TON herzog | muche | nillesen
TON herzog | muche | nillesen is a Cologne-based trio featuring Matthias Muche on trombone, Etienne Nillesen on snare drum, and Constantin Herzog on double bass. Known for their innovative approach to sound, TON creates shifting textures that blur the boundaries between improvisation and composition, drawing on minimalist and spectral influences.
TON herzog | muche | nillesen spielt eine aktuelle Musik an den Grenzlinien von Jazz und neuer Musik. Ziel ist es eine einfache abstrakte Sprache zu finden, die dennoch einen erzählerischen Charakter hat; eine Musik, die jenseits eingetretener Pfade immer wieder zu neuen Abenteuer in Sachen Klang aufbricht und Genre-Begriffe lustvoll dehnt.
Matthias Muche - TROMBONE
Etienne Nillesen - EXTENDED SNARE DRUM
Constantin Herzog - DOUBLE BASS
Current concert series at Stadtgarten and at Kunst-Station Sankt Peter Cologne:
TON meets Sofia Jernberg, Anna Webber, Marta Warelis, Frédéric Blondy, Sarah Davachi, Mariel Roberts, RAGE Thormbones feat. Weston Olencki & Mattie Barbier, Nate Wooley / Anne La Berge / Madison Greenstone
Video by Eva Jeske and Podcast by Leonie Reineke at:
https://www.youtube.com/@T.ON_music
Discographie (IMPAKT @bandcamp):
TON plays HERZOG / MUCHE / NILLESEN
TON plays LA BERGE / GREEENSTONE / PLUTA / WOOLEY
Foto-Download: http://www.matthiasmuche.com/downloads/?goto=downloads
Reviews:
TON meets SARAH DAVACHI
Martin Hufner writes in Neue Musik Zeitung 2024: “TON always focuses on new musical emphases in their programs at the boundaries of advanced playing forms of experimental music, between improvisation and composition. The goal is to find an abstract language with its own character; music that ventures beyond well-trodden paths into new adventures in sound, playfully stretching genre terms. TON is known for eliciting precisely those sounds from their instruments that one does not associate with so-called traditional playing techniques—but with an ease that does not chase after sound sensations like unknown orchids or butterflies. This is the only way a new, mimetically intertwined whole emerges here. As always with TON, everything is played with a care that does not provide sharp surprises for the listeners but, paradoxically enough, is a continuous surprise. Behind every crackle and impulse, behind every veiled overtone, there lurks a special appeal for the ears. A great play in terms of form, dynamics, register, and fluid tonality. Do you have time for this? You need do nothing more than be there. No one will try to convince you, no one will persuade you to do anything; you simply go along this path… or not. Your decision.“
TON plays HERZOG / MUCHE / NILLESEN
G. T. Briquet - JAZZHALO Belgien (03/2024): „Stark, wie die drei jedes Mal auf der gleicher Linie sind, bei so vielen Extremen...Gleichermaßen widersetzt sich das Trio jedem Format oder jeder Formel.“
Martin Schray - freejazzblog (05/2024): "...the focus is not on the individual signature, but on a communal experience, the three instruments merging into one.What is more, there is also the unique sound associated with the venue: the album was recorded in Cologne at Church St. Gertrud, one of the brutalist concrete churches from the 1960s. With its extreme acoustics it adds another quality to the music. Sound in a specific space has always been an essential part of the trio. In this sense, they have experimented with different playing setups, with spoken parts and soundscapes, spatializations via external sound funnels or quite purely with the naked instruments.
This is the basis that the thirteen pieces unfold seemingly easy. The titles arise from the phrase “Inspiration Is A Condition Of The Heartstrings Being Plucked And Vibration“ plus some kind of encore, “Hello," with vocals by Anthony Moore. In this last piece, one of the aforementioned spoken parts, Moore addresses the listeners claiming that the sentence we are about to hear will have disappeared by the time we have reached its end. Actually, it’s a piece that recapitulates on a meta-level the process of making music by this trio, a perfect summary of the album.
The form of interaction between space and sound, playing attitudes and the sound possibilities of the individual instruments is at the heart of the music. Nothing sounds strained, nothing gets lost in the nowhere, no cheap imitations of the playing of the fellow musicians - the trio acts as a unit from the beginning, the fusion of sounds and dynamics is the goal - and that throughout at a high level of intensity. simply an excellent album."
T.ON plays LA BERGE / GREEENSTONE / PLUTA / WOOLEY
F. Matzner - THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORDS (01/2023): „In ihrer Gesamtheit entsteht ein Klangamalgam, das sich zwar an frühere Innovatoren wie Anthony Braxton oder die vorgefundenen Klänge und den Minimalismus von John Cage anlehnt, aber über eine einfache Nachahmung hinausgeht. Es stellt eine eigene Form der Interaktion zwischen Raum und Klang, technischen Zwängen und den Möglichkeiten der einzelnen Instrumente dar.“
D. Mulder im VITAL WEEKLY (05/2022): „In der Musik dieses Ensembles finden sich viele verschiedene Einflüsse aus Improvisation und moderner komponierter Musik, Noise und Drone Music. Es muss beeindruckend sein, den Raum zu erleben, der von den allgegenwärtigen Klängen dieses abenteuerlichen Trios erfüllt ist.“
T.ON plays MATTHIAS MUCHE
Felix Klopotek - Stadtrevue (11/2020): "…Die Improvisationsmusik von Matthias Muche (Posaune), Constantin Herzog (Kontrabass) und Etienne Nillesen (präparierte, »erweiterte« Snare Drum) basiert auf Vorgaben, strukturellen Ideen, Regeln. Sie stammen von Matthias Muche, daher der Albumtitel, und stehen ganz im Dienst der Sache: eine homogene, kompakte, sehr dichte, dennoch aber durchhörbare und klare Musik zu spielen. Es geht hier nicht um die individuelle Handschrift.
Gravitätisch entfalten sich die drei Stücke, nichts klingt verzagt, nichts zerfällt, kein angestrengtes Call-and-Response-Spiel — die Musiker agieren von Beginn an als Einheit, setzen auf die Verschmelzung von Klängen und Dynamiken — und das durchgehend auf hohem Intensitätsniveau. Das macht die Musik mitreißend und sofort nachvollziehbar, aber eben nicht vorhersehbar. Denn immer wieder brechen die Instrumentalstimmen aus oder wachsen über sich hinaus: Der Druck, den Nillesen nur mit einer einzigen, zudem recht kleinen, Trommel erzeugt, ist erstaunlich. Dann können Muche und Herzog, die sonst satt und fett spielen, in andere Lagen ausweichen und es ergibt sich die Grundlage für eine neue Verschmelzung."
Peter Margasak - TheQuietus (2020): "This resourceful trio from Cologne, Germany delves into compelling compositional forms to inspire rigorous improvisation, using pieces by its trombonist Matthias Muche to foster high-level interaction."
TON is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Biographies:
Etienne Nillesen’s exploration of the snare drum highlights the diverse tonal and temporal intricacies of the instrument, employing extended durations that emphasize gradual variations in texture and overtone complexity. Through a combination of traditional and extended techniques, he unveils an array of unexplored and unexpected sonic dimensions within the seemingly limited realm of the snare drum. By utilizing circular motions to explore different areas of the drumhead and deliberately varying the contact points, Etienne generates a diverse range of pitches, harmonics, and overtones in which a rhythmic macrostructure emerges with accents appearing freely.
His music, despite its minimalist approach, achieves a remarkable complexity of sound. Each meticulously crafted note and nuance demands undivided attention and concentration from both the performer and the listener, fostering a deep connection between the two. The act of listening becomes an integral part of the experience. Etienne is currently on the faculty of the ArtEZ Academy of Music in Arnhem (NLD), where he teaches improvisation and drums.
http://etiennenillesen.com/
Matthias Muche is a trombonist and composer living in Cologne. He represents a generation of composer-performers for whom the distinction between jazz, improvised music, and contemporary music no longer applies. He confidently draws from the diverse heritage of the avant-gardes of the 20th and 21st centuries - as a composer as well as a virtuoso improviser and performer.
His work focuses on interdisciplinary projects in music, theatre, dance, and video art, with which he has performed in over 50 countries. In his performances, he uses a variety of playing techniques: recordings of speech and soundscapes in the trombone, spatial expansion through external funnels, interactive computer graphics as synesthetic perception, or simply the pure, naked trombone.
Muche was awarded the WDR Jazz Prize 2021 in the Improvisation category.
“[…] Like Vinko Globokar and Stuart Dempster before him, German composer-trombonist Matthias Muche explores this often-overlooked instrument’s potential to extend the sonic possibilities of the human body.” Emily Pothast - THE WIRE.
linktr.ee/matthiasmuche
Constantin Herzog is active as a bassist in and between various musical genres: new music, improvised music, and jazz. Music for film, radio plays, and stage with double bass, electric bass, violone, and electronics.
Performances include TON, DEHIO, consord, Oxana Omelchuk, Multiple Joy(ce) Orchestra, Ensemble tra i tempi, Ensemble Garage, Ensemble electronic ID, Ensemble Musikfabrik, GroBA, Studio Dan. CD releases on Anna Ott, Clean Feed, NRW Records, gligg Records, Unit Records, Impakt Records, GOGO Records, WERGO, HatHut.
Classical double bass studies with Detmar Kurig at the HfMT Cologne, jazz double bass studies at the music colleges of Würzburg and Cologne with Rudi Engel and Dieter Manderscheid.
Founding member of IMPAKT-Köln.