Anklam
Anklam
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Fridolin Blumer – double bass
About the album
The first solo album of Swiss double bass player and composer Fridolin Blumer is an exceptional album, even for the rarity-driven catalogue of Carpe Diem Records. Acting as a stylistic counterpoint to the many Early Music solo albums on the label, “Anklam” is a solo album of entirely improvised contemporary double bass music, focusing on instantaneous musical creation in the moment, instead of reviving century-old compositions. Fridolin Blumer is a jazz musician who has dedicated his whole musical career to exploring music beyond the written score, even beyond formal musical concepts. His style is not easily determined by conventional understanding of music. His music is primarily sound that evolves and moves in time, creating structures while moving through and past them, taking the listener on an unforeseeable trip into the feeling and thinking process of the creative mind.
His music is non-descriptive, not trying to depict anything outside of itself, not telling a story other than its own. The album is called Anklam simply because that’s where it was recorded. It is split into twelve pieces just to give it a conceivable structure. The parts have numbers, as they together form a sort of larger musical structure. Any intrinsic meaning, inner beauty or musical logic remains at the listener’s disposal to be discovered, heard or felt. Fridolin Blumer opens a vast space of possibilities of understanding and insight by staying as grounded and elementary as possible. In this way, he creates a sonic artwork that is at the same time spiritual and deeply human.
“The line I trace with my feet walking to the museum is more important and more beautiful than the lines I find there hung up on the walls.” (F. Hundertwasser)
Release date:
Catalogue number: CD-16337
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tracklist
Tracklist of "Anklam"
Part I
01. Anklam I 2:08
02. Anklam II 3:07
03. Anklam III 4:32
04. Anklam IV 3:05
05. Anklam V 3:12
06. Anklam VI 3:08
07. Anklam VII 5:34
Part II
08. Anklam VIII 4:55
09. Anklam IX 3:33
10. Anklam X 5:29
11. Anklam XI 3:11
12. Anklam XII 1:17
Total time 43:18
booklet text
For me, the adventure of playing music entails listening and thus gaining a better understanding of the world. This means feeling it intensely and expanding our ability to explore it as well as possible.
Over the past 20 years, my work as a freelance bassist in jazz, improvisation, new music, and pop has allowed me to accumulate a vast array of musical experiences from various traditions. When I play, I tap into this reservoir, following my inner ear to place sounds in time. This process generates musical energy that ultimately resonates with the audience. At its best, this energy is congruent with the energy that is triggered by encounters, insights, observations, feelings, situations or events in everyday life, and thus can perhaps offer a bit more clarity to the mysteries of the world.
I was inspired to this way of working by artists such as Alberto Giacometti, Thomas Bernhard, Patricia Highsmith, and Robby Müller, whose work reveals what lies hidden behind styles, ideologies, and conventional expectations. A direct influence on my playing comes from the great jazz bassists of the 1950s and 60s, who created timeless music with their gut string sound.
The music on this album emerged in the moment and on the edge of the unknown during a two-day recording session in a studio near Anklam on the Baltic coast. Sound engineer and producer Jonas Niederstadt captured the sound of my bass with an emotional and intimate sounding recording. The album is released on his label, „Carpe Diem Records“, alongside a collection of diverse solo recordings that, despite their differences, share a unique connection.
The ideas for the individual pieces and the album’s dramaturgical sequence developed organically over a year of daily solo practice and concerts in Zurich. These pieces are not conventional compositions but rather explorations of four simple parameters: sound/harmonic structure, rhythm, dynamics, and dramaturgy. The treatment of these parameters varies in each piece, ranging from precisely specified, to within a defined framework, to completely free improvised.
The development of my solo music goes back even further, as I have always engaged in it as a contrast or counterpoint to my interactive band performances. I gave my first solo concert in 2003 as part of my A-level thesis. In 2015, I produced the recording „Camping; Café Bar“, released by „Creative Sources Recording“, and since 2016, I have regularly performed solo concerts. From 2017 to 2022, I recorded a bass solo sketch every September („September Solos“) to track changes in my perception, which helped me discover new musical material and sound spaces throughout the year.
Fridolin Blumer, July 2024
recording information
Recorded march 28–29, 2024
Location: Klanghaus am See, Klein Jasedow, Germany
Balance engineer & recording producer: Jonas Niederstadt
Corporate Design: Tim+Tim, timandtim.com
Cover photography: Fridolin Blumer
Booklet photography: Jonas Niederstadt
Produced by Jonas Niederstadt
© 2024 Carpe Diem Records