# CD review: Abisko Lights – Dirk Flatau – Point Of View 2019: Video, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2019/03/22/cd-review-abisko-lights-dirk-flatau-point-of-view-2019-video-cd-cover/
- Published: 2019-03-22T16:00:21+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**What happens when five musicians from the wild, young, dynamic Berlin music scene
get together? In the best case, wonderfully flowing, organic, beguiling music. The
best from many musical worlds is rounded off to pure jazz poetry by the quintet 
Abisko Lights founded by pianist Dirk Flatau, as the second album “Point of View”
impressively proves.**

The band name refers to a small town in the Swedish Lapland north of the Arctic 
Circle, where you can follow the fascinating spectacle of the Northern Lights particularly
well. The name thus represents the musical program by Flataus and his companions,
to be inspired by magical places and the memories evoked by them. Musicians, and
especially jazz musicians, are always travelers and seekers, musically as well as
geographically. Dirk Flatau’s own personal impressions turn “Point of View” into
a musical road movie, in literally transboundary soundscapes. Be it magical moments
like camping on the lake in the endless forests of Scandinavia and spending the 
night in the Egyptian desert or even just a memorable, never-ending bar-talk and
a heartfelt evening alone on his balcony on Berlin’s Sonnenallee.

The fact that these impressionistic treasures are always surprising and rich in 
color is ensured by the unusual instrumentation of Abisko Lights: cello and bass
clarinet are added to the usual piano trio rhythm section. More importantly, of 
course, these instruments are invariably played by masters of their craft who come
from different directions. Each one contributes his own strengths and preferences:
Dirk Flatau himself studied jazz and classical piano in Amsterdam and played there
with greats of the Dutch music scene such as Janne Schra, Renee van Bavel and Amber
Schoop before he went to Berlin where he worked with Chris Hirson, Diego Piñera 
and Marie Séférian. Drummer Benjamin Wellenbeck moves between jazz and pop. Flatau
studied with him at the Amsterdam Conservatory: he worked as a drummer, but also
as an arranger, composer or producer for projects as diverse as the Pär Lammers 
Trio, Götz Rausch Orchester and OrangotangoMusic. The palette of bassist Thomas 
Kolarczyk ranges from jazz and world music to experimental rock, winning numerous
prizes at the youth age and gaining higher degrees in instrumentation with Marc 
Muellbauer and Greg Cohen in Berlin. In jazz, he’s out and about with Abisko Lights
and his own quintet of award-winning bands like Leléka or the Marc Doffey Quintet.

A true generalist is bass clarinetist Hannes Daerr, who studied saxophone and clarinet
at the Weimar conservatory “Franz Liszt”. He has worked extensively as a studio 
and theater musician and has worked in world music groups such as Azul Cielo, the
Tango Ensemble Bassa or Klezmer Formations as well as in Moritz Sembritzki’s Magnetic
Ghost Orchestra and his own Quartet No Trash, fully dedicated to jazz. The cellist
Tabea Schrenk finally comes completely from a classical music background. Trained
in Helsinki, London, Cardiff and Berlin and receiving several awards, she was an
Academy graduate of Welsh National Opera and BBC Now; and plays different styles
for various theaters, the Berlin Stehgreiforchester and in her own trio She Plays
Cello.

Together they follow Flatau’s paths on “Point of View”. The process of creating 
the album differs pleasantly from so many others who are quickly recorded before
and for a tour: “Before we went to the studio, we played the pieces so often until
we really internalized the music and found the right mood and energy for everything”,
Flatau reports. You can directly hear that. Together, the five dramatic melodic 
lines mix Arabic elements in the triolic “Assam Special Blend”, listen to minimalistic
individual notes on the title track or follow the cheerful prancing dance of the
eponymous play “Abisko Lights”, where Daerr shines on the carillon. Sometimes it
sounds like great film music, sometimes like an Erik Satie miniature. Everyone is
allowed to open new sound spaces, effortlessly moving between composition and improvisation.
Piece by piece, enchanting music is created, which is allowed to boast of its beauty.

**Tracklist:**

 1. Good Night Berlin
 2. Assam Special Blend
 3. Four Days in November
 4. Point of View
 5. Abisko Lights
 6. Fjäril
 7. Crescent
 8. Nocturne

![Картинки по запросу Abisko Lights - Point Of View](https://i0.
wp.com/www.glm.de/en/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/01_Good_Night_Berlin_snip-mp3-image.
jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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