Ditzner / King / Kirsch – One Afternoon in LU (CD)
Erwin Ditzner (dr, electronics)
John King (gt, electronics)
Stephan Kirsch (tb, electronics)
CD fixcel 24
Rel. 10/2024
LU stands for Ludwigshafen – the hometown of drummer Erwin Ditzner. On a Sunday afternoon in October 2023, Ditzner, guitarist John King from New York and trombonist Stephan Kirsch met at the Friedenskirche for a special concert. It was the first time that they had been on stage as a trio in this particular constellation. However, they had already played together with other musicians in a different context: a few years ago, as part of a ballet project by Kevin O’Day. John King has been working with the renowned choreographer for a long time.
For the concert at the Friedenskirche, the three musicians hardly needed to coordinate – it was as if they had found each other immediately in this constellation, live and musically.
Much of the concert repertoire was penned by John King, who composed the pieces during the coronavirus lockdown. This music matured and developed over time, finally finding its way onto the stage in the summer. The trio was finally formed and played “One Afternoon in LU”. Now they are ready to take their music out into the world.
John King – his musical career is impressive. As a composer, his repertoire ranges from chamber music to ballet music and opera. He has worked with greats such as John Cage, written for world-famous ensembles such as the Kronos Quartet and composed for renowned ballet companies worldwide. As an instrumentalist, he plays the viola, but his main instrument is the electric guitar. He is known for his work with prepared guitars and his exploration of microtonality, as well as for his curiosity to venture into musically uncharted territory. This quest for musical discovery perfectly connects him with his two fellow musicians.
Stephan Kirsch, with whom King has been working for over ten years, was also part of the joint projects with Kevin O’Day. Kirsch is an accomplished trombonist who learned from greats such as Mangelsdorff, Wogram and Anderson. He completed his musical education with honors at the Universities of Music in Saarbrücken and Karlsruhe. Kirsch’s artistic range extends from big band music to free improvisation. He is particularly fascinated by the expansion of the trombone’s sonic possibilities through electronic effects.
The third member of the group is Erwin Ditzner, a drummer, percussionist and sound explorer in the field of electronic music. He is considered the “street musician” of the band. After a brief stint at the conservatory in Wiesbaden, he was drawn to the places where music actually happens: on stage and on tour. He started out playing in unconventional rock bands (such as Sanfte Liebe and Guru Guru) before embarking on a musical journey through world music – at a time when this was not yet mainstream. Since the 1990s, Ditzner has been mainly active in jazz. With the reed player Lömsch Lehmann, he forms the “Ditzner Lömsch Duo”. One of their recordings was celebrated by Jazzpodium as “one of the best German duo recordings of the last ten years”. He has also worked with greats of the jazz avant-garde such as Peter Brötzmann, Aki Takase, Karl Berger, Alexander Schlippenbach, Silke Eberhard, Jeff Parker, Nils Wogram, Eugene Chadbourne, Elliott Sharp, Ingrid Laubrock and Marilyn Crispell. A substantial part of his work since 2008 is documented on the fixcel records sound carriers.
