Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Matthias Loibner, Lucas Niggli: Still Storm

Matthias Loibner, Lucas Niggli: Still Storm

By Mark Corroto
August 27, 2022
View read count

Matthias Loibner, Lucas Niggli: Still Storm

If Scottish pop singer Donavan is your only reference to the term "hurdy-gurdy," as in his 1968 hit "Hurdy Gurdy Man," welcome to this extraordinary device for improvisation. This medieval hand-cranked string instrument, which also has keys, is a kind of magic buzzing drone box which is part bagpipes, part violin and part sitar. The Austrian Matthias Loibner is a master musician and, with

Keiji Haino

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Keiji Haino, might be the leading proponent of the instrument in jazz and improvised music. He teamed up with Swiss drummer and percussionist

Lucas Niggli

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Lucas Niggli a few decades ago to perform duo concerts, and Still Storm is their first recording. Niggli is an omnivorous drummer with an appetite for intercontinental percussive sounds. He participates in twenty different ensembles, the best known perhaps being his Steamboat Switzerland, which has released nine discs.

This duo delivers 16 tracks, of which all but one, "Auf Socken," are purely improvised. Maybe it is their longtime collaboration and single mindedness which creates these seamless tracks. Each is complete in itself, as if the two musicians agree 'enough said.' Loibner plucks notes, elongates humming drones, and manipulates sound with electronics as Niggli tinkers with cymbals, metal objects, drum heads, toys, sticks, and chains. The effects are spectral and atmospheric, like a soundtrack to short stories set mostly at half-light, a time when one cannot rely on vision, and perception is extrasensory, i.e. pure magic.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Weinende Gletscher; Singing no Song; Saltwatermelons; Behind the Mist; The Valley Beyond; Dark Desire; Shall We? ; Jungle Juggle; Auf Socken; Critical Mass; Still Storm; High Moon; Il tempo sospeso; Bakossi Bird; Ozone Drone; Nebelblu?ten.

Personnel

Additional Instrumentation

Matthias Loibner: hurdy-gurdy, electronics; Lucas Niggli: drums, percussion.

Album information

Title: Still Storm | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Intakt Records

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Julia H��lsmann, Black Jesus Experie...
< Previous

CTI: A Guilty Pleasure Special
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.