Mahler, Gustav)
3. Metall – 03:51 (Kruse, Eva)
4. Blank – 05:31 (Schaefer, Eric)
5. Kulintang – 03:21 (Schaefer, Eric)
6. Cembalo Manifeszt – 03:13 (Schaefer, Eric)
7. Wasserklavier – 02:40 (Berio, Luciano)
8. Ihr Bild – 04:51 (Schubert, Franz)
9. Nr. 10 – 03:30 (Kruse, Eva)
10. Das Modell – 04:09 (Huetter, Ralf / Bartos, Karl)
11. Dario – 03:47 (Wollny, Michael)
12. Whiteout – 05:11 (Wollny, Michael)

CD-2

1. Wasted & Wanted (live) – 03:37 (Wollny, Michael)
2. Blank (live) – 06:23 (Schaefer, Eric)
3. Metall (live) – 04:45 (Kruse, Eva)
4. The Fearless Vampire Killers (live) – 08:07 (Komeda, Krzysztof)