Anthropology!
Philipp Schaufelberger - guitar
Christian Wolfarth - percussion
Anthropologists normally research human characteristics, but here, if the title of this album is to be taken literally, we are invited to discover the researchers themselves, along with their discipline.Christian Wolfarth and Philipp Schaufelberger constitute an offshoot of this science – one that works with artistic tools.
Lil' Darling, Stompin' at the Savoy, Mood Indigo and Sweet Georgia Brown: The repertoire sounds like big band, like I'm-sure-I-know-this-one and it's-been-a-while. However, this selection did not stem from any desire to historicise, but from re-encountering this musical heritage from today's perspective.
The tracks remain formally intact and a constant pulse is generally evident, but within this idiom, a dialogue takes place, which has an unreserved openness more commonly found in improvised music. Or, as one concert goer once put it: It is a pleasure to listen to these musicians listening!
Schaufelberger's stripped-down guitar play and Wolfarth's lean drumming, his kit consisting of merely a snare and two cymbals, make this music a sophisticated and uncongested affair, which, despite all its ommissions, is always complete.
Here, the unsaid is an important element, and for one or two listeners, via their personal histories of hearing the familiar tracks, the old big band era might begin to gently shimmer through.