Listening tip March 2026

E il y aura…

by Christine Abdelnour / Frantz Loriot / David Maier / Pascal Niggenkemper


Released February 1, 2026 on Veto Records

This is a recording by the quartet featuring Christine Abdelnour on alto saxophone, Frantz Loriot on viola, Pascal Niggenkemper on double bass and objects, and David Maier on bass drum and objects.

The album consists of two extended pieces: De 0 à -0.67 and Et il y aura.

I have listened to this recording many times and strongly recommend hearing it on a good sound system or with high quality headphones. Not because the sound is lacking, quite the opposite. But the richness of the frequencies and the highly differentiated, multifaceted interplay of individual sounds should truly not be missed.

This music is highly sensitive and at times almost abrasive. It possesses great clarity and purity, yet also the courage for ruptures, rough interjections, and striking accents. In this way, a fascinating world emerges in which the positions of the musicians clearly define themselves and are set in relation to one another, with precise connections, distinct fields of force, frictions, and points of intersection.

For me, this is music that is willing to renounce much and precisely through that gives everything. Its sonic spectrum ranges from great transparency to intense waves of sound that seem to rise almost vertically. And it always speaks of silence as well, not to conceal something but to preserve an inner dimension. Behind the entire music there seems to rest an inner body, alive and alert, between contemplation and articulation.

It is as if the audible music were merely an outer skeleton for a complex organism, with air chambers, spaces for play, interference fields, and spatial capsules. The musicians complement one another in their personalities and find, within the quartet, an unfiltered interplay that stands entirely on its own in its clarity and contrasts.

I liked this album immensely and regret that we were not able to bring it to Locarno in 2026.

All the more reason to catch them live in Switzerland and the nearby border region:

April 26 – Abdelnour Loriot Maier Niggenkemper @ It happens when it happens, Zurich

April 28 – Abdelnour Loriot Maier Niggenkemper @ Atelier Zimmermann, Wesserling

April 29 – Abdelnour Loriot Maier Niggenkemper @ Le Singe Le Frigo, Biel Bienne

April 30 – Abdelnour Loriot Maier Niggenkemper @ La Louve, Lausanne

May 1 – Abdelnour Loriot Maier Niggenkemper @ Mullbau, Lucerne