Other Animal Other Animal

• 1Drown Dreams03:43
• 2Name of Cold Country05:38
• 3Mr Manga02:49
• 4Stroy05:03
• 5Downbear04:47
• 6Nongeniality03:11
• 7Cloudline04:13
• 8E Dance06:03
• 9No Fruit04:14
• 10Spectral05:55
• 11Qubits04:15
• 12Blim05:24
• Total Runtime55:15

Info for Other Animal

A new formation with old friends, a particular sound with familiar vignettes: Other Animal plays “alternative prog-jazz”. The newest project of Bernhard and Peter Meyer, who take the key roles as composers and producers in this quartet, unites players from Berlin and New York who harmonize perfectly together and inspire each other. The Meyer brothers are best known for their highly acclaimed Melt Trio. With their distinct music and sophisticated stylistics on semi-acoustic bass and electric guitar, they have been contributing to the Berlin-specific jazz sound for years. Beside the already beaten paths of the genre, they fuse elements of improvised and new music, independent-rock and ambient sounds and show how jazz can sound in the present and the future. “Also on their third album, the Melt Trio again plays in a league of its own,” Jazzpodium summarizes and places Peter Meyer among the international ranks of the generation Marc Ribot, Jacob Bro and Marc Ducret. The magazine Rondo labels the trio as “one of the most stunning of the current jazz scene.” As a trio they have always enthralled listeners with their CDs and countless concerts and in addition, they explored other constellations - sometimes together, sometimes separately. For instance with the Norwegian electronica artist and live-remixer Jan Bang, the drum charismatics John Hollenbeck and Nasheet Waits, the exceptional singer Theo Bleckmann and the Portuguese double-bass original Carlos Bica.

The Meyer brothers had also worked with Jim Black in the past. Born in 1967 in Seattle, Black studied at Berklee College, then moved to New York and ever since, has been enhancing many projects with his distinctive playing. On the one hand in his own formations, such as the post-rock jazz quartet AlasNoAxis with Chris Speed, the Balkan-oriented Band Pachora, as well as Human Feel, with Speed, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Andrew D’Angelo. Furthermore, Black recorded a handful of albums alongside Dave Douglas and Uri Caine, also for the BBC with Tim Berne and Nels Cline, with Dave Liebman, Steve Coleman, Laurie Anderson and many more.

During the same time as these sessions with Jim Black, the Meyers had initiated collaboration with Wanja Slavin. The saxophonist, born 1982 in Freiburg and based in Berlin since 2005, received a Jazz-Echo award in 2014 for the album Starlight, whichhe recorded with Petter Eldh and Christian Lillinger. Most recently Slavin attracted attention in the quartet Amok Amor (Eldh, Lillinger, Peter Evans), for instance at the Moers Festival 2016, London Jazz Festival and Jazzdor Straßburg. Moreover, he has played with Kenny Wheeler, Médéric Collignon, John Schröder, Joachim Kühn, Alexander von Schlippenbach and others. It was only a matter of time, until these award-winning individualists would unite to form a quartet. In November 2016 the band went to the legendary Funkhaus-Studio in the east of Berlin. The takes were so successful that thoughts about cutting and editing never came up. Merely a few overdubs were added, like guitar layers and electronic effects from Peter Meyer and flute and synthesizer from Wanja Slavin, to give the sound more depth here and there.

With only one exception, Bernhard and Peter Meyer wrote all pieces on Other Animal specifically for this quartet. “We wanted to give the musicians something where they could fully unfold their magic. Jim masters an enormous variety of grooves, so of course we also worked with that.” Consequentially the tempos of the pieces are very diverse and reach from almost Nordic seeming calmness all the way to crescendos with metropolitan verve. Black’s intuitive, free and yet very pointed playing with dynamic and forceful entrances also exhibits a pronounced sense for sound, which again harmonizes perfectly with the Meyer brothers’ sound awareness, their arcs of suspense and their energy made up of both transparent-airy and powerful dense passages. Wanja Slavin brings a sometimes fragile, sometimes rough beauty into the band. Inspired by the revolutionary expressiveness of John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, Slavin can captivate with sensitive as well as forcefully gripping sounds; some facets of his playing are reminiscent of new music and electronic music.

Thanks to Slavin, Peter Meyer’s role in this quartet is a little different than usual. “With the Melt Trio I’m always the soloist, kind of like the singer of the band. In Other Animal I can concentrate on creating specific tonal colors from time to time. Just like guitarist Meyer, Slavin evidently also thinks in structures and textures. Both focus on atmospheric, sharply detailed soundscapes instead of the traditional “faster, higher, further”-competition. Thus they interlock like zippers’ teeth - not only in parallel passages. Or they seem like a tree, whose shoots sprout into different directions.

A constant quality of Other Animal, is the compositional modernity of both Meyers, which is guided by their own listening habits. The two early thirtysomethings are not only influenced by the sound of certain jazz greats like Bill Frisell, Keith Jarrett (especially the quartets with Haden, Motian, Redman or Garbarek), Marc Ribot and Terje Rypdal, but also by rock experimenters like Radiohead, James Blake and the Notwist. Exemplarily they mention their piece Nongeniality; a melody that could come from Charlie Parker, but is turned and twisted through the indie-rock filter. To the Meyer brothers the form of the songs is at least as important, as melodic themes and solos. By that, they mean the sequence of parts, arcs of suspense and instrumentation. In these aspects McCoy Tyner and Brad Mehldau are just as much inspirational sources as Weather Report and Grizzly Bear.

Above all else is the band’s motto formulating what is best for the music: playing consciously and intuitively, leaving out the irrelevant and standing above vanity and self-display. The title Other Animal represents the unknown and the new, Bernhard and Peter Meyer explain. A band is an organism, which breathes and pulsates. It needs to communicate and be kept alive to amaze with different motions, timbres and developments again and again. In this sense, Other Animal is a very special, charismatic species.

Peter Meyer, guitar, electronics
Bernhard Meyer, bass
Wanja Slavin, saxophone
Jim Black, drums

Recorded by Jean Philipp Dusse, Yensin Jahn and Meike Alex at Studio H1, Funkhaus Berlin
Additional overdubs recorded by Charis Karantzas and Wanja Slavin at home
Mixed and mastered by Adrian von Ripka at Bauerstudios, Ludwigsburg
Produced by Peter and Bernhard Meyer

Peter Meyer
„There is probably no comparable guitarist in germany, who is as versatile and creative as Peter Meyer“, writes the music magazine „Sound And Image“. Jazzthetik calls him „master of sounds“.

Guitarist and composer Peter Meyer lives in Berlin since 2004. There he studied music with Prof. Kurt Rosenwinkel at the Jazz Instiut. By melting all influences of jazz-improvisation, experimental sounds, prog- and indirock, eletronic and Neue Musik together, he creates a unique and unheard style, that makes him a remarkable voice of a new generation of jazz musicians. As a result he has been nominated two times, 2015 and 2017, for the echo jazz (the german grammy).

Together with his brother, Bernhard Meyer, he found „Melt Trio“ together with Drummer Moritz Baumgärtner in 2010. Their recordings”Melt”, “Hymnolia” and „Stroy“ where highly praised by the jazz cognoscenti. The Jazzpodium writes „Melt Trio plays in there one devision“ and it is „one of the most amaizing bands in the current scene“ (Rondo). In 2016 ARTE recorded a Melt Trio concert at the Donau 115. Beside his own projects Peter Meyer is member of the bands from Johanna Borchert, Dan Freeman, Lea W. Frey and Carlos Bica.

2018 the joint quartett by the Meyer brothers with Jim Black and Wanja Slavin will release there first recordings.

Bernhard Meyer
is living in Berlin since 2003 and became a major part of its young, exciting jazz scene over the last years. His unique playing and his remarkable sound on the semiacoustic E-Bass makes him an outstanding voice within the Jazzworld. His band „Melt Trio“ was acclaimed by the press for the recordings „Melt“, „Hymnolia“ & „Stroy“ and nominated for the EchoJazz three times. Bernhard Meyer completed a master program for composition with Prof John Hollenbeck at the Jazz Institut Berlin and found as a result a way to deepen his individual compositional skills. He played/ is playing in projects like John Hollenbeck`s “DrumsBassBassBassDrums”, Kurt Rosenwinkel`s “E.Coli”, Eric Schäfer`s “The Shredzs”, Claudio Puntin`s “Sepiasonic” and is a long time band member of singer Lea W Frey. 2016 he recorded as a duo with John Hollenbeck and for Wanja Slavin`s „Lotus Eaters“ alongside with Nasheet Waits. For the following year 2018 two new projects will be presented: The joint quartett by the Meyer brothers mit Jim Black & Wanja Slavin. And „Murmuration“, the first band as sole leader, a quintett feat. Claudio Puntin (Clarinette), Julius Heise (Vibraphon, Perc), Peter Meyer (Git) & Andi Haberl (Drums).

Wanja Slavin
(b.1982), started with clarinet and piano at the age of six. His first teachers were his father and Hildegard Niemann, later Nicolas Simion (Saxophon and Composition), Lee Konitz (Saxophon), Rolf Weber (Clarinet) and Kazue Suzuki (Piano).

At the age of 15 Slavin started at the Richard- Strauss Konservatorium studying Clarinet and Saxophon by Leszek Zadlo. Beside he’s studies at the Conservatory he also took lessons in composition by Vadim Werbitzky.

2008 – 2010 Slavin began he’s further education in Film music at HFF in Potsdam Babelsberg by professor Ulrich Reuter.

As a musician Wanja Slavin gain several prices: at New Generation Förderpreis des Bayerischen Rundfunks he won the first price twice. At Gasteig Musikwettbewerb, Jugend Jazzt and BMW Welt Jazz Award 2011 he gained the second price. 2014 he won the echo jazz.

2005 Wanja Slavin debuted as composer at festival der Münchner Gesellschaft für neue Musik. About the same time he premiered pieces by composer Benedikt W. Schiefer and Vadim Werbitzky that specially had directed their work to Slavin.

Wanja Slavin has been invited to festivals such as Münchner Klaviersommer and Moers Festival and worked with musician Joachim Kühn, Kenny Wheeler, Mederic Collignon, John Schröder, Rudi Mahall, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Tobias Delius, Marty Cook, Geoff Goodman,Paulo Cardoso, Wilfried Hiller, Christian Lilinger to name a few.

Jim Black
Born in 1967, Jim Black grew up in Seattle alongside future colleagues Chris Speed, Andrew D’Angelo and Cuong Vu. After cementing their personal and artistic relationships in Seattle’s various youth jazz ensembles, in 1985 they moved to Boston, where Black entered the Berklee School of Music. In Boston, Black, Speed and D’Angelo formed Human Feel with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, which rapidly attracted the attention of the jazz cognoscenti in Boston, New York and beyond.

By 1991, Black and the other members of Human Feel had moved to New York City, where they electrified the Downtown music scene then centered around the Knitting Factory and rapidly became among the city’s busiest sidemen. Black’s early years in New York saw him take featured roles in some of the most critically acclaimed bands of the time, like Tim Berne’s Bloodcount, Ellery Eskelin’s trio, and Dave Douglas’s Tiny Bell Trio. Thus began fifteen years of near-constant touring and recording, with the above bands as well as artists like Uri Caine, Dave Liebman, Nels Cline, Steve Coleman, Tomasz Stanko, and Laurie Anderson.

In the last years Black enthralled and inspired audiences worldwide as leader of one of the world’s most forward-thinking band, AlasNoAxis, featuring his longtime collaborators Chris Speed, Hilmar Jensson and Skúli Sverrisson.

This album contains no booklet.