Act Music

The energy and the unassailable virtuosity with which Marius Neset burst onto the scene have not been forgotten. Back in 2004, as a nineteen-year old student recently moved to Copenhagen, he won the Talent Award at Norway’s Nattjazz Festival.

The most complete set ever recorded of Liszt’s output for the organ: new recordings, made on the superb, recently restored instrument of Perugia Cathedral by a musician with a catalogue of critically acclaimed recordings on Brilliant Classics.

Voice, guitar and alto saxophone in intimate, sensitive interplay. And music full of warmth, depth and with surprising twists.

Pianist David Helbock and bassist/cellist Julia Hofer have things in common: a playful curiosity combined with the urge to try out new things and to have fun. Both of these Austrians are also perfectionists…and natural communicators…and that’s why their musical combination works so well. “I was looking for a new duo partner,” says David Helbock, "because although I am completely passionate about my ‘Austrian Syndicate’ project, it's a really tricky thing to put together, a large band…lots of keyboards. Together with ACT CEO and producer Andreas Brandis, the idea of an acoustic duo reduced to its emotional essence was finally born - a format in which musical communication works more directly than in any other line-up.

In September, the band announced the new three-part opera, serving as a sequel to the band’s classic double records ‘Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’ (1995) and ‘Machina/The Machines Of God’ (2000). Frontman Billy Corgan told NME about the grand ambitions for the project, explaining: “Because there’s a lot of people who believe less is more these days. I’m on the opposite side – I actually think more is more!”

"Riot Act" is the seventh studio album by American rock band Pearl Jam. Following a full-scale tour in support of its previous album, Binaural, Pearl Jam took a year-long break. The band then reconvened in the beginning of 2002 and commenced work on a new album. The music on the record featured a diverse sound, including songs influenced by folk, art rock, and experimental rock. The lyrics deal with mortality and existentialism, with much influence from both the political climate after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the accidental death of nine fans during Pearl Jam's performance at the 2000 Roskilde Festival.

Berlin might well be considered widely as the creative hub of the German jazz scene, but in the deep south of the country there is another city where talented and promising musicians are finding new pathways in jazz. Among these, for example, are the Jazzrausch Bigband, vocalist Alma Naidu and guitarist Philipp Schiepek. They all hail from Munich. Bassist Nils Kugelmann, born in 1996, is another new talent from the Bavarian capital. His ACT debut "Stormy Beauty" makes it clear why, already at a young age, he is considered among the top German bass-players.

Any conversation about the piano trio in the European jazz of recent decades will inevitably touch on the topic of the "Nordic sound". The leading exponents of it – Jan Johansson, Bobo Stenson, Bugge Wesseltoft, Esbjörn Svensson… – have not just drawn on the vast palette of American jazz, they are also musicians steeped in the songs of their homelands, as well as in the European classical music canon and contemporary music. With their strong feeling for melody, harmony and dramaturgy, pianist Benjamin Nørholm Jacobsen, bassist Martin Brunbjerg Rasmussen and drummer Lasse Jacobsen create a cinematic sound, music which can at times be melancholic, at others enchantingly beautiful, and which is full of twists and turns.

‘I keep thinking about how to lead a band from the drums in a way that gives the instrument a central role, but one which is more about shaping the music than displaying virtuosity,’ says Wolfgang Haffner. This way of working, a common thread throughout his career, is a key factor in ‘Life Rhythm’, his tenth album for ACT. Haffner may shun the virtuoso drummer/ bandleader stereotype – and do so intentionally – but ‘Life Rhythm’ nonetheless has the drums at its very heart. Back in 2022, Wolfgang Haffner was given the opportunity to play the first solo concert of his career, an event that started the sequence of events which have led to this album. He remembers: ‘That was an insane challenge. I had a decision to make: was I really going to play a drum solo … for a full hour? Of course not.’ This reflection encouraged Haffner, who has habitually composed his music at the piano, to make use of the drums in his songwriting process.

Pianist Jan Lundgren from Ystad in Sweden and guitarist Yamandu Costa, from Brazil’s southernmost province Rio Grande del Sur might seem an unlikely pairing, and the combination of guitar and piano is well known to be fraught with difficulty. But the collaborative affinity of this duo, the chemistry which they have found through playing together, first in a handful of concerts, and now on this fine album, are something truly exceptional.