NICA live: Katrin Scherer's CLUSTER Quartet

Cluster [ˈklʌstə] = Traube, Bündel, Schwarm, oder Ballung

The CLUSTER Quartet presents the music of the new CD 'Second Brain' with great joy of playing and concentrated energy.
In the musicians involved, Cologne saxophonist Katrin Scherer has found congenial partners who explore the diverse expressive possibilities of her compositions at eye level.

The conscious renunciation of a harmony instrument and thus the reduction to two wind instruments, bass and drums create space for open improvisation concepts and a transparent band sound. The result is intimate, experimental and chamber music passages as well as powerful, energetic sound collages.

The band is a reflection of the current creative and very lively Cologne jazz scene. Katrin Scherer studied jazz saxophone and composition at the Folkwang Hochschule Essen and at Queens College in New York City. She was a member of the Bundesjazzorchester under the direction of Peter Herbolzheimer and the European Youth Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Eric Moseholm and Bruno Tommaso. The versatile artist has a lush tonal palette and great virtuosity. Her compositions speak a distinct sonic language. Her influences extend beyond contemporary improvised music to reference early 20th century compositional doctrines, among others. The quartet's namesake belongs to the creative, bustling Cologne jazz scene and has released eight CDs under her own name and on her own label, Green Deer Music. For ten years she has held a teaching position for saxophone, didactics and lesson delivery at the Folkwang Hochschule Essen.

"Comparable to a "second brain" (Second Brain), my fellow musicians are virtually a multitool for organizing the abundance of musical ideas, carrying them forward and placing them as meaningful statements," says Katrin Scherer about her band.