ArtistInfo

Kristina Kanders
Say Something

Album DE 2010 on Bernd Gast Music label
Electronic, Jazz and Pop (Ambient)

World Music made in Western Europe. On January 22. 2010, just 16 months after her debut release, multi-talent Kristina Kanders introduces  her second studio-album "Say Something". It includes ten new compositions that combine the acoustic and electronic sounds of jazz and pop with her very own handwriting. Lyrical messages, experimentation and a vast variety of rhythms are the major thread in her work. This release ties in with her solo-album "For All People" in which she already proved her great musicality and stylistic independence. The music will be distributed through iTunes, Amazon and other download portals as well as CD mail order directly from the independent artist’s homepage. The Cologne drummer, singer and composer spent 18 year in New York City. She studied first at the New School University Jazz & Contemporary Music Program and finished her Master's at Queens College, New York. She performed with many distinguished musicians, among them Cyro Baptista, Pizzicato Five, John Zorn, Cibo Mato and many more. For over 10 years she taught music courses at a university in New York. Since 2005 she has lived in Cologne, Germany, where she focuses on the production of her own music.   On the new album Say Something, Kanders has composed, written, sung, played and produced, once again, all songs herself. She convinces through ingenuity, textual distinctiveness and subtle sound aesthetics. No track is like the next, the diversity is sustained until the last song. The music appears light and fresh and full of surprises yet it is profound, always driven by a  multi-layered rhythmical basis.   The many years in New York have left their mark on this CD. Kanders reveals her musical experience as she moves naturally between genres like jazz, electronica, pop, ambient, house and world music. The jazz emphasis has been increased through her live-drumming and the collaboration of some top-class special guests. Especially noteworthy are the saxophone solo by Dirk Raulff on Kimnara (track 7) and the vibraphone on Mother (track 3) by Tom Lorenz.   Kristina Kanders has further developed her voice. She opens the first track Liberty of Action with a four-part choir, imperceptibly placed in a 7/4 meter. "I reap what I sow, it is up to me, I am free to write my own script, create my own destiny," is the key message of this song. Fun K (track 2) is a bright jazz track with improvised melodic lines and serenity. Mother (track 3) is a lyrical and emotional homage to all mothers in the world. Ritual (track 4) feels like a spherical trip between Western classical and world music. Gone (track 5) deals with the sudden loss of a loved one. Kanders proves that she can sing with great expression.   Title 6, Say Something was inspired by the New York Subway campaign "If you see something, say something," started after 9/11.  It’s a call for more moral courage in public daily life. The track consists of  club sounds combined with danceable Brazilian grooves. Exciting and jazzy are the sax and Rhodes sounds in Kimnara (track 7) and is reminiscent of the jazz rock of the 70's. Followed by the cool and also jazzy Metamorph This (track 8) which is driven by a powerful bass and drum shuffle. Here, a simple theme is obscured bit by bit. Kanders sings flirtatiously in Plucking Daisies (track 9) It’s about the fleetingness of romantic love and advises more self-respect in case of emotional rejection. Surprising, naughty and different is the last song Good Moaning (track 10), in which a Brazilian cuica plays the lead. With this excellent sound production the listener gets a fascinating and rich album. The treasures and nuances reveal themselves bit by bit upon repeated listening. The artist remains true to the high level quality of her first album.

Musicians

Kristina Kanders dr, perc, *1962 DE album by

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