kraut-jazz band FAZER release new single Dezember via City Slang
FAZER
Release New Single ‘Dezember’
New Album, ‘Plex’, due 14 January via City Slang
Debut London Show at Shacklewell Arms on 26th January
Photo Credit: Michael Wong. Hi-res available here
Watch The Video To ‘Dezember’
German musical polymaths Fazer are today releasing their minimal new single ‘Dezember’ alongside a tongue-in-cheek video made up of stock footage. The band’s new album, ‘Plex’, is due for release on 14th January 2022 via City Slang (Caribou, Efterklang, Los Bitchos) and features the previous two singles, ‘Cuentro’ and ‘Grenadier’.The band are playing their first ever London show at Shacklewell Arms as part of Eat Your Own Ears Recommends, a series of shows where the legendary London promoters pick out the best new bands they are tipping for a big 2022. The show is free entry, but tickets should be booked to avoid disappointment. Book tickets here.Watching the video for new Fazer single ‘Dezember’ leaves viewers unsure if they should laugh or cry. The tune, a soothing swansong of sorts, not only for a year gone by, but for what feels like the end of an era, combined with the cringey stock footage of self-satisfied neo-liberal characters gesticulating, celebrating, then coming unraveled, creates an all too close-to-home feeling of discomfort. The cognitive dissonance masterfully crafted by the band and the director Johannes Brugger certainly doesn’t leave you untouched.
Fazer explain: “December is both the best and the worst month of the year. We wanted to capture this ambivalence. The way the trumpet solo drops after two long minutes is our ‘In The Air Tonight’ moment. The video arguably depicts that same sense of dichotomy in modern life.”
Watch The Video For ‘Dezember’ Here
Fazer’s music cannot simply be described as Jazz; the Munich band is shaped by the experimental pop music of Talk Talk, the Afrobeat of Fela Kuti, the Krautrock of Can and the dub techno of Rhythm & Sound, but masterfully take aspects of all this and more, to create their own sonic identity. Each player and their instrument has an individuality, but together they blend into an organic and flowing overall sound.
Coming from different musical backgrounds, the members of Fazer met while studying jazz at the Academy for Music and Theatre in Munich. The German city has a rich history of improvised music; home to labels ECM (Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Steve Reich) and Enja (Archie Shepp, Eric Dolphy, Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones) aswell as Krautrock icons Amon Düül II, Popol Vuh & Embryo.
Playing with two sitting drummers, a vigorous groove runs through all of Fazer’s music, whilst guitar, trumpet and bass play off each other, gradually developing textures and harmonies. Having recorded their previous album ‘Nadi’ in London, the quintet stayed in Munich to write and record their new album, ‘Plex’, over two months of intense sessions.
During the recording process, they played the new material live in the room, until they were able to play and record in a relaxed and self-confident way. The advantage of this way of working is that the magical first take can make it onto an album – a tactical move that worked out several times for ‘Plex’, as the album tremors with energetic charge.
The fact that Fazer’s music cannot be causally assigned to one place and sound is not least due to the special band constellation with two drummers, who deal a lot with music from regions where rhythm and also polyrhythms are more important than in Europe. For the band, this is an endless reservoir of learning and stimulation to define jazz as a large space of possibilities.
FAZER are: Martin Brugger, Paul Brändle, Matthias Lindermayr, Simon Popp und Sebastian Wolfgruber