Reviews

• geert rijssen, december 2017, fullcirclemusicblog.be

  playstation 6 are a sextet consisting of maartje ten hoorn (violin), eric boeren (cornet), tobias delius (clarinet, tenor saxophone), achim kaufmann (piano), meinrad kneer (bass) and paul lovens (drums and percussion). if you are into pure free-jazz, this one's for you. music full of surprises and dynamics with great individual contributions of the musicians involved. an experience in sound and conversation.

  geert rijssen, december 2017, fullcirclemusicblog.be

• ken waxman, november 2008, jazzworld.com

  not the console designed for video games such as grand theft auto, this play station involvement is with a pastime of more serious intent: free improvisation. this play station 6 is a six-member band whose #1 promises an imposing future. the 13 improvisations on its debut session here show off the individual and cumulative talents of this mixed dutch-german ensemble. recorded in köln, the players were in the city to experiment with a sextet format, adding veteran drummer paul lovens to a line-up that performs as a quintet in the netherlands. two of the other participants are german-born: pianist achim kaufmann and bassist meinrad kneer. the others – violinist maartje ten hoorn, cornetist eric boeren and reed man tobias delius – all except for the last dutch – live in amsterdam, as do kaufmann and kneer. extracting many rabbits – not evil ones, one hopes – from his hatful of percussion tricks during the session, it hardly seems plausible that lovens hasn’t been with the group full-time from the beginning.

  but considering that he regularly gigs with everyone from french bassist joëlle léandre to german pianist alexander von schlippenbach, that wouldn’t be possible. as someone involved with euroimprov since the early 1970s however, his ability to instantaneously sonically connect with the others shouldn’t surprise. throughout, the drummer’s clapping crash cymbals, darkening snare slaps and panoply of drum manipulations finesses coordination among the other players. comparable high-gloss musicianship characterizes the others as well. boren has played in the bik bent braam and chris abelen large bands; delius with abelen, available jelly and the icp; titular leader ten hoorn with the icp orchestra and her own string groups; and evil rabbit label co-owner kneer with bite the gnatze and the veenendaal/kneer/sun trio.

  these multi-faceted experiences are demonstrated throughout the cd’s 13 instant compositions as individual musicians are featured on different tracks, with the lead and accompanying roles passed around democratically. “untitled” for instance, is a showcase for the multiphonic arco inventions of ten hoorn which dramatically arch and curve into sul ponticello timbres. yet the string set skirts stridency when matched with soundboard reverberations from kaufmann, substantial plucks from kneer and low-frequency cymbal friction from lovens.

  “unprepared” – which is anything but – is built around the pianist’s allegro key beating and clipping, which unfold kinetically while the honking saxophone and distracted plunger trumpet circle around piano cadenzas. here the fiddler’s high-pitched scratching become a secondary ostinato, linked with delius’ feathery emphasis. the finale showcases boeren progressively narrowing his air down to singular breaths and pressured mouthpiece movements. boeren’s back-of-throat ratcheting and delius’ growling smears stand out in “alone”, whose introductory passages include vibrating pizzicato actions from kneer, firmly in the free jazz tradition, and scraping oscillations from ten hoorn. this abrasive string friction is eventually partnered with funereal-paced, nearly equal temperament patterning from kaufmann. if free jazz is referenced on “alone”, then a variation of hard bop is attained on “bravas”. not orthodox hard bop of course. here as the slippery cornet lead intersects with kaufmann’s low-frequency syncopation kneer’s pumping resonation skirts a relentless groove. unfolding staccato and prestissimo, the piece allows boeren’s fired-up cornet line to be transformed into open-horn braying as delius bites his reed and snorts a counterline. eventually while the pianist strums encompassing connective chords in double time, ten hoon’s crying squeaks and stops and boeren’s horn shakes suggest energy music as well as hard bop. the result: pomo free bop. although visuals may be lacking in this version of play station, there’s still enough excitement and interaction exhibited to create anticipation for version #1.1 from the band.

  ken waxman, november 2008, jazzworld.com

• phoshor magazine number 123, september 2007

  the first offering by the label evil rabbit records comes in a lovely cover. six musicians make up for playstation 6, being maartje ten hoorn (violin), eric boeren (carnet), tobias delius (clarinet, tenor sax), achim kaufmann (piano), meinrad kneer (double bass) and the german drummer paul lovens. this group of improvisors deliver a jazzy experimental live improv. session consisting of twelve chapters. relatively hectic moments (such as during the fourth track unprepared) interchange with much calmer episodes (outside inside). for the lovers of abstract jazzy improv. music.

  phoshor magazine number 123, september 2007

• robert iannapollo, september 2007, cadence magazine

  play station 6 is a group of three dutch players in the front line (boeren, delius, and ten hoorn...delius was actually born in the u.k. but has lived in holland for over 25 years) and three germans in the rhythm section (kaufmann, kneer, and lovens). there’s been a lot of interchange between german and dutch players since the first stirrings of european improvised music in the 1960s. lovens, whose first recordings as a free improviser stem from around 1970, is one of the most distinctive stylists in the music and is one of the great texturalists among european free jazz drummers. kaufmann is also a texturalist and he frequently can be found preparing the piano or working inside the instrument. i’m unfamiliar with kneer but he has a nice big woody sound and his opening solo on “alone” is a testament to a player who plays hard and with great facility. ten hoorn is an amazing violinist who’s been heard way too little. she’s also a player of great intensity and her kinetic, swirling lines are one of the majorfeatures of this group’s music. boeren and delius are closely associated with the new dutch swing players (with available jelly, i.c.p. orchestra, and bergin’s m.o.b.) but here show themselves to be equally adept at playing less extroverted styles of music. the music on #1is true group music. no one is a dominant soloist and the spirit of communal music is maintained throughout. upon listening, the cd’s statement that everything is improvised with no overdubs and no edits certainly rings true, rendering the conclusions of some of these pieces all the more remarkable. some are very concise: five are less than three minutes. it’s difficult to get a duo or trio to be that concise, so it’s all the more amazing that this sextet scores on that mark. the music spans the gamut of free improvisational strategies from fullbore group charges to subtle sound explorations to solos, duos and trios. play station 6 offers another side of the dutch improvisational music and it’s well worth checking out.

  robert iannapollo, september 2007, cadence magazine

• luca canini, 20 september 2007, all about jazz italy

  tumultuous: i wouldn't know better how to define the music of this third release of evil rabbit. it's music which asks much from you and gives no discount, short minimalist interludes alternated to exhausting digressions in timbre, strident noisy drifts opposing excited frontal attacks, paranoiac and worrying fluttering gently sustained by evanescent plots with a chamber music taste. all this without ever loosing, even in the more cerebral and expanded passages, the overpowering urge of expression and, as we were saying, the tumultuous dance of improvisation. the sextet at work in the 13 tracks – and re-baptized play station 6 – shows more or less young protagonists of the creative dutch music scene. the leader is one of the founders of "evil rabbit”: the double-bass player meinrad kneer, recently heard with the piano player albert van veenendal in the wonderful “predictable point of impact” and the more subdued “the munderkingen sessions”. at his side shine the clarinet and the tenor of a veteran as tobias delius (icp-member since years and outstanding musician in the ‘orange’ scene), the neurasthenic and disturbing violin of maartje ten horn, the edgy piano of the young achim kaufmann (already sparring partner of michael moore and frank gratkowski) and the darting cornet of the acrobatic eric boeren (often recruited in the formations of guus janssen, ab baars and marten altena). special guest is paul lovens who is capable as usual to let himself down brilliantly into the atmospheres created by the companions and to cut out percussive spaces full of fantasy, unpredictable, ironic and always to the point. it is almost a duty to point out the exciting crescendo of “alone” (with a possessed and pyrotechnical delius), the caracoling stately walk of “majo’s retreat” and the free- flavoured sketch evoked with an unmistakable dutch spirit in “bravas”. in conclusion, for who knows and appreciates the music imported from the land of tulips, there is much to have fun with, instead, for whom can’t really boast with these kind of acquaintances the risk is to be disappointed, excluded and burned.

  luca canini, 20 september 2007, all about jazz italy

• brian morton, august 2007, the wire

  almost all the most interesting jazz around at the moment is coming from european players and here's a bunch playing in a free idiom with intelligence and good humour. the better known members of play station 6 are saxophonist/ clarinetist tobias delius, cornetist eric boeren (who, in form, is as good as new jersey's herb robertson) and percussionist paul lovens. but arguable the greatest energy is provided by violinist maartje ten hoorn, pianist achim kaufmann (who's 'preparations' create sounds akin to a detuned zither) and bassist meinrad kneer, who also figures on the other evil rabbit release reviewed below. recorded at the loft in cologne, this is as wonky as an afternoon on skunk in an amsterdam coffee house and as exhilarating as jet-skiing the canals.

  brian morton, august 2007, the wire

• alfredo rastelli, july 2007, sands-zine

  evil rabbit is a young dutch jazz label started by the jazz musicians albert van veenendaal and meinrad kneer, who, according to a growing tendency, decided to start their own label in order to steer the destiny of their own artistic creations. (...) ‘#1’, a work by the six piece ensemble ‘play station 6’, is inspired more by improvised and contemporary chamber music. in this sextet we find again meinrad kneer on double bass, together with an old acquaintance on drums: paul lovens, and other known musicians as the good performer and soloist achim kaufmann and maartje ten hoorn (known from previous cooperations with maarten altena). among these eric boeren and tobias delius are the less known, at least by me, but the ones that, with their jazz background, keep the improvisations on highly charming, fleshy and rhythmic levels (‘man with a scythe’, ‘untitled’ and ‘sommorrostro’; needless to say, lovens is masterly). the intense instrumental interaction, defined as in chamber music, reaches its climax in the longer and may be a bit cerebral but still convincing compositions (‘glorie von holland’, ‘man with a scythe’ including a great performance on double bass by meinrad kneer and ‘unprepared’ with an equal remarkable piece of work by pianist kaufmann). evil rabbit presents itself so highly promising that it’s interesting now to find back the first two releases from the catalogue for other beautiful surprises.

  alfredo rastelli, july 2007, sands-zine

• mitter, july 2007, freistil – No. 14

  all you collectors and music lovers out there, sit up and listen. a new label will captivate you with challenging music released on well-devised, ingeniously designed digipacks. the sextet’s live improvisations know how to hold the prepared musical denouements in skillful abeyance. envoys are sent out (on occasion it’s ten hoorn’s violin, other times boeren’s cornet, or the plaintive sound of tobias delius’ clarinet) in quest of the befitting response, yet they always return from their excursions with a knapsack full of ideas – impressions that are then transmogrified into a collective piece. certainly a boon for the listener to be allowed insight into the workings of an alchemists’ lab.

  mitter, july 2007, freistil – No. 14

• mischa andriessen, may 2007, jazzenzo.nl

  "#1" by the group, that calls itself playstation 6, is the third release on the new label evil rabbit, which, on the first sight, is remarkable because of its splendid graphic design. playstation 6 contains a few renown names of the improv scene among which the one of the german drummer stands out. of course the group is named after the game-computer, but playstation covers perfectly the meaning of the played music: it is playful and emphatically experimental. for quite some people this music will be listed under the name 'peep-peep-knor' and could the group's name bring up associations with the irritating sounds which are produced by such a game-computer. music for a select society, but performed by six musicians who understand their profession particularly well. it is obvious that with such a musical concept comes the fact that not all of the thirteen pieces are pearls. nevertheless "#1" contains very intriguing music. it is not something you come across in every-day life in several meanings of that expression; it's not meant for every day and it's not something you will hear every day.

  mischa andriessen, may 2007, jazzenzo.nl

• beppe colli, 1 april 2007, cloudsandclocks.net

  of all the "genres" in music that i listen to, the one that's conventionally referred to as "improvised music" is maybe the one i think about more often. on one hand, the (quite large) number of different approaches, the (by now), on the average, excellent quality of what gets released, the (relative) user-friendliness of the final product, due to a better signal-to-noise ration on the part of the cd when compared to vinyl, the existence of "languages" (both personal and shared) that still sound fresh, all this makes for a very pleasant experience. on the other hand, though noisy (and ephemeral) phenomena occur from time to time, due to some element that's fashionable for a little while (here i'd say the laptop to be a good example from recent times), as a whole, the "genre" has never had a large audience (once in a while i think about whether the number of listeners is really that larger than the number of players); while the fact that more and more types of music, defeated by market forces, look for dignity (and funding!) in festivals that are subsidized by public money has improvisers in a position of inferiority when compared to those who, though semi-poor, have a name that's well-known.

  i happen to think about these matters, more so when i listen to a cd like the one released by the sextet called play station 6. musicians who are for the most part well-known (details in a moment), whose approach to music here is in my opinion quite clear: it's not the "particles", the "grain", of sound that gets investigated here; instead, six instrumental approaches get combined to produce something that's original, though not of the "never-heard-before" type. given their geographical origins (five dutch, one german), and instrumentation (winds, strings, percussion), i think it's not impossible for readers to have a mental picture of how this music sounds. the album was recorded by stefan deistler in cologne and mixed and mastered by frank van der weij in amsterdam: it's a clear sound, which in my opinion greatly benefits from a bit more volume on the amplifier.

  i'm not terribly familiar with achim kaufmann, here on piano, both in its straight and prepared guise, and meinrad kneer, on double bass. one of the founders of european improvising, paul lovens developed his personal approach in a variety of situations, from large ensembles like the globe unity orchestra to percussion dialogues with paul lytton. i listened for the first time to violin player maartje ten hoorn in the mid-80s, in groups led by maarten altena, and later in misha mengelberg's instant composers pool orchestra; i think she's nowadays quite well-known (check her nice cd for string quartet, titled sparkles). once they were "young guys on the scene", now they are solid realities that need no introduction: clarinet and saxophone (tenor) player tobias delius and cornet player eric boeren are the elements that more often here refer to "jazz" climates.

  (a personal note: though i heard boeren for the first time more than twenty years ago, when he was part of an altena-led line-up, though i tried very hard, i never managed to buy one of the albums where he was the leader, some of which were favourably reviewed in down beat and in the penguin guide to jazz on cd. from what i understand, 4/5 of his cds are sent, fresh off the presses, to the u.s.a., the rest being shipped to some shops in london. ok, guys - but what about us?)

  the six players mix and match to perfection. once in a while the jazz comes out - first track on the cd, the brief somorrostro reminded me of the theme to ornette's free jazz; a jazzy, and agitated, tenor is featured on man with scythe, along with piano and double bass; there is also jazz on the long bravas, which starting from 4' has a development that's almost free. not surprisingly, there are often traces of "classical-sounding" climates, where sometimes boeren's skillful muted cornet adds a nice "mismatch".

  nice tracks are glorie van holland, in some ways a good summary of the whole album; misty; the long unprepared; alone, with a nice opening for solo double bass and nice work on tenor; the concentrated outside inside; majo's retreat, with "african" percussion, and a nice "cool" clarinet: for this writer, this is maybe the best piece on the album, in some ways reminiscent of the best pages by anthony davis. but it's the whole album that's really good and - keeping in mind the aforementioned coordinates - quite accessible.

  the cover alerted me to the fact that all pieces are "live improvisations, no overdubs, no edits", and i have no reason to doubt this. but all tracks, though "unpredictable", have a sense of shape and proportion that's quite prodigious. (what about the black box? violin and clarinet, plus rhythm, start the piece, but then - at 1'15" - we have silence, and then piano, and cymbals, that had me pleasantly wondering about how this transition had occurred.)

  beppe colli, 1 april 2007, cloudsandclocks.net

• herman te loo, february 2007, jazzflits

  ...detached from the american model and absolutely not jazz-like. no throbbing free jazz with take-it-away-solo's but a well thought through succession of musical ideas. they carefully listen to each other and know when to silence their own instrument so collective improvisations don't ever strand. every once in a while this will lead to a barley audible result as "unprepared" or to propelling passages as in "alone" and sometimes it might lead to just a simple little tune like "bravas".

  herman te loo, february 2007, jazzflits