December Quadro Nuevo

• 1Von guten Mächten wunderbar geborgen03:29
• 2Die Nacht ist vorgedrungen04:42
• 3Jesu bleibet meine Freude04:25
• 4Kyrie Eleison (Dorian)04:15
• 5O Tannenbaum04:01
• 6Song for Peace04:06
• 7December05:00
• 8Befiehl Du Deine Wege04:52
• 9Oheboka Rabi Yasou04:29
• 10Joseph, Lieber Joseph Mein05:39
• 11Kyrie Eleison (Lydian)05:35
• 12Maria Durch Ein Dornwald Ging (Guitar-Vibraphone Version)04:11
• 13I'll Be Home for Christmas04:36
• Total Runtime59:20

Info for December

The new album by the world music ensemble Quadro Nuevo is dedicated to the wintry mood. The musicians, who have already released three Christmas albums in their long band history since 1996, do not see December as another work of this genre, but they nevertheless interpret melodies of religious or spiritual origin on it.

"Figures like Jesus, Mary and Joseph were formative for our occidental mindset. Regardless of whether one is a believer, whether one takes them as historical persons or as myths, their story can give us orientation. In the course of life, we can move away from them, lose track of them, reinterpret them again and again and approach them again.

Especially at the darkest time of the year, we reflect particularly intensely. Even Jesus of Nazareth and his disciples do not always agree on the right path. They discuss, argue, deny and betray each other. And in the end, Jesus cries out on the cross, "My God, why have you forsaken me?"

The invocation of a higher power, from which one expects help in the cold and in existential distress, thus finds new expression in Quadro Nuevo in two versions of the ancient Kyrie Eleison, by all means retaining the original sacred character. Under the impression of the 30-year war, Paul Gerhardt asks with his Befiehl du deine Wege for a positive response from above, which Quadro Nuevo now transfers into a heartfelt 5/4 time.

The war in Ukraine prompted the musicians to write songs that express their longing for peace, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Von guten Mächten wunderbar geborgen or Song for Peace, composed by Mulo Francel's son.

Stylistically, the album feeds on shimmering jazz harmonies, from odd, meditative or funky rhythms to Klezmer-inspired improvisations.

"Obviously deeply rooted in the glorious insidiousness of Alpine music, these soulful virtuosos have opened their hands and ears wide to the sounds of other cultures" wrote DIE ZEIT about their album Weihnacht in December 2008.

Above all, at concerts and on their travels, they repeatedly deal with the oriental cultural area, the regional origin of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The instrumental artists travelled through Israel, Jordan and Antioch, climbed the Moses mountain in Sinai and approached Buddhism on a musical level as film dubbing artists.

In Egypt, they worked several times with the Sufi band Cairo Steps, whose pianist Rami Attallah arranged the Coptic melody Oheboka Rabi Yasou for the new album.

Mulo Francel, tenor saxophone, C-Melody saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet
Andreas Hinterseher, accordion, bandoneon, trumpet
D.D. Lowka, bass, percussion
Chris Gall, piano
Philipp Schiepek, guitar
Tim Collins, vibraphone
Rolf Ackermann, grand piano

Quadro Nuevo
The group Quadro Nuevo was born on a grey January day in 1996 when four young musicians met for the first time on a parking lot near Salzburg.

The four, who had only vaguely heard of each other before then, had been commissioned to produce a movie score for the Austrian TV station ORF. The fee for the recording was subsequently blown in the local Casino and the film was never broadcast.

But on that day, one thing was clear: a new quartet with an unmistakable sound had been born. From now on, there would only be Quadro Nuevo, the love of nostalgic acoustic music, traveling together evening after evening, from stage to stage. A dream became reality, the joyous exuberance audible in every note.

The quartet has now performed at many renowned festivals such as the Montreal Jazz Festival, the International Burghausen Jazz Weeks, the Rheingau Music Festival, Merano Music Weeks, Saalfelden Jazz Days, the Ollinkan Festival in Mexico City and the Quebec Festival. Aside from their numerous CDs, the group has published the 224-page autobiographical road book Grand Voyage and audiobooks with Ulrich Tukur, Ulrike Kriener, Udo Wachtveitl and Michael Fitz.

This album contains no booklet.