Luca Sisera ROOFER
Starlex Complex
Buy / Listen
2019 / nwog 023
Line-Up:
Luca Sisera
Michael Jaeger
Maurus Twerenbold
Yves Theiler
Michi Stulz
With their new album Starlex Complex, Luca Sisera Roofer masterfully continue their journey over the hurdles and chasms of contemporary jazz. Starlex Complex follows their critically acclaimed debut album Prospect (Leo Records, 2015) and the live album Moscow Files (Leo Records, 2017). This new work, released on Nils Wogram's label nWog Records, contains nine compositions, including a three-part mini-suite. These open up a musical spectrum in which the ostensibly opposite poles of structure and freedom ethereally imbue each other and blend as a distinctive band sound.
Creative Swiss bassist Luca Sisera is a musician considered one of the most versatile instrumentalists on the European scene. As an accomplished sideman, he playfully comes to grips with even the most demanding of jobs across the entire jazz genre, as well as interdisciplinary projects. In 2013, he founded Roofer as his own quintet. Michael Jaeger (saxophone), Maurus Twerenbold (trombone), Yves Theiler (piano) and Michi Stulz (drums) are major musicians from the relatively young Swiss jazz scene. They handle the sometimes highly complex compositions very freely and thus realise their band leader's vision in a congenial way. "My vision is to create music where freedom, complexity and simplicity meet. Music that carries a strong collective spirit within it. We often keep the division of roles between accompanist and soloist completely open."
It is no accident that Sisera named his band Roofer. So-called "roofers" are climbers who clamber up high structures without safety equipment, and ably move around in urban roof and facade landscapes.
Sisera is not one of these extreme athletes, but an extremely agile musician. The qualities with which roofers put their passion into practice characterise not only his compositions, but also his fellow musicians: love of adventure, willingness to take risks, sophisticated techniques, know-how and experience. Sisera's music is refined. It has a challenging edginess without rigidifying in lifeless formulae. Positive restlessness and well-placed contrasts keep it energised.
Although the compositions are oriented towards complex forms and rhythmically pointed parameters, they are effortlessly turned into sound that pleases with its warmth and emotion. At certain moments, melodious and tranquil passages lend the music a flowing, hymnic aspect. On the other hand, the fact that each musician can duly draw attention to themselves again in spirited unison passages or interplay contributes to the intense listening experience that this album generates.
Luca Sisera wrote the compositions for Starlex Complex while staying at the Nairs Artists' House in Scuol, amid the mountains of Grisons and very close to the soaring peak of Piz Starlex. This mountain, right on the border between Italy and Switzerland, served the half-Swiss, half-Italian Sisera as inspiration for the album's title. By adding "Complex", he alludes to the complex structures of his music, but also to the building complexes scaled by "real" roofers.
This music is genuine and remains adventurous.
