Carsten Daerr Trio (Germany)

SIMA acknowledges the generous support of the Goethe-Institut in making possible the Australian tours by the Carsten Daerr Trio and Liaisons Toniques.

Berlin pianist Carsten Daerr’s Trio transfixed the audience with the energy of an indie rock band. Capable of creating the elegant and the profound, they settled for the latter. Showing new ways of thinking and feeling about things is the defining task of a true artist, and Daerr did it – Stuart Nicholson, The Guardian (UK)

Berlin pianist Carsten Daerr is rated one of the most promising international musicians to watch. His ability to integrate a high degree of musical abstraction and reflection into his music without forfeiting any of its directness distinguishes his compositions from mainstream music.

An in-demand soloist, his own creativity stems from his energetic trio who consider themselves the equilateral sides of a musical triangle – an idea as old as the history of jazz itself, yet still amazingly capable of producing ever new variations on a theme. Daerr & Co are quite clearly one of the driving forces of this dynamic development.

After his highly lauded debut PurpleCoolCarSleep (2003), followed up by what Rolling Stone heralded as ‘The most exciting piano trio album of the year’, Bantha Food (2005), the group presents Insomniac Wonderworld, the third album for Carsten Daerr.

True to their own visionary style as artists, Daerr, Potratz and Schaeffer invent their own fluctuating universe full of sophisticated sounds and incredible combinations as they interpret free jazz. The Carsten Daerr Trio have undoubtedly hit upon an exciting language all of their own, made up of certain acoustic elements of electronic music, a classical austerity, an intriguing interplay of embellishments from repertoire standards, pop as well as film, some private impressions and an almost childlike fascination with sound of all kinds. To put it in a nutshell – the waywardness of Berlin outdoes global mainstream.

An exhilarating roller-coaster ride of revolution and tenderness, wild acts of liberation and gentle reconciliation. In every respect they are an adventure to be enjoyed with relish – Reinhard Köchl (Germany)