Winterjazz Köln 2023

Die 12. Ausgabe des fulminanten Musikfestivals WINTERJAZZ KÖLN

Since 2012, the little sister of the New York Winter Jazzfest has been curated by musicians Angelika Niescier and Ulla Oster. The focus is on Cologne's vital, creative and diverse scene and its supra-regional networking and international collaboration. For this reason, all rooms and stages of the European Center for Jazz and Contemporary Music will be open to musicians from Cologne and North Rhine-Westphalia and their exciting new projects or bands, with free admission. "What Cologne can do? Jazz!" (zeit online)

Line Up Winter Jazz Cologne 2023

► Yaroslav Likhachev Quartet
► Christian Lorenzens "Silver Motion"
► Jan Lukas Roßmüller Trio: Grounding
► Marlies Debacker solo
► Katrin Scherer's CLUSTER Quartet
► h i l d e
► Raissa Mehner Deviation
► MOLASS
► The Human Element
► SALOMEA

Yaroslav Likhachev Quartet
The quartet around Yaroslav Likhachev has been in existence since 2016 and is always on the lookout for new improvisational paths and expressive possibilities that allow him to add further building blocks to the solid foundation of his art. As a collective, the four musicians are always building bridges that open up entirely new sonic landscapes and leave you amazed.

Christian Lorenzens 'Silver Motion
In Christian Lorenzen's new quartet, his longtime playing partners Leonhard Huhn and Dominik Mahnig meet Copenhagen-based artist Mija Milovic. All four musicians:use live electronics and synthesizers in addition to their acoustic instruments - effortlessly weaving acoustic sounds organically with the sphere of electronics. With a deep contemplative calm, the band forms a sound space, but one that is always in motion and remains elastic; stimulated by the unique sampling aesthetic of Mija Milovic's performance, new paths can be entered very quickly. The result is a fascinating music, contemporary and timeless at the same time.
Jan Lukas Roßmüller Trio: Grounding
Erdung draws strength from a jointly found basis. The trio works with rhythmic impulses and sounds, develops them and thus playfully combines composed material and improvisation. Even in abstraction, this development always remains clear and comprehensible. The project is grounded in its familiar-seeming jazz elements, but blossoms especially when the musicians continue to spin spontaneously emerging material together and take surprisingly new paths.

Marlies Debacker solo
Marlies Debacker is a pianist of new music and improvised music and has long been a fixture in Cologne. Masterful and captivating, her music is dedicated to the relationship between free improvisation and contemporary music, as well as to exploring the sonic possibilities of the grand piano. She seeks to make even more colorful and orchestral use of the instrument through differentiated keyboard and pedal playing, extended playing techniques, and "inside piano" playing.

Katrin Scherer's CLUSTER Quartet
Katrin Scherer has a lush tonal palette and great virtuosity on the saxophone, and her compositions speak a unique sonic language. In the participating musicians of the CLUSTER Quartet, Katrin Scherer has found congenial partners who explore the diverse expressive possibilities of her compositions on equal terms. With open improvisation concepts and a transparent band sound, both intimate, experimental and chamber music passages as well as powerful, energetic sound collages are created.

h i l d e
The horizon is wide and the imagination rich. So is the willingness to engage fully in the moment. h i l d e is curious, melancholic and determined. It embraces, scatters and joins, uniting free improvisation with composed elements. Intertwined structures, direct "instant composing", movements from a freely proliferating individuality directly into a common center. To venture out of the abstract into the lyrical, that's what it's all about.

Raissa Mehner Deviation
Deviating from the planned path, getting lost and finding one's way back, getting involved in fluctuations, differences and digressions. Using unlikely fixed points, "Raissa Mehner Deviation" skillfully navigates through a mixture of notated arrangements, graphic scores and naively run-of-the-mill ideas. Their compositions, re-compositions and improvisations reflect an admiration for the fragile and the brute, the childishly conceived, the misunderstood, the to-be-defeated, the discarded and the collectively saved.

MOLASS
Hot and cold, modern and vintage, cool and touching. Music that resembles a surreal metamorphosis, combining opposites. Old-fashioned fairytale sounds and modern neo-soul sounds merge into a groovy fairytale. Soul and funk elements serve as a springboard and are never formulated to the end. A strikingly multifaceted voice that finds no place in a pigeonhole. Image-rich stories that laugh at their own melancholy lead on an epic journey where polyrhythms meet whistling registers.

The Human Element
Under the name "The Human Element" Gero Schipmann and Johannes Ludwig have already realized various projects. During Lockdown they expanded the duo project around drummer Alexander Parzhuber now to a trio. Deep (baritone) guitar riffs meet irresistibly gripping drums and rapturous melodies of a saxophone coiffed into a synthesizer. The focus is on the song - played with musical honesty, the simplistic depth of an aged country singer and the energy of a teen garage rock band.

SALOMEA
Music as profound entertainment, a band that takes risks, a voice like from another galaxy, precise and warm. SALOMEA defines music as art, SALOMEA believes in love, respect, in honesty. And yes: this demands real listening, this demands something, this wants more and: then reveals a finely balanced draft of the music of the future. This unique melting pot of jazz soaked in hiphop, RnB and varieties of contemporary electronic music finds its perfection on the albums and singles, but above all: live on stage.