Digital Download

Available

 
EFEU, halb
REM/nah
or download VALENTIN DUIT QUARTETT @ Bandcamp

VALENTIN DUIT QUARTETT SINN/Ist

CD album | gg499
The Valentin Duit Quartett consists of Robert Unterköfler on saxophones, Tobias Meissl on vibraphone, Ivar Roban Križić on double bass and Valentin Duit on drums. The quartet interprets pieces by Valentin Duit which offer space for collective and solo improvisation in different ways. It emerged from the Tobias Meissl Trio in 2023 and has existed as a collective exploratory ensemble ever since. Valentin Duit is a Vienna-based drummer who plays with various ensembles mainly in the fields of jazz and improvised music, e.g. Dsilton, Tobias Meissl Trio, Pynzenyk/Rosilio/Duit or Vienna Improvisers Orchestra. Ivar Roban Križić is a researcher, musician, curator, and composer active in the field of improvised music. His artistic practice encompasses a wide variety of international projects, spanning contemporary jazz, experimental music, and free improvisation. His research is focused on musical cognition, AI, and technical and technological extensions of the double bass. Tobias Meissl is a Vibraphonist, Composer and Pianist from Vienna, investigating the relationship of Composition and Improvisation in the context of spontaneous interpretation and de- / reconstruction of given structures through his work. After completing his studies in Jazz Composition and Vibraphone at Berklee College of Music and Music and Arts Private University Vienna, Meissl now lives in Vienna, where he is a sought-after sideman in various musical situations and has received several composing commissions. He also leads and writes for his own groups, currently working mostly with the Tobias Meissl Trio which released its debut album Mr. Resolved in 2024. Robert Unterköfler is an Austrian saxophonist, composer and educator. Besides the saxophone as his main-instrument, he also plays clarinet, flute & electronic wind instruments. Robert began his jazz studies at the Konservatorium Klagenfurt. He holds a Bachelor degree from the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien and also studied in Groningen and Rotterdam. He holds a masters degree in Music Education from Jam Music Lab University, which was part of the Ö1 Jazzstipendium he won in 2018. He is part of Christian Muthspiels Orjazztra Vienna, the Valentin Duit Quartett, the trio slowklang, the quartet river and has his solo project sidrat. Full tracklist: 1. SINT 2. EFEU, halb 3. ROSE mag 4. SINN/ist 5. REM/nah. Price: € 20,-/copy incl. worldwide shipping.

This is a relatively short release, concise and to the point. Five tracks, starting with SINT. Some sections are composed, with melodic lines doubled between instruments. Far from being cocktail jazz, but equally far from being the radical, noisy free impro from the likes of Peter Brötzmann, this is educated and atmospheric chamber jazz and improvised music with ties to the classical Second School of Vienna (Webern, Schönberg) in terms of the formation of the melody of some pieces. But things always get into an exciting groove, reminiscent of Steps Ahead in the eighties.
(Vital Weekly, August 2025)

Duit klopft und tappt als Sinn-Stifter, die anderen folgen auf Zehen- und mit Fingerspitzen seiner melodischen Spur. (...) Das Tenorsax leicht und lyrisch und fast so cool wie Lester Young. Die Bluesiness jedoch gedämpft mit kapuzinergruftigem Flor, fragilen Glück-und-Glas-Vibes und zagem, bebendem Bogenstrich.
(Bad Alchemy, September 2025)