Wrens

Wrens

(AT, US)

European premiere

During its earliest days New York’s Wrens were characterized by the jagged, gut-punching beats of drummer Jason Nazary (the late Jaimie Branch’s partner in Anteloper and current beatmaker in Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones) forming deep, head-nodding rhythms with the squirming, shape-shifting synthesizer melodies and textures of keyboardist Elias Stemeseder (the Austrian polymath known for his collaborations with drummers Christian Lillinger and Jim Black). Ryan Easter, a double threat as a fleet-tongued MC and an adventurous trumpeter, rapped with a deliciously splintered flow, draggy but locked-in. The earliest recordings on its album “alligator shoes [on flatbush]” reflect a refusal to stratify that sound, balancing tough rhymes and stuttering grooves with free-flowing improvisation.

The ensemble has veered toward greater abstraction with the addition of Lester St. Louis (another member of Elder Ones and key part of Branch’s beloved Fly or Die quartet) on cello and electronics. The second half of the album chronicles this shift, a collective investment in undulating sound and febrile textures that sounds like a violently blorpy deconstruction of 1980s Miles Davis, where Nazary’s already off-kilter rhythms break apart even further, and Easter focuses more on his horn than his voice.

Line-up

Ryan Easter – trumpet, electronics, vocals
Elias Stemeseder – piano, synthesizers
Lester St. Louis – cello, sound design
Jason Nazary – drums, synthesizers

---

23:30

Jam-Session

On all four days of the festival, the daily jam sessions at Quasimodo will revive an old Jazzfest Berlin tradition. Musicians from the festival programme will be invited to improvise together in entirely new constellations in a relaxed atmosphere until late at night.