DISCOGRAPHY

as band leader

Botter - Ango

ANGO

Botter
  1. Ango
  2. Tunnel
  3. Bloom
  4. The Trap
  5. Killing Spree
  6. Magic Return
  7. Bad Choice
  8. Herbst
  9. Spin
  10. Next Episode
  11. Topsham

Artist: BOTTER

Label: Float Music

Release Date: 22.04.2015

Genre: Modern Creative Jazz

or get it from Amazon/iTunes/CD-Baby

Mit ANGO präsentieren BOTTER ihr Debütalbum. Grundlage jeglicher Experimente sind die Urtexte aus den Federn von Julian Ritter und Dierk Peters, mit denen die Band anstellt, was ihr gerade in den Sinn kommt. Grooves setzen sich immer wieder neu zusammen, Sounds werden stetig aufs Neue kombiniert und Spannungsverläufe kreiert. Auch vor abrupten Lautstärkeunterschieden oder Tempowechseln macht die Band auf ihrer Suche nach zeitgemäßer und nahbarer, dennoch kommunikationsreicher und experimentierfreudiger Musik nicht halt.

Julian Ritter - alto sax, bass clarinet

Dierk Peters - vibraphone

Stefan Schönegg - double bass

Dominik Mahnig - drums​

“Botter is a fantastic new collaborative jazz ensemble from Cologne, Germany. The four members, still in their twenties, met at music conservatory. Rather than focus on a leader-based ensemble, they have emphasized the importance of establishing group unity. It is apparent that their bond has created a core musical identity which can only be nurtured by dedication, long hours of practice and trust within the ensemble. While their compositions can be complex, the members of Botter find a unique way to create ease and comfort within this complexity and are able to seamlessly integrate compositions and improvisations. As a keen supporter of their group approach, I look forward to hearing how Botter will expand and develop over time. This first album presents a powerful imprint for the great achievements they will have moving forward.”

Loren Stillman
(Saxophonist and composer)

DISCOGRAPHY

as sideman

Akua Naru - The Miner's Canary

THE MINER'S CANARY

Akua Naru

A1. The Mine

A2. Heard

A3. Canary Dreams

A4. Seraphim

B1. Boom Bap Back

B2. (Black &) Blues People

B3. Mr. Brownskin

B4. The Dark

C1. On Beauty

C2. Sugar

C3. The Flight

C4. Toni Morrison

D1. Falling

D2. Untitled (Asé)

D3. One Woman


Artist: Akua Naru

Label: The Urban Era

Release Date: 20.02.2015

Genre: Conscious Hip Hop, Jazz

Akua Naru’s latest release ‘The Miner’s Canary’ (Feb 2015), has been met with overwhelmingly positive reviews. The album, released on her own independent label and recorded over a two year period, boasts an amazing cast of talented and accomplished features which assist in freeing its musical landscape from the single genre of hip hop to settle between soul, blues, and jazz. The list is impressive: legendary and most recorded drummer Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie, Cody ChesnuTT, Grammy nominated trumpeter Christian Scott, drummer Daru Jones, singer-producer Georgia Anne Muldrow, Motown France soul singer Ben L’Oncle Soul, among countless others. The music, produced almost entirely by Akua Naru, provides an emotional and profound frame for Naru’s consistently critical, often pregnant and multi-layered, at times haunting, and always profound and insightful lyricism. The Miner’s Canary’ titled after Torres & Guinier’s book of the same name, and inspired by a series of conversations between Naru and Dr. Tricia Rose, speaks to the methods employed by miners’ use of canaries as early warning systems - a practice to measure gas levels to ensure miner’s safety and reduce the risk of workers’ death by poisonous gas. In this case, Naru's "Canary" is the album's central mataphor, a vulnerable (yet powerful) birdlike the communities it mirrors, on which an entire system depends. "Why not the pheonix? The parrot? The pigeon?" It's as if Naru asks: "Why the canary?" Inspired by not only the works but the stance of the great Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison, Naru’s work centralizes the black experience, specifically Black Women’s experiences in the United States and abroad. The Miner’s Canary is a 17 track musical warning; a must listen.

​As a band member Julian is touring since the very beginning with Akua Naru. For "The Miner's Canary" he participated in the studio session and wrote the string arrangements.

Akua Naru - Live & Aflame Sessions

LIVE & AFLAME SESSIONS

Akua Naru and with the DIGFLO Band
  1. Journey enter: live
  2. Take a ride
  3. The backflip: reflipped
  4. Nag champa gold
  5. Tales of (wo)men
  6. This mo(u)rning
  7. Poetry: How does it feel now???
  8. Walking the block
  9. The journey...aflame
  10. Rhyme ryder's high
  11. Journey exit: aflame

Artist: Akua Naru

Label: Jakarta Records

Release Date: 19.06.2012

Genre: Conscious Hip Hop, Jazz

With this album, Naru revisits her classic 2011 release "..The Journey Aflame" and takes it to the next level. ALL LIVE. Recorded live at Maarwegstudio2 in Cologne, Germany, Naru retells her journey's tales accompanied by her band DIGFLO along with a range of musical guest apprearances. Accompanied by a percussion, blaring horn and string sections, Naru draws us nearer to hip hop's musical roots. Featuring on songs "Walking The Block" & "This Mo(u)rning" is Buffalo, New York soul songstress Drea d'Nur. The album, Live & Aflame sessions is accompanied by a video series of the the same title. On May 25, 2012, Live & Aflame Sessions will be released through Jakarta Records.


​As a band member Julian is touring since the very beginning with Akua Naru. For "The Miner's Canary" he participated in the studio session and wrote the string and horn arrangements.