Best of 2019 #15: Max Andrzejewski’s Hütte – “Hütte & Guests Play the Music of Robert Wyatt”

Summing up the music of Max Andrzejewski for The Bandcamp Daily, I lean into how the musician really just can’t seem to do anything normal.  He’s been responsible for the creative phenomena of his Hütte ensemble, which metamorphosizes from a melodically spasmodic quartet into a choir for a sonic celebration of food.  To say nothing of his dizzying transitions between free jazz to synth-rock to folk singer-songwriter projects.  And yet, despite expecting the unexpected from his domain, the drummer surprises yet again with an embrace of the Robert Wyatt songbook.  Max Andrzejewski’s Hütte ramps up the eccentricities of the Hutte ensemble (which hadn’t seemed possible before this recording), but more importantly, there’s an equal and crucial spike in the melodic ardor of the pieces.  This emphasis on melodic richness and depth is what allows the ensemble to get as crazy as they want with the material, because in the end, the melodic devotion will balance things out.  This is one of the wilder recordings of the year.  Really shouldn’t have expected anything different.

Your album personnel:  Max Andrzejewski (drums, vocals, arrangements), Johannes Schleiermacher (saxophone, flute, synth), Tobias Hoffmann (guitar), Andreas Lang (double bass), Cansu Tanrıkulu (vocals, fx), and Jörg Hochapfel (organs, guitars, vocals).

Released on the WhyPlayJazz label.

Music from Berlin, Germany.

I wrote about this album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Amazon – Bandcamp