Collaborations between established bands and guest musicians are wonderful opportunities to explore new paths. Familiar, improvised vocabulary is re-contextualized almost by itself. The new album "Was the Clown Not Real?" by MOTUSNEU is not intended to "feature" guest musicians, but is driven by curiosity, giving their own sound new forms through inspiration and interaction.

This attitude runs like a thread through the recordings and concerts of MOTUSNEU. It is about a collective. Since 2022, Bruno Angeloni, Stephan Deller, and Steffen Roth have been working as a trio in their hometown of Leipzig, developing their distinctive musical voice, which has since made an impact with its precision and rawness.

With trombonist Steve Swell, who has long been found in the record collections of connaisseurs of the international improv scene as well as traditional jazz listeners, they found a perfect and adventurous partner, who, like the trio, is a proponent of ever-changing forms.

The choice of Swell was intuitive. Triggered by a record playing in the tour van and Angeloni’s secret love for the trombone, the invitation went out and was soon answered with, "I definitely can hear myself with you guys!" The result was joint concerts in Germany and a two-day recording session at the Zentri-Fuge studio in Berlin.

Their shared love for energetic passages that capture the chaos of our time without slipping into chaotic disorder blends throughout the album with airy, interwoven threads of instant composing. The recording reveals a carefully crafted musical language that was refined and honed improvisationally, especially live on stage. The result is a holistic musical texture that brings the individual characters of the players equally to the forefront, emphasizing their collaborative spirit.

With the title "Was the Clown Not Real?", listeners are mostly left to their own imagination and life reality. Uncommented but enriched, the album title is complemented by a mixed-media cover featuring overpainted Polaroid photos by Oskar Rottenbach.

An Ode to the Mutable.

Zaylen Cray