Wadada Leo Smith - trumpet
Axel Dörner - trumpet
Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky - alto saxophone
Urs Leimgruber - tenor & soprano saxophones
Oliver Schwerdt - grand piano, percussion, little instruments; electric organ
Friedrich Kettlitz - voice
Michael Haves - double bass
Barre Phillips- double bass
Christian Lillinger - drums
Günter Baby Sommer - drums


I
Kantate pt.i
01 Im Strahlen der Trabanten (1’46)
Phore I (2-5)
02 Spridriger Feuertunkel, Taffft! (2’33)
03 Globalhirtenrider: Eyes & Gliss (2’54)
04 Streichprafater, Zug von Zungenstuhl (4’37)
05 Graben jetzt!, alle auf nach Stoirihondur, neun kleine Feten geh’n… (5’46)
Kantate pt.ii
06 Versandete Trompeten (1’39)
Phore II (7-8)
07 Zarte Klaster drüber Winde ’steh’n (Quintett No. 1) (7’03)
08 Conference At Olli’s (Black Music GDR) (4’55)

II
Kantate pt.iii
01 Am Baustrand (2’09)
Phore III (2-4)
02 Briedwaht, Kleiheuer, Stuff (Zeitungszeugen lesen heuer Körner) (4’36)
03 2 Trios In The Street (Microphistical Klee der Raben) (6’54)
04 Throughout The New Mississippi Freedom Train, Mister Borgenthal Jumps Into The Rhythm Of Tastoraster In Gloria, Calms Down And Finally Vanishes (4’24)
Phore IV (5-7)
05 Chiclin Berago (von Axelleo da Schmidt-Wödarner) (3’41)
06 Garten Rüben oben, Stoirihondurando zehn (8’35)
07 Langer Brueder Feitendarm? (American Successfully Amplified) (7’23)
Kantate pt.iv
08 Klonkern, wieder Ulmanach (1’31)
Phore V (9-10)
09 Morning Hours Without Rice, But Rice (Haschbender Russenkatze) (5’38)
10 End Of the Night, Enlighted Days Beyond (The Golden Trio’s Todeshymne) (11’25)
Kantate fin.
11 Orgel-Laib am Bein (0’56)

Eine intime Megaveranstaltung der weltumspannenden Free-Supergruppe:
massiver Stream of Consciousness, Poesie getupft um durchweg hochenergetische, hochkonzentrierte
und sehr durchhörbare Freiimprovisationen, die Gehrinströme eines Meta-Organismus erfahrbar werden lässt. Unter-Combos bekommen Platz im Sandkasten,
Duo-, Trio-, Quartettimprovisationen entfalten sich, verglühen mit Freude.
Werner Siebert, Jazzpodium

Not only a clash of genres, it’s also a clash of musical generations.
The influence of Cecil Taylor on the ensemble’s imagination and structural philosophy is clearly evident.
Similar to the way the great master repeatedly interspersed poetry in his performances,
Schwerdt has structured this concert with five Dadaist text miniatures.
There is a lot of work with contrasts, especially the clash of density and loosening up,
which the group achieves mainly by splitting up into smaller ensembles, is striking.
A very nice, unusual album for fans of old FMP recordings and lovers of sound exploration.
Martin Schrayr, The Free Jazz Collective

Always a glorious experiment in organized disorganization:
like Derek Bailey's Company Weeks this free improvised collective
draws musicians from across the globe.
Kettlitz' elocution recalls the Dada and Futurist recordings
of Kurt Schwitters and Richard Huelsenbeck.
Mark Corroto, All About Jazz

Abseits jeglicher Normen und prall gefüllt mit Spielwitz.
Rudolf Amstutz, Jazz'n'More

Guess this Free Acoustic Supergroup as a masterpiece between the early large units of the E U P H O R I U M _ f r e a k e s t r a (soundz offfe drzk wähuh, 2001) and the later (2007: Free Electric Supergroup, 2016: Grande Casino). Besides it’s big appearence at the opera house in 2009, august 29th, for the Leipziger Jazztage anounced as Transatlantic Freedom Suite Tentet the ensemble made, one day later, it’s deeply creative encounter at the legendary club called naTo. All anounced by fairy-tale-like nomes de plum now we can listen to a fabulous music adventure realized by a unique constellation of central figures from the improv scene fed on four generations. Listen to Oliver Schwerdts collection of bloomy yet conceptionally strengthened pairings of Christian Lillinger & Baby Sommer, Urs Leimgruber & Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Barre Phillips & Michael Haves, Axel Dörner & Wadada Leo Smith! Above the musical experimentatorship we all are invited to get drunken by the playful and outstanding language of a celebrating actor-speaker Friedrich Kettlitz.

Format: 2-CD
Price: 34,99 €
ISBN: 978-3-944301-59-4
Ordering: oliverschwerdt@euphorium.de
Digital download: https://euphoriumfreakestra.bandcamp.com/album/free-acoustic-supergroup

Reviews:

In zwei als Kantaten bezeichneten Groß-Improvisationsabschnitten werden wir auf der vorliegenden Doppel-CD Zeuge einer quasi intimen Megaveranstaltung dieser weltumspannenden Free-Supergruppe, anno 99 aus einer n-ten Dimension in die Eisenacher Realität explodiert. Liebevoll editiert, mit Gedichten und Fotos in zwei Booklets statt Liner Notes, offenbart die Aufnahme einen massiven Stream of Consciousness, in den ein begeistertes Publikum 2009 anlässlich der Leipziger Jazztage verwickelt wurde. Wie getupft platziert Friedrich Kettlitz gesprochene Poesie um durchweg hochenergetische, hochkonzentrierte und sehr durchhörbare Freiimprovisation, die Gehrinströme eines Meta-Organismus erfahrbar werden lässt. Mit der gleichsam süffisanten wie ernsthaften Gelassenheit großer Musiker pulsieren Wadada Leo Smith & Axel Dörner, tp, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, as, Urs Leimgruber, ts & ss, Oliver Schwerdt, p, perc, org uvm., Michael Haves & Barre Phillips, b, Christian Lillinger & Günter Baby Sommer, dr, durch Herzkammern und Gehirnbereiche, verknüpfen locker Theta- mit Hi-Beta-Wellen, spielen sich in einen Rausch, der neuronal kristallklar Ideengeschenke verteilt, die, ausgepackt, freudig von Stimme zu Stimme geworfen und multipliziert werden. Dabei vereinzelt sich das Ensemble, Unter-Combos bekommen Platz im Sandkasten, Duo-, Trio-, Quartettimprovisationen entfalten sich, verglühen mit Freude. Dann wieder Poetik. Und können die alle warten! Um loszulegen, als drohe ein Gewittersturm beim Open Air. Wer pulst? Wer schnattert? Oft ist schwer zu orten, wer sich die Brücke teilt. Es schiebt jeder jeden, den Schlagzeugen wird das Stakkato-Feld nicht allein überlassen, als es in den Tutti-Pool geht. Dann schäumt es, Brandung türmt sich auf, herrliche Wellen. Und schließlich klettern alle zurück ins Boot, nass, erschöpft, glücklich. Dort wartet Kettlitz und erklärt, was unverstehbar bleibt.
JAZZPODIUM, Werner Siebert (Jazzpodium 8-9/2023) (202308), S. 77.

Oliver Schwerdt’s Euphorium label presents itself on its bandcamp website as a platform for Contemporary Improvised Music, Free Jazz and DADA. Free Acoustic Supergroup is a double quartet like Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz project and consists of Urs Leimgruber and Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky (saxophones), Axel Dörner and Wadada Leo Smith (trumpets), Barre Phillips and Michael Haves (basses) as well as Christian Lillinger and Günter Baby Sommer (drums). The octet circulates around Oliver Schwerdt’s piano and Friedrich Kettlitz’s lyrics and lets the mentioned elements collide. The whole thing is not only a clash of genres, it’s also a clash of musical generations. After a performance at the Leipziger Jazztage on August 29, 2009 at the Opernhaus, the band had another the day after at Club naTo, which can be heard on this recording. So chronologically, the recording can be placed between Freakestra’s debut Ðal Ngai (2004) and Grande Casino (2018).
As to the music, the influence of Cecil Taylor on the ensemble’s imagination and structural philosophy is clearly evident on Free Acoustic Supergroup . Similar to the way the great master repeatedly interspersed poetry in his performances, Schwerdt has structured this concert with five Dadaist text miniatures that, typical of the art form, take traditional vocabulary and conventional semantics ad absurdum by satirically exaggerating the texts, especially through the use of neologisms. The musical opener “Spridiriger Feuertunkel, Tafft!“ (the titles are also in the Dadaist tradition) then begins with a classic Taylor chord, and when the recently deceased Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky enters, one literally believes to be on a Taylor Unit album from the late 1960s. Then, in the course of the concert, there is a lot of work with contrasts, not only of the already mentioned genres and the playing attitudes of the two generations of musicians. Especially the clash of density and loosening up, which the group achieves mainly by splitting up into smaller ensembles, is striking. Pieces like “Graben jetzt!, alle auf nach Stoirihondur, neun kleine Feten geh’n" are like busy anthills, where everything seems to be going wildly, but which are highly structured at the same time. This is contrasted, for example, by the trumpet duet “Chiclin Berago“ and the immediately following bass duo “Langer Brueder Feitendarm?“ before everything is brought together in “End of the Night, Enlightened Days beyond (The Golden Trio's Todeshymne)“. Quietly, the musicians grope their way into this final piece (though the term “piece“ is misleading, as it’s a complete performance that then seems to have been arbitrarily divided into pieces later on) until the horns emerge from the background, either offering solos of near-classical jazz beauty (Smith) or deconstructing the composition in an almost brutal way (Dörner).
All in all, Free Acoustic Supergroup is a very nice, unusual album that will work for fans of old FMP recordings as well as lovers of sound exploration.
THE FREE JAZZ COLLECTIVE, Martin Schray (https://www.freejazzblog.org/2023/07/euphoriumfreakestra-free-acoustic.html [20230724].

Thanks to pianist and director Oliver Schwerdt, the Euphorium_freakestra is and always has been a glorious experiment in organized disorganization. The double CD Free Acoustic Supergroup is the ensemble's seventh release. Schwerdt's experiments began with the single disc Ðal Ngai (Euphorium Records, 2004) and eventually the group's 3-CD Grande Casino (Euphorium Records, 2018). Ðal Ngai included the guest artists Friedrich Schenker and Gunter Baby Sommer. Other releases found the ensemble hosting musicians such as Thomas Lehn, Barry Guy, and Bertrand Denzler, playing both acoustic and electric music.
Sommer is back for this outing, which also includes trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, bassist Barre Phillips, and spoken word artist Friedrich Kettlitz. Schwerdt has paired musicians by instrument, Smith with Axel Dorner, Sommer with drummer Christian Lillinger, Phillips with bassist Michael Haves, the saxophonists Urs Leimgruber and Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, and Schwerdt himself at the piano.
Free Acoustic Supergroup was captured at the 2009 Euphorium Festival in Leipzig. Like Derek Bailey's Company Weeks, this free improvised collective draws musicians from across the globe with the countries Germany, Switzerland, and the United States represented. Kettlitz' elocution (in German) opens the discs, and it recalls the Dada and Futurist recordings of Kurt Schwitters and Richard Huelsenbeck. His spoken recitations are the introductions to various improvisations and appear to spark the subsequent improvisations. Although there are ten members of this Supergroup, each leaves plenty of space for their colleagues. For the most part, the music is presented in pairs, the same instruments—trumpets, saxophones, basses, and drums—in conversation or a cross pollination between a reed and a brass instrument, et cetera. Clearly, the musicians are listening to each other, and their deep concentration is apparent in the cohesive nature of this freely improvised music. Unlike many large free ensemble recordings, this does not devolve into chaotic hubbub. Even when all the musicians are engaged at once, there is a self-possessed cohesiveness to the sound.
ALL ABOUT JAZZ, Mark Corroto (https://www.allaboutjazz.com/free-acoustic-supergroup-euphorium-freakestra-self-produced [20230705].

Es ist immer etwas Besonderes, sich auf ein Album des EUPHORIUM_freakestra einzulassen. Die Grossformation des umtriebigen Pianisten und Musikwissenschaftlers Oliver Schwerdt verlangt von der Hörerin, dem Hörer eigentlich nur eines: sich fallen zu lassen, das Hirn von allen Gedanken zu befreien und sich von diesem eigentümlichen, surrealen, bisweilen absurden, aber stehts überraschenden Klanglabyrinth zu verführen und sich darin zu verlustieren. Die folgende Aufnahme entstammt einem Liveauftritt im Leipziger Club naTo von 2009. Der Hauslyriker Friedrich Kettlitz fabuliert mit Wortwitz zwischen Sinn und Unsinn, die illuster besetzte Band mit Wadada Leo Smith, Axel Dörner, Urs Leimgruber oder Günter Baby Sommer lässt sich derweil in alle Richtungen gehen. Ein Fest für die Sinne ‒ abseits jeglicher Normen und prall gefüllt mit Spielwitz.
JAZZ'N'MORE, Rudolf Amstutz (Jazz'n'More Juli/August 2023, Nr. 4/2023) (202307), S. 78.

Free Acoustic Supergroup is a truth-in-packaging two-CD souvenir of Leipzig's 2009 EUPHORIUM festival. It's accurate because 10 creative musicians who make up this freakestra are improvisers from Germany: keyboardist Oliver Schwerdt, trumpeter Axel Dörner, spoken word artist Friedrich Kettlitz, alto saxophonist Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky and drummers Christian Lillinger and Günter Baby Sommer; Switzerland: bassist Michael Haves and soprano/tenor saxophonist Urs Leimgruber; and the US: bassist Barre Phillips and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith.
With duplicate instruments paired it's sometimes difficult to tell who exactly is playing. But interactive strategies make up for this. However Kettlitz's murmuring recitations and dramatic patter is lost on non-German speakers, while Schwerdt, mostly limits himself to harmonious comping or fitful distinctive note interjections. As for the others it's probably Petrowsky's ferocious reed-biting, altissimo split tones, and siren-like squeals that splatter all over the tracks, at points interacting with Smith's brassy bugling, bright triplets or portamento ripples. Both emphasize jazz as well as free jazz. More attuned to insolent near-static free music tones, Leimgruber's reed exploration involves strained multiphonics, spetrofluctuation and thin buzzes, while Dörner nearly muffled shakes and excavating half-valve explorations often suggest tones rather than play them. Only in the final sequences do the bassists move forward, but then the low-pitched resonations divided between angled and allegro string plunks and melodious and moderated arco resonations arise from both. Similarly both drummers are experts in sourcing aggressive rolling thunder from their kits' rims, bass drums and taut tops, often augmenting mewling reed smears or stuttering brass breaths to attain multiphonic expression. It's surely waggish Sommer though who adds an array of distinctive noises from bell chiming to plastic toy squeaks to further disrupt but ultimately animate the proceedings.
Since track titles are sometimes longer than the length of the tracks, it's pointless to single out individual ones. No matter how you name it, the set contains creative, cohesive almost swinging improv of high quality.
THE SQUID'S EAR, Ken Waxman (https://www.squidco.com/cgi-bin/news/newsView.cgi?newsID=2643) [20230515].