Music - Marita Goga music arts conception – Die Künstlerpersonalberatung

SAMEKA

Frithjof Siebert — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 14:39:42 +0000

SAMEKA

The quintet SAMEKA captures the 1970s fusion sound of jazz-rock and at the same time sounds completely contemporary. In fragile, transparent passages, Sameka seems like the deconstruction of a historical Western era, until oriental rhythms with guest OUD player Hesham Hamra allow the action to float over towards world music.

SAMEKA – Fusion in progress

Bassist Simon Zauels founded the band in 2019. In 2021, the band received a grant to help them record their first album of original compositions for Mons Records. “Great respect for tradition and at the same time a high degree of originality” is what “Jazz in Europe” this debut. As a finalist in the Future Sounds Contest, Sameka performed at the Leverkusen Jazz Days in the fall of 2022. On July 14, 2023, SAMEKA gave a concert at the famous Jazzopen Festival in Stuttgart. Internationally, the quintet went on their first major tour in March 2023, which took them to Taiwan to share their music with a new audience.

In 2024, SAMEKA released their second album, MERLINS REISE, on TIME ZONE RECORDS. MERLINS REISE features SAMEKA with a string quartet and the return of OUD player Hesham Hamra. Due to the great response to the Taiwan debut, another Taiwan tour with a string quartet based there followed in March 2024, which in turn led to an invitation in 2025. The album itself is described as“Magic of sound fusionaries” by Peter Michael Bitz and Jazz Fun describes a ”stylistic kaleidoscope that is subject to the laws of modern jazz fusion and leaves plenty of room for improvisation and very interesting arrangements…”

SAMEKA LINE UP

Simon Zauels, Bass, Bandleader
Antoine Spranger, piano
Daniel Buch, Saxophone
Tobias Fronhöfer, Drums
Patrick Baumann, Guitar

Isabelle Bodenseh

Frithjof Siebert — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 13:37:45 +0000

Isabelle Bodenseh

Composition | Flute | Jazz | Latin | Music

The flutist moves fluidly across the boundaries of jazz, rock, classical, and world music. After Flowing Mind (GLM), the successful album of her formation, the Isabelle Bodenseh Quartet, this exceptional musician of the jazz scene has a surprise in store—one that will reveal her full artistic spectrum. Even her résumé shows how Isabelle Bodenseh draws on her extensive and profound musical knowledge in diverse ways.

Isabelle Bodenseh loves and lives music.

From an early age, the half-French musician realized that a classical music degree with the goal of becoming an orchestral musician was not enough for her. The freedom she sought was neither found in classical music nor in the role of an orchestra player. She found it in jazz and improvised music. After setting aside her orchestral studies and pursuing a degree in music education in Frankfurt in the early 1990s, Isabelle Bodenseh continued the path of free music, studying with jazz flutist and composer James Newton in Los Angeles.

After half a year of studies in the homeland of jazz, she moved on to Cuba. In Havana, with the help of a one-year DAAD scholarship, she not only learned Latin flute from the most renowned Cuban musicians but also studied composition with Andrés Alén and toured with Cuban bands. Since then, Isabelle Bodenseh has incorporated her global musical expertise into numerous projects. She has performed in ensembles such as Chantal, Verquer, Son Aché, La Serena, and Sisters in Jazz International, as well as working as a theater and studio musician on over 30 CD productions, including playalongs for the renowned Schott music publishing house.

In 2016, alongside her role as an improvisation lecturer at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts—where she has been teaching since 2000—she founded the Jazz à la Flute platform to bring the flute further into the jazz spotlight. This initiative not only led to the creation of an improvisation academy but also to her heartfelt project: a duo with guitarist Lorenzo Petrocca. She expanded the flute family beyond the standard concert flute to include the alto and the particularly intriguing bass flute.

The Isabelle Bodenseh Quartet, founded in 2018, featuring flute, guitar, Hammond organ, and drums, evokes the sound of 1960s recordings with guitarist George Benson and flutist Joe Farrell.

Bodenseh’s band—featuring Lorenzo Petrocca on guitar, Thomas Bauser on Hammond organ, and Lars Binder on drums—forms a swinging rhythm section over which the flute can fully unfold and take soaring solo flights. Alongside radiant melodic passages, the funky and percussive aspects are not neglected. Tours have already taken the lively flutist and her band across Europe. The new, now fifth album, with her lyrical flute voice, will also be presented live.

Jens Gebel

Frithjof Siebert — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 12:59:16 +0000

Jens Gebel

Composition | Jazz | Music

Jens Gebel, the sound painter of jazz, who as a composer and arranger writes his pieces for the musicians on “the instrument”. He has been working in the various facets of the music business for over 30 years. He looks back on a wide-ranging award portfolio as a blind musician, such as “STYLIST OF THE YEAR”, MIT Los Angeles, GERMAN JAZZAWARD , Bassist of the Year German Rock and Pop Award, ZMF Sponsorship Award.

Debut CD “Tunesday”: South American sound for all seasons — composer and musician Jens Gebel presents his audience with a wide range of sounds as a “sound painter” in a quartet

When you listen to his compositions on his debut CD “Tunesday”, you are momentarily reminded of relaxed summer evenings or South American nights. And there is a reason for this, because Jens Gebel, who was born in the Black Forest, was drawn to Los Angeles at the age of 23, where he performed with guitar greats Scott Henderson, Jacob Phillips and Joe Dioro and studied at the Musicians Institute.

The blind autodidact also discovered his love of Brazilian music there, playing with many Brazilian musicians. His performance at the MI with Carol Rogers is legendary. The cheerfulness and positive energy of the Brazilian grooves and melodies inspired him to found the “Jens Gebel Quartet”. Beautiful melodies as well as harmonic and rhythmic sophistication are very important to him. He wants to bring the spirit of Brazilian music, combined with melodious jazz, to a wider audience.

At the same time, there is something about his compositions that echoes the lightness of the transatlantic variety of sounds of George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein.

In 2023, he recorded a debut CD with the “Jens Gebel Quartet”. Alongside Jens Gabel as bassist and band leader are: Michael Arlt, guitar, Domenic Landolf, bass clarinet and saxophones and Daniel Schay, pandeiro.

Jens Gebel says about his quartet:

“… the most important thing for me was to form a band with its own sound with recognition value. I achieved this through the special selection of the instruments pandeiro, bass clarinet and micro bass as well as the skilled playing of the instrumentalists. I wanted to make handmade music with few technical aids — the music should be very relaxed and pleasant to listen to, even for listeners who are not used to jazz. At the same time, the atmospheric pieces and improvisations are a nice challenge for us musicians.”

With “Tunesday”, Jens Gebel demonstrates that he creates his own band sound with his band and that everyone shares his enthusiasm for this style. He himself says: “I want to create previously unheard soundscapes with my music…”

Furthermore, he lives with his wife, saxophonist Veronica Reiff, in Freiburg. There they run the “citysoundstudio”. Jens Gebel is also committed to accessibility by enabling blind people to access the digital world. Since 2010, he and Veronica Reiff have been offering courses on how to use computers, smartphones, and music programs with screen readers on the website www.zumsprechendenapfel.de. Since then, they have held more than a hundred training courses in Germany and Austria.

Sara Aldén

Frithjof Siebert — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 20:08:49 +0000

Sara Aldén

Composition | Jazz | Music | Vocal

Sara Aldén’s album debuts in the spring of 2024 with original compositions of jazz with a focus on intimacy, grand crescendos and the end of everything. She is described as the creator of “jazz on life and death”.

In the upcoming debut album “There is no future” (Naxos, Prophone, March 2024), Sara Aldén and her trio show a massive sinkhole in the history of jazz, where doom-filled compositions are interspersed with dizzying arpeggios and sound worlds that reflect the end of all as we know it. She made her EP debut in 2022 with the critically acclaimed “A Room of One’s Own” where she explored the norm and form of jazz with her very own expression and musical language. With musical sound heroes such as Lina Nyberg, Gretchen Parlato, Esbjörn Svensson Trio and Tigran Hamasyan, Sara creates broad brushstrokes for how jazz sounds in 2024.

Sara has previously played with musicians such as Anders Jormin, Malin Wättring and Martin Sjöstedt and performed her release concert together with Lina Nyberg at Skeppet on June 3, 2022. Sara has received the Fredrika Bremer scholarship and the Royal Academy of Music’s local scholarships.

I have heard a great Swedish jazz singer – a new jazz star — be born.

“Undeniable qualities as a jazz singer”
“Sensitive, naked and with a sympathetic thoughtfulness”

Sara Aldén’s debut is with “pass with distinction”, now it’s just a matter of waiting for more.

KLANGLYS

Frithjof Siebert — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 18:25:38 +0000

KLANGLYS

Composition | Jazz | Music

With a variety of timbres and a sensitive mix of instrumental and vocal arrangements, the musicians of KLANGLYS (in German: KLANGLICHT) share their passion for jazz harmonies, rhythmic ostinatos and natural sound patterns in various formations.

“IN HINDSIGHT”: Johannes Käsbach and his intercultural jazz ensemble, KLANGLYS now also in Germany with their DEBUT Album

With diverse sound colors and a sensitive blend of instrumental and vocal arrangements, the musicians from KLANGLYS (which means, sound light) share their passion for jazz harmonies, rhythmic ostinatos and natural soundscapes.

With their individual backgrounds, they develop multicolored and stylistic sonic universes. Bandleader and composer Johannes Käsbach considers himself a musical architect, where the music is built on a construct of each musician’s character and notion of improvisation. His personal affectation for chord instruments – ranging from guitar to violin – and the human voice, are both a clear signature of his sound.

Making listening both, perceptible and tangible, this is what it’s all about for Johannes Käsbach!

From the anatomy of the ear to everything that has to do with sound, the acoustician, jazz guitar player, vocalist and composer, is navigating his audience through a world of music and languages. His music tells stories in a very soulful way and reflects thoughts about life decisions and choices. Like an architect, he develops compositions across musical styles, and builds harmonic sound sculptures that are made for listeners to stay and to shape their dreams. To make these constructs perceptible and tangible, the use of pictures, light, and colors is as important as the drawing of landscapes, transcending the listener through time and space as they wander rhythmically in synchronization with the music. Johannes Käsbach values the interrelationship with his band members and his audience because he has a mission for KLANGLYS, to be inclusive and accessible.

Born in Leverkusen, Germany, the versatile musician, composer, and arranger with a master and PhD in Acoustics and hearing science, studied as well at the conservatory of Hamburg and at the Centre Des Musiques Didier Lockwood (CMDL) in Paris. Eventually, he settled in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he founded KLANGLYS in 2019. IN HINDISHT is their debut-album that was released in October 2021 by GATEWAY MUSIC, produced by Mr Cheesebrook Productions.

After a big resonance in Denmark, KLANGLYS with Johannes Käsbach is now also represented in Germany by Goga Music Art Conception.

KLANGLYS, this is:

Johannes Käsbach (DE) – guitar, vocals, compositions, arrangements, production

Wojciech Morelowski (PL) – trumpet

Aleksandra Raczyńska (PL) – violin and vocals

Alejandro Gispert (CU) – bass

Jan Kadereit (DE) – drums and percussion

Featuring musician:
Sebastian Zawadzki (PL) – piano

Alexandra Ivanova

Frithjof Siebert — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 18:56:58 +0000

Alexandra Ivanova

Piano | Composition | Jazz | Music

Born to Bulgarian parents in Austria, Alexandra Ivanova grew up curious to meet and understand the ‘Other’ — in herself, in society or in culture. In her compositions, Alexandra creates conversations between jazz, Maqam-based and Afro-Cuban music and odd polyrhythms.

Opening doors to new worlds with “Beauty in Chaos” — ALEXANDRA IVANOVA

Three years after the release of her debut album, “BEAUTY IN CHAOS,” pianist and composer Alexandra Ivanova is opening new doors as a pioneer of different soundscapes.

With her trio, she has toured Europe and North Africa, playing in cities such as Berlin, Vienna, and Cairo. She received frenetic applause as a showcase at the world’s largest jazz fair, Jazzahead in Bremen. Immediately afterward, she gave a benefit concert in Berlin for the SOS Children’s Village in Moabit.

Alexandra Ivanova goes where she opens doors, whether it’s a big jazz fair or a small festival.

As “Artist in Residence” for three months, she opened 2024 in Havana/Cuba with a performance at the Havana Jazz Plaza Festival and played at the PENG Festival, among others.

In 2025, she took part in an intercultural “Soundweavings” residency at the Banff Centre in Canada, where Alexandra Ivanova performed on both the piano and the Arabic qanun. As always, new discoveries were made in the collaboration based on pieces of contemporary gamelan, whose composers are inspired by odd rhythms as well as Afro-Cuban music, and in some cases, also by maqam.

Alexandra Ivanova then traveled to Indonesia as a music ambassador for a month-long research and networking stay and began collaborating with contemporary Balinese composers.

An Asia-Oceania tour is now planned for 2026 as part of an interregional cultural collaboration between the Austrian embassies in Jakarta, Shanghai, and Canberra.

In many ways, her album “BEAUTY IN CHAOS” is a snapshot of a versatile and well-traveled composer and pianist, Alexandra Ivanova. It documents her decision to follow her personal calling to be a musician. It is also a kind of sanctuary, offering an oasis of belonging for people from all kinds of places.

In her compositions, Alexandra Ivanova combines sounds from Maqam traditions, Afro-Cuban claves, Bulgarian rhythms, and influences from both classical music and jazz. The title track features the unique voice of the Syrian-French vocalist, Lynn Adib.

The pieces on “Beauty in Chaos” invite the listener to leave the European canon and look at the world from different points of view. They search for easternness in a Western context. “Enta Omri”, for example, is a contemporary tribute to the legendary singer of Arabic classical music, Umm Kulthum. “Ay Isiginda” by Azerbaijani composer, Gambar Huseynli, is a piece that Ivanova initially heard at a concert by the Azerbaijan State Orchestra of Folk Instruments. The Icelandic traditional “Krummavisur” features striking parallels to the music of the Middle East.

With musicians like bass player Niklas Lukassen and drummer Nathan Ott—both of whom she met in Berlin—she forms a top-class piano trio with sensitivity and authenticity. Her well-crafted album has opened up a new path for Alexandra Ivanova—she has created a home for herself in her music while also reflecting the wealth of her life experiences.

About Alexandra Ivanova

The composer and pianist, Alexandra Ivanova grew up in Austria and is considered an exceptional artist. In an interview with JAZZTHING, she shared, “I stem from a Bulgarian tree, which was planted in Austrian soil, watered in Southwest Asia and the Gulf region, and partly also in France. Besides, its aerial roots may stretch all the way to the Caribbean.”

Alexandra Ivanova is considered an out-of-the ordinary, versatile artist anchored in the present. She took classical piano lessons from a young age and discovered improvisation and jazz as a teenager, when she founded her first jazz trio.

She studied both social sciences and jazz in Dijon, Paris, and the UK. Wherever she lived, she founded her jazz trio and performed internationally. She learned Arabic in Lebanon and then worked in Jordan and the Emirates, where she met her mentor, Lebanese-American pianist Tarek Yamani. After an artist residency in Iceland, she devoted herself to composing her debut album, “BEAUTY IN CHAOS”, which was released in 2023 with Niklas Lukassen (double bass) and Nathan Ott (drums). The RELEASE TOUR took her through Europe and North Africa.

Alexandra Ivanova has been awarded several scholarships. She lives in Berlin.

Miriam Ast

Frithjof Siebert — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 12:22:19 +0000

Miriam Ast

Music | Composition | Jazz | Vocal

The German-born jazz singer and saxophonist Miriam Ast graduated in 2016 with distinction from her master studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She quickly established herself as an up-and-coming jazz vocalist and improviser in the city

Miriam Ast’s biography stands out for its plethora of musical and geographical boundary-crossings. The German born jazz singer and saxophonist Miriam Ast graduated in 2016 with distinction from her master studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She quickly established herself as an up and coming jazz vocalist and improviser in the city, collaborating with musicians such as Stan Sulzmann and releasing her debut album Secret Songs in 2018 to critical acclaim.

Having moved back to Germany in 2021, Miriam Ast has now formed a new unconventional trio with jazz pianist Daniel Prandl and crossover cellist Jörg Brinkmann.

Her new album consists of modern jazz arrangements of folk tunes from throughout Europe. In this project, Miriam Ast draws from her musical and cultural experiences from her time in London and explores Europe’s rich heritage with her own distinct voice.

Dagmar Wilgo

Frithjof Siebert — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 12:48:57 +0000

Dagmar Wilgo

Early music | Flute | Jazz | Music

Dagmar Wilgo performs with the recorder in all styles: early music, jazz, electronic music and avant-garde.

Dagmar Wilgo, who studied Historical Instruments, Musicology and Avantgarde in Düsseldorf and Utrecht, is a recorder player who is at home in all styles. Besides playing with the ensemble she founded with the harpsichordist Natalia Spehl, Il Primo Dolcimelo, she gives jazz concerts like The Jazzy Recorder with pieces by the jazz clarinetist Lajos Dudás. She collaborates with many different contemporary composers.

She plays avant-garde electronic music together with Andreas Kolinski “The Well-Modified Labium”. The electroacoustic performance takes place as dialog between the recorder and digital techniques and is improvisational but also visually reflected in space.

Dagmar Wilco develops programs for a great variety of events and situations. She is active as a teacher and gives international master classes

Erik Leuthäuser

Frithjof Siebert — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 16:13:04 +0000

Erik Leuthäuser

Jazz | Music | Pop | Vocal

Erik Leuthäuser is an award-winning young German singer/songwriter/arranger based in Berlin, using his native language and electronics to create his own concept of music somewhere between modern jazz and experimental pop.

Shining young singer, THE upcoming voice in German jazz. (Mannheimer Morgen)

Leuthäuser captivates the audience with his adorable, youthful velvet voice. (Jazzthing)

His voice is beautiful and free, he is young and dedicated, honest and full of music. (Sabine Kühlich/Jazz singer)

Based on his experiences as a young singer in a big city such as Berlin, the only way to be is honest and dedicated: In life and in music. On the other hand, he also honours jazz tradition by diving into lesser known jazz standards.

In May 2018, he released his 2nd studio record “Wünschen” on the prestigious record label MPS. Produced by American bass player Greg Cohen featuring Kurt Rosenwinkel (guitar) and Joey Baron (drums). He won several international jazz prizes e.g. 1st prize of the Ella Fitzgerald Vocal Jazz Competition 2018.

Furthermore he sang background for Quincy Jones, George Benson, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Jacob Collier. He recorded albums with jazz legends such as Alan Broadbent and Ken Peplowski.