CD ECM Records Susanne Abbuehl: Compass

2004

Susanne Abbuehl Vocals
Wolfert Brederode Piano
Christof May Clarinet, Bass Clarinet
Lucas Niggli Drums, Percussion
Michel Portal Clarinet

editie Touchstones - format mini-vinil replica, coperti gatefold, cartonate

Compass is a voyage at many levels: through music and text, with images evoking the freshness of sea air and the colours of wildflowers. A voyage through polar extreme of jazz – from Chick Corea to Sun Ra, through folk song in the slipstream of Luciano Berio, through poetry of James Joyce and William Carlos Williams. Also a journey through subtly undulating chamber music, improvised and otherwise. Through it all, Susanne Abbuehl’s cool, undemonstrative-yet-strangely-mesmeric voice is the unifying factor. She sings and speaks and whispers directly into the listener’s ear: an intimate, ‘interior’ voice, singing like thinking aloud. Recorded 2003 and 2004.

Jazzman - Choc du mois

Give thanks for singers like Susanne Abbuehl whose ambition stretches beyond the Great American Songbook. … Using the sparest resources, Abbuehl and her musicians create rich orchestral textures in much the way Mike and Kate Westbrook fashion music of great depth and range from a handful of instruments. Like them Abbuehl’s imagination seeks to conceive something lasting and profound. Yet this is not difficult or unapproachable music but thought-provoking and emotionally moving.
Duncan Heining, Jazzwise

This second album shows how well she has forged a distinct and quite beautiful sound. She has a talent for adaptation, with two songs based on Berio’s Folk Songs cycle, tunes by Sun Ra and Chick Corea with her own words; and four Joyce settings. … Her musicians, including pianist Wolfert Brederode and drummer Lucas Niggli never put a foot wrong. And Christof May is the perfect foil for Abbuehl, with sensitive phrasing and liquid tone.
John L Walters, The Guardian