Max Hirth – tenor saxophone
Ignaz Schick – turntables, sampler
Max Arsava – piano, electronics
Alex Bayer – double bass
Flo Fischer – drums
Max Arsava is a Berlin based pianist and composer. Besides his main instrument, he also plays synthesizers and other electroacoustic devices working with tapes, contact microphones, objects, as well as loopers and samplers. In 2018, he co-founded the trio werken with Copenhagen based vocalist Sarah Buchner and clarinetist Sebastian Langer from Düsseldorf, which aims for an improvised chamber music beyond stylistic listening expectations; in 2023, the trio presented its debut album kollektive verkabelung. Since 2022 he has been working on the cybernetic extension of prepared piano with composer and sound artist Jascha Hagen. In November 2023 the quintet debut nowhere dense was released on the Berlin-based label Aut Records.
In mathematics a nowhere dense set is, simply put, a topological concept, in which no matter how much you zoom into a given structure, an infinite number of gaps reveal infinite porosity; but this record isn’t necessarily what some might call “mathematical” music. Rather, the listener is invited to imagine different modes of permeability, on levels of form, content, or otherwise, in which any structure might collapse into another, reiterate itself in a contrasting way or erode into scattered particles, giving way to a fractured soundscape from intimate, crystalline textures to expressive, noisy outbursts.
The music of nowhere dense was conceived to approach several dilemmas and notions: writing for a diverse ensemble consisting of acoustic and electronic instruments, especially ones that for the most part defy conventional forms of notation; balancing free improvisation with densely composed sections; negotiating repetition and development within form; ultimately, crafting a hybrid body of sound for each musician to bring out their own idiosyncratic way of transforming the predetermined material, and in that sense remain faithful to a still jazz-oriented approach.
