The latest candidate for ECM’s audiophile vinyl Luminessence series is this 1981 album by keyboardist and composer Rainer Brüninghaus (b.1949), familiar to listeners from his long association with Jan Garbarek, and before that with Eberhard Weber in the group Colours (and even earlier as a member of the German jazz-rock band Spectrum).

Freigeweht was the debut recording of Brüninghaus as a leader and it’s an overlooked treasure that’s remarkable for a number of things. Not least is the presence of Kenny Wheeler as part of a fascinating quartet that also features drummer Jon Christensen together with the unusual choice (suggested by Manfred Eicher) of Brynjar Hoff – principal oboist of the Oslo Symphony Orchestra – on both oboe and English horn.

The contrasting timbres of woodwind and brass make for interesting harmonic variations in the relatively little time the instruments are heard together but it’s as soloists that both Wheeler and Hoff really excel. Indeed, Wheeler-watchers unaware of the album will have to obtain it because Kenny is absolutely on fire. His solos on Side A’s ‘Spielraum’ and Side B’s ‘Die Flüsse Hinauf’, in particular, are of such a high standard that they stand out even within the stellar framework of his most impressive work. He plays flugelhorn throughout and the performances are studded with patent Wheeler-isms in his most recognisable signature style.

Another real point of interest is the way the album reflects the topical influence of minimalism and what was then often called systems music in its flow of repeated motifs and pulsing rhythms. In common with other rather overlooked ECM titles of the Eighties such as Art Lande and Mark Isham’s ‘We Begin’ from 1987, there’s a very Steve Reich-ian concern with overlayed patterns and an almost Motorik-like rhythmic emphasis. Here, the wonderfully supple and indeterminate drumming of Jon Christensen combines with his perfect time-keeping to at once enhance yet break up the even measured metronomic systems set up by Brüninghaus’s synths, which are performed manually rather than sequenced digitally, as would later become the norm. Even so, you can detect the anticipatory ghost of what will become a stand-by of early pop electronica in some of the synth washed voicings here.

It’s as a composer (and an inspired pianist more than a keyboard boffin) that Brüninghaus really shines. As Friedrich Kunzmann’s new sleeve note to accompany this release attest, his classical influences – French Impressionism , Russian Romantics, Edvard Greig – left a definite mark. The often rhapsodic, airy and intensely atmospheric feelings conveyed by the album’s six pieces – all by Brüninghaus – offer enticingly open structures for the soloists to roam in. And roam they do, with Kenny Wheeler particularly memorable throughout.

from https://ukjazznews.com