By Eyal Hareuveni
Frank Gratkowski’s In Cahoots – Feat. Ingrid Laubrock (Klanggalerie, 2025)
German, Berlin-based woodwind player and composer Frank Gratkowski’s In
Cahoots began working in 2016 as an untitled, free improvised, and
non-hierarchical quartet featuring Cologne-based pianist-synth player Philip
Zoubek, double bass player Robert Landfermann, and drummer Dominik Mahnig.
This quartet released the live album Torbid Daylight (impakt Köln, 2020).
Soon this quartet expanded into a quintet with German-born, New York-based
tenor and soprano sax player Ingrid Laubrock. This quintet had its first
performance in Darmstadt in September 2023. It continued performing in 2024,
when it recorded its live debut album at LOFT in Cologne in April 2024 (on
its second performance), and plans more performances in 2026. Soon this
quartet expanded into a quintet with German-born, New York-based tenor and
soprano sax player Ingrid Laubrock, and this quintet had its first
performance in Darmstadt in September 2023. It continued to perform in 2024,
when it recorded its live debut album at LOFT in Cologne in April 2024 (on
its second performance), and plans more performances in 2026.
Gratkowski describes In Cahoots’ raison d’être with a quote of American
producer-guitarist-singer-songwriter T-Bone Burnett, relating to string
theory and music: “Beneath the subatomic particle level, there are fibers
that vibrate at different intensities. Different frequencies. Like violin
strings. The physicists say that the particles we are able to see are the
notes of the strings vibrating beneath them. If string theory is correct,
then music is not only the way our brains work, as the neuroscientists have
shown, but also, it is what we are made of, what everything is made of.
These are the stakes musicians are playing for”.
This quote makes perfect sense when you listen to the debut album of In
Cahoots. The opening piece, “OKTF”, suggests In Cahoots connected by strong,
emphatic fibers and almost telepathic dynamics, relying on tight rhythmic
interplay and collective theme development, immediately solidifying the
camaraderie between Gratkowski (on alto sax, clarinets, and flute) and
Laubrock. But Gratkowski is also an ambitious composer and wise bandleader
who seeks to explore free tonal ideas, enhanced by unorthodox playing
techniques and microtonal concepts. The following pieces juggle with this
elusive, thoughtful play with elements taken from free jazz, free
improvisation, and contemporary music, enjoying the great experience of
Zoubek, Landfermann, Mahnig, Laubrock, their mutual trust, and their in
cahoots-like willingness for risk-taking. Their vibrations may work in
different intensities and frequencies, but together they move the music into
inspiring, thought-provoking territories.
Frank Gratkowski & Kazuhisa Uchihashi – Live in Japan (Innocence, 2025)
Frank Gratkowski and Japanese guitarist, daxophone player, producer, and Innocence label owner Kazuhisa Uchihashi have been working closely in recent
years. Uchihashi guested on Gratkowski and pianist Achim Kaufmann’s SKEIN
band, and both played in Kaufmann’s Trokaan project; Uchihashi plays in
Gratkowski’s new Entertainment quartet. and Gratkowski joined the
performances of Uchihashi’s Altered States trio, and Gratkowski and
Uchihashi performed as a duo in Europe and in Japan. Live in Japan was
recorded during the duo’s second tour in Japan in October 2023.
Gratkowski plays the alto sax, bass clarinet, and flute, and Uchihasi plays
the electric guitar and daxophones. The nine pieces, taken from six
performances, are spontaneous, powerful, and intense conversations between
close friends who enjoy experimenting and challenging each other’s sonic
palette, often with unpredictable yet highly playful ideas. These
conversations often become a free associative exchange of eccentric gestures
when Uchihashi produces vocal-like sounds from the daxophones, and
Gratkowski answers with colourful bird calls, and both Uchihashi and
Gratkowski enhance their vocabularies with extended breathing, bowing, and
percussive techniques. Each piece suggests a distinct atmosphere and deepens
the immediate, imaginative interplay of these resourceful, great shamans of
sound.