The courage to breathe

The band has come a long way since it was conceived by saxophonist and clarinettist Florian Egli as a duo with bassist Valentin Dietrich. With their new album Orientation Weird Beard has returned to its beginnings in spirit. Back then, as a duo, inspired by artists such as Skuli Sverrisson, they "only made space", reports Egli. Electronic loops and effects played an important role. "One sound - for five minutes. Then another sound ..." As part of his diploma thesis at the Zurich University of the Arts, the duo was expanded into a quartet with drummer Rico Baumann and Schaffhausen guitarist Urs Vögeli. When Vögeli moved on a year later, it was obvious for Egli to turn to Dave Gisler, who had inspired him as a teenager at a gig in Schaffhausen. Gisler brought a rockier style and probably also a new dynamic urgency. "My motto was always to let the musicians in the band do their thing," says Egli. "If there was a guiding influence, then it came from the compositions. But even these were more like sketches than detailed instructions." In 2014, Valentin Dietrich decided to swap music for a degree in philosophy. He was replaced by Martina Berther, who had caught Egli's eye through her performances in the JazzBaragge. Thus the current formation was born. A first album was released two years later. It bore the significant title Everything Moves. Now follows with Orientation a much more airy follow-up. You take your time to breathe. Melodies, sometimes just sounds and indefinable noises hang in the ether, as menacing as a buzzard or as elegant as a seagull. Egli's sax riffs have become more intricate and lyrical; they also take their time before returning to the beginning and starting the next round. Gisler's guitar, on the other hand, has an almost meditative effect with its chords finely breathed into the ensemble sound and mercurial, sometimes dissonant solos. "The band strikes creative sparks from opposites," Christoph Wagner writes lazily in the liner notes and concludes: "Post-jazz is perhaps the best way to describe their music today."

The creation of the album was not easy, admits Florian Egli. "The development began with the last album," he says. "The fact that something was constantly happening in our music had become too much for me. I regressed, so to speak. I was looking for the ritualistic, the calm and the 'space' of the early days." Gisler was not immediately happy with the new direction. "From his other band, Pilgrim, he was used to the fact that you could always do something and then get immediate feedback. I tried to suppress this tendency a little. It's a different system when you want to make something work together that should roll like a ball." There's no denying that there was sometimes thick air in the studio. But a break-up was never on the table. Nobody in the band would have wanted to miss the creative challenge that the unusual composition of this band brings with it. It's not just Dave Gisler who plays in all kinds of other ensembles. The other members are also involved in other projects. Egli is a member of the JazzBaragge board and plays with the Egli-Santana Group, the Lucerne Jazz Orchestra and the Jenny jazz quintet, among others. Once a month, he serves up high-octane hard bop in the style of John Coltrane with Raphael Walser (bass) and Jonas Ruther (drums) at the Holzschopf restaurant. Rico Baumann performs alongside singer Daniela Sarda in the electro-pop duo True and is part of James Gruntz's backing band. Martina Berther, on the other hand, lives out her punk side in the duo Ester Poly. "Everyone has their own extra window," explains Egli. "That's why Weird Beard is so exciting. It's a challenge to bring all these impulses onto one track. Remembering that we have to think differently here than in our other bands."

When he heard the finished recordings, Dave Gisler was also thrilled. It was the best thing he had ever recorded. "It led to a great discussion," concludes Egli. "We were all fully on board again. We needed this eruption. The starting signal was this album. Now the band sounds the way I once imagined it. But of course it continues. My thoughts are already on the next album."