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Max Arsava

nowhere dense 

Max Hirth tenor saxophone

Ignaz Schick turntables, voltage controlled sampler

Max Arsava piano, synthesizer,

electronics 

Alex Bayer double bass

Flo Fischer drums 

recorded december 2022 at Bonello Studio Berlin

 

aut records (AUT100)

  • Bandcamp

about 

Max Arsava is a Berlin-based pianist, composer and improviser. He works mainly at the intersections of contemporary music, free jazz and electroacoustic music with a strong interest in DIY, free improvisation, noise rock and other forms of community-oriented experimentalism. Besides the piano, he also plays synthesizers and other electroacoustic devices working with tapes, radio, contact microphones, as well as loopers and samplers. read more

discography

Einemsen // True Lions- split (manor records, 2024) 

Max Arsava- nowhere dense (aut records, 2023)

werken- kollektive verkabelung (creative sources recordings, 2023)

Max Koch- ten bulls (jazzwerkstatt, 2023)

Max Arsava- inert concaves (label 11, 2021)

collaborations

circuit training 

alter piano

rundfunkorchestra

contact

arsava.max (at) gmail.com

Impressum

He is set to become one of the pianists to watch out for on Germany's new avant-garde jazz scene.

JazzMania May 2024

As the disc unrolls, the sound particles created by Arsava’s pianism which can take on elevated koto-like suggestions or low-pitched warmth, frequently reveal theme elaborations in unison with Hirth’s note shaping slurps and smears. It’s a tribute to Schick’s skill that when his vocal samples, ring modulator-like clangs and noisy drones are heard alongside what otherwise would be a FreeBop narrative, neither the electronic nor the acoustic interface overwhelms the other. A tune like “Mager/Choral” proves this, since the balance between piano chording and machines crackles is rounded into a horizontal climax even as radio tuning signals, reed honks and wood scratches enter the mix.

Jazzword May 2024

This is great; it has a similar feel to recordings from the Zorn/Yoshihide/90s Japan axis, with its playful use of electronics or sampled material (here, the turntables) - though without becoming wacky or arch. This is combined with solid, accessible jazz elements, and I feel like the album has real crossover appeal; it’s more hardboiled than, say, Bohren & der Club of Gore, but I think it would appeal to people into the noisy peripheries of rock. A great, energetic, focused album which is challenging, but accessible and fun - a rare combination.

Musique Machine May 2024 

 

Digital Monads climbs into the nervous system materializing a cut-and-sew pro Matmos progression; Utility Dust is an electroacoustic symposium where piano drops, rustles, frequencies, puffs of breath devise piece after piece of furious free jazz disequilibrium; Mager/Choral is at its base a Feldmanian piano reiteration on which to inject first shreds of caustic electronic undertone, then open to a dense inlay of reduction-loving micro dialogues (as if Nmperign had precisely become a quintet); Adherent Terrain raises the tones of both volume and neurosis, unleashing a frenetic biting of improv solutions that becomes pleasing swing for fine palates; Inchoate Decline raises the bar of love for noir tones through a synergy between repetition and backgrounds of swarming improvisation. Absolutely peculiar experience where a near-infinite number of listens would never be enough to lucidly decipher all the recesses of sound contained. Among the highest emotions experienced in music recently.

Kathodik Feb 2024

Arsava mischt aleatorische Kürzel mit Scratching, launig klimpernd überwindet er kniebrecherische Passagen, Hirth zwängt sich mit Spaltklängen durch Engpässe, Elektronik quecksilbert und zieht Spinnfäden, Bayer plonkt Gummisaiten. Bei 'mager/choral' pfeift der Wind über monotone Töne und ächzende, ploppende, knarzende Laute, Hirth bläst windschief zu wehmütigen Noten. Pizzicato, mit lärmumsponnenem Staccato und knattrigen Schlägen werden Phonogramme stenographiert und dem strammen Schritt eines Boten übergeben, dessen Pace aber schleppend wird. Denn 'gif ooze' hindert den Fortgang mit chaotischem Noise, der sich bei 'inchoate decline' auch durch rasendes Tempo nicht abschütteln, durch eine rührende Melodie nicht beschwichtigen lässt. So prickelt zuletzt auch 'bit debris' in den Schlingen von Schicks ominösem Vinyl, bis sich alles in Säure auflöst. 

Bad Alchemy 122 rbd

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