Ab Baars: tenor saxophone, clarinet, shakuhachi
Terrie Ex: guitar
Kaja Draksler: piano

Recorded live at Konfrontationen Festival, Nickelsdorf, Austria by ORF on 21.7.2018
Recording Producer: Jens Jamin
Recording engineer: Robert Pavlecka
Mastering: Grzegorz Piwkowski (Hi-End Audio)

21 lipca 2018 roku, trzeciego dnia 39. Festiwalu Konfrontationen, Kaja Draksler zagrała niesamowicie intensywny koncert z kwartetem Petera Evansa. Największe zaskoczenie dnia przyszło jednak kilka godzin później, kiedy połączyła siły z Holendrami Ab Baarsem i Terrie Ex.
Płyta jest zapisem tego wydarzenia.

On July 21st 2018, the third day of the 39th Konfrontationen Festival, Kaja Draksler played a blisteringly intense concert with the Peter Evans Quartet. The biggest surprise of the day, however, came a few hours later, when she joined forces with Dutchmen Ab Baars and Terrie Ex. The surprise was not the combination of these distinct personalities in itself. You could have seen that coming. The remarkable thing about it was the emotional pay-off and the sheer beauty of the performance. Like some of the best improvised music out there, whether created by the trampling energy of a collective clenched fist or the subtle empathy of kindred spirits with a thin upper skin, this music excels with its remarkable coherence and unity.

Of course, the musicians had ample opportunities to finetune their interrelations. By the time of this concert, Draksler had just left Amsterdam, the city where she had become one of the brightest players of the jazz/improvised scene. It is where she met Baars in Fish-Scale Sunrise and developed ideas for the Octet he is also a member of. It is also where Baars and Ex forged their unique chemistry with a couple of duo albums, countless performances with The Ex and other projects. The guitarist even became the wild card on the latest ICP-album, Komen & Gaan. A few years ago, Draksler and Ex also road-tested their affinity, which led to the disjointed harmony of The Swim on the latter’s Terp Records.

Baars’ eccentric timbre can seem wild and jarring to unprepared listeners, yet as this recording proves, it can also be exhilarating and touching. It retains that untamed sense of contr.......
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