By Eyal Hareuveni
The free-improvising LDL trio – Swiss soprano sax player Urs Leimgruber,
pianist and keyboard player Jacques Demierre (who also collaborates with
Leimgruber in a duo), and German EMS analogue synth and sound processing
player Thomas Lehn – emerged from the trio LDP – Leimgruber, Demierre, and
the late American double bass master Barre Philips, which worked between
2001 and 2021, and hosted Lehn in Willisau (jazzwerkstatt, 2019). LDL
recorded its debut live album, in the endless wind, in 2023 (Wide Ear,
2024), continuing LDP’s aesthetics, which recorded most of its albums in
live settings.
the eerie glow of jellyfish was recorded live at the Kaleidophon Festival in
Ulrichsberg, Austria, in April 2024 (where LDP + Lehn performed in 2019),
and features a five-movement suite. Demierre plays the amplified spinet
(which he played in the duo album with Leimgruber, It Forgets About The
Snow, Creative Sources, 2021), so two keyboards – the acoustic,
harpsichord-like spinet and the vintage analogue synthesizer, both augmented
by Lehn’s live sound processing, embrace Leimgruber’s soprano sax at the
center of the sound image.
the eerie glow of jellyfish is an uncompromising, tension-filled, and
volatile improvisation, relying on deep listening and thoughtful, precise
exploration of the performance’s acoustic space. LDL is deeply immersed in a
stubborn, collective process of continuously filling and emptying the sound
space, allowing the unorthodox instrumentation and LDL’s idiosyncratic sonic
palettes to manifest themselves in the most personal and freest manner
possible. This captivating process suggests LDL as a live organism that acts
within an unpredictable, highly resonant, and often noisy, yet
hyper-attentive dialogue where elusive structure and spontaneous, individual
musical events are in constant negotiation. LDL always challenges and
disrupts the individual sonic palettes and never resorts to familiar sonic
options or narratives.
the eerie glow of jellyfish offers an insightful listening experience that
transforms the soprano sax, spinet, and the analog synth into new,
surprising sonic dimensions. LDL’s profound sensibility of listening
liberates its instruments, far beyond our preconceptions. It is a sonic
journey that visits close and faraway exotic, otherworldly, and the freest
sonic territories, but with deep roots in European free improvisation and
contemporary music.