2016

Musical Co-Evolution

Enduring musical collaborations are usually unpredictable, not primarily aimed at some long- term goal, yet stimulating, enriching and instructive for all concerned. Chance and hazard, necessity, but also conscious decision making play an important role in the coevolutionary process.

Long-term collaboration in both bigger and smaller formations is crucial to any individual’s musical maturation.
From this point of view, it is more a coincidence that 3 new recordings appear just at the end of 2016.

It is no coincidence however that these recordings document – almost like interim reports – three enduring musical and personal relationships and three very different duos. 

TRANSATLANTIC CONVERSATIONS

New CD just released  on unit records

 

Felix Stussi and Peter A.Schmid have known each other for decades, playing together both as a duo and in a quartet throughout the 1990s. When Felix Stussi and his family emigrated to Canada more than twenty years ago, contact continued even across the Atlantic, with CDs exchanged and musical development followed closely. Stussi became a fixture of the Montreal jazz scene, playing with many renowned musicians (including Ray Anderson) and composing for his own combo, with which he released multiple CDs (on Unit Records, amongst others)-

The low woodwind player Peter A. Schmid has been active for decades, moving between the musical poles of jazz, improvised music and contemporary sound. Alongside many years of collaborative work in duos, woodwind ensembles and musical projects set in extraordinary spaces have played an important in his career (for example „September Winds“ with Evan Parker).

Stussi and Schmid resumed their musical collaboration this summer, reworking new and older original pieces, developing concepts for spontaneous compositions, playing concerts and now releasing their first studio CD, recorded at Hardstudio in Winterthur: „Transatlantic Conversations.“

The cover design features underwater photography derived from the picture series „Underwater Surfaces“ (with close up images of underwater lifeforms captured by Peter A. Schmid in tropical waters across the globe).

 

www.unitrecords.com

 

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40 x 40'': forty spontaneous compositions & 4 + 4 art prints

Limited CD just released!

Reinhard Gagel  piano, accordeon
Peter A. Schmid  bass & A clarinet


For years, Reinhard Gagel has been making pictures in a 40x40 cm format. In parallel to that work, the concert music project „40x40“ developed: forty spontaneous compositions of forty seconds each. The temporal framework forced a disciplined musical approach, consistently and persistently concentrating ideas and their development.Bass woodwind player Peter A. Schmid has also worked for many years as a photographer, favouring the same perfectly square format.

The two musicians have now been working together for more than 20 years. In this project, music and image are not brought together in the sense of a setting, but as glimpses of a parallel and mutually influencing artistic working method.

This limited-edition CD features 40x40 duets that originated in Berlin, alongside 4+4 photographs and visual works.

Forbidden Territory comprises photographic work in the 40x40 format about a piece of land in Hungary, which Reinhard Gagel has reimagined and reworked, overpainting the surfaces to create something alien and strange. Underwater Surfaces is a series of perfectly square pictures with close ups of underwater lifeforms, which Peter A. Schmid has captured in tropical waters around the globe.

Distribution: www.nurnichtnur.com

 

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SOUNDSCAPES 2016/1986 - Limited Edition-CD now released

 

Peter A.Schmid bass clarinet, tubax, contrabass flute, taragot, alphorn, loops

Philipp Zehnder perkussion, toys & electronic gadgets, loops

 

It’s been 30 years since Philipp Zehnder and Peter A. Schmid laid down their first sounds in Hardstudio Winterthur with Moritz Wetter, released as the (vinyl) LP record „Soundscapes“.

Since then, they have continued to meet both privately and musically. Amongst other notable occasions, they marked the millenium with a concert series devised in an empty reservoir in Zurich (together with Jurg Grau,  who unfortunately died much too early), later releasing these atmospheric tracks as the CD „Full Moon“ (CWR 1033).

 

Thirty years later, in April 2016, they achieved musical closure, meeting for several days in Gersau to record more music, extract fragments, loop and multitrack the sounds to create 7 new and unheard musical collages.

 

These tracks – as well as the original recordings from 1986 -  are now available in the form of a limited edition CD.

 

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SWISS SAXOPHONE ORCHESTRA

23. September 2016, 20 Uhr
Kirche Pfäffikon(ZH)

24. September 2016, 20 Uhr
Scheffelhof, D-Radofzell

25. September 2016, 19 Uhr
Reformierte Kirche Männedorf

 

www.swiss-sax-orchestra.ch

SOUNDSCAPES 3 x Ten Years After

Philipp Zehnder Percussion, Electronics & Toys

Peter A.Schmid Saxophones, Clarinets and other (mostly low) winds

 

17. September 2016, 20 Uhr und 18. September, 18 Uhr

DIMENSIONE Winterthur
www.dimensione.ch

MUSIC, FOOD & DRINKS with Guests

 

Beschränkte Platzzahl, nur auf vorherige Reservation via E-mail: paschmid@gmx.ch

 

 30 Jahre nach unser ersten DUO-LP "Sondscapes" sind wir wieder ins Aufnahmestudio zurück gekehrt (Aufnahmen April 2016 in Gersau): "Soundscapes 2016". Und das muss gefeiert werden!

 

3 x ten years after our first Duo-Recording "Soundscapes" (1986) we celebrate the anniversary with a new music production: "Sondscapes 2016" (recorded april 2016 at Gersau)

 

 

Felix Stüssi - Peter A.Schmid DUO

Felix Stüssi  Piano

Peter A.Schmid  Bassklarinette, Saxofone, Flöten

 

Freitag, 24.Juni 2016, 7 bis 7.30 Uhr (Frühaufsteherkonzert)

Stadtbibliothek Uster

www.must-uster.ch

Freitag, 24. Juni 2016, 20 Uhr

Biohof Fondli, Dietikon

www.biohof-fondli.ch

 

www.felixstussi.com

KFM-JAZZ-FESTIVAL Glarus

18. Juni 2016, ab 15 Uhr
KUNSTHAUS GLARUS

Zum 300-Konzert des Kommithe für Müsick: ein Festival mit Musikern aus allen Landes- und Länderecken, neue Formationen und Zusammentreffen...

u.a. mit Fix Stüssi, Ray Anderson, Co Streiff, Christoph Grab, Christy Doran u.v.a.

Programm:
www.kfm.gl

YUGEN "death by water" - New CD released "Altrock"

Francesco Zago, guitarist & composer from Milano, just released his new "Yugen"-CD".

Again a studio production with a lot of musicians participating...

...and some notes and sounds from my contrabass clarinet, tubax and contrabass clarinet!

 

www.francescozago.com

Songbook: das 20-jährige Jubiläum

Jerry Rojas Gitarren

Peter A. Schmid  Bassklarinette, Taragot, Saxofone

 

Jerry Rojas und Peter A. Schmid laden zu ihrem 20-jährigen 'Songbook'-Jubiläum alle offenohrigen Freunde und Freundinnen, Bekannte, LiebhaberInnen der nicht-Mehrheits-fähigen Musik und auch Musikjournalisten zu einem Jubiläumskonzert ein:

 

Samstag, 16. April 2016, 18.30 Uhr (Konzertdauer: 1 Stunde)

Musée Visionnaire, Predigerplatz 10, 8001 Zürich

 

Anschliessend Apéro (hoffentlich im sonnigen Innenhof...)

 

Um verbindliche Anmeldung wird gebeten

(Mail an: paschmid(at)gmx.ch)

 

 

Jerry Rojas und Peter Schmid spielen seit 20 Jahren als Duo und haben in dieser Zeit ihr eigenes «Songbook» erarbeitet und in vielen Konzerten weiterentwickelt.

Vor über 10 Jahren haben sie ihre erste CD «Songbook» veröffentlicht (auf Creative Works Records), die ihnen viele gute Kritiken einbrachte: «Ist das Jazz? Rock? E-Musik oder gar die Folklore eines unbekannten Landstrichs? Die Duette für Bassklarinette und elektrische Gitarre, die Peter A. Schmid und Jerry Rojas vorlegen, haben etwas von alledem. Sinnliche Klangmalerei verbindet sich mit wacher Experimentierfreude!» (CD-Kritik in der NZZ am Sonntag).

In den folgenden Jahren wurde das Duo durch den mexikanischen Perkussionisten Ivan Manzanilla zum Trio erweitert.

Diese Zusammenarbeit ist auf der CD 'Gersau' klingend dokumentiert, die 2008 ebenfalls auf CWR erschienen ist. Zwischenzeitlich lebt Ivan wieder vorwiegend in Mexico, so dass Jerry und Peter je nach Verfügbarkeit im Duo oder Trio proben und konzertieren. Das 'Songbook' wird kontinuierlich überarbeitet, erneuert, neu interpretiert.  So sind denn auch einige erneuerte Songs (im Trio) auf der CD 'Saitenwind' von Peter A. Schmid zu hören (2011).