Weave | Jazzthing Next Generation Vol.91 LARIZA

• 1 Gaia 06:51
• 2 Sakura 06:46
• 3 Cirrus (Interlude) 01:38
• 4 Coalescing with the Blue 06:24
• 5 Oryx 03:18
• 6 Tentacular (Interlude) 01:58
• 7 Junonia 05:52
• 8 I Wish I Were a River 06:41
• 9 Lucency (Interlude) 01:16
• 10 Bathe in the Green 04:40
• Total Runtime 45:24

Info for Weave | Jazzthing Next Generation Vol.91

The Cologne quintet Lariza around the singer Lena-Larissa Senge, who also plays the synthesizer, creates a world of its own from acoustic and electronic sounds on its debut album "Weave". Almost all of the ten songs that can be heard here are from Senge's pen, and she uses unusual structures to compose. She founded the band six years ago during her studies in Osnabrück.

"My original idea was actually to form a band where piano and guitar come together, supplemented by drums and bass," she said, "and I absolutely wanted to have a saxophone in the band because I really like this warm sound. At that time, I was strongly inspired by Brazilian music, in which the combination of piano and guitar is very common. Over the years, the band has changed a lot and our sound has become more and more electronic. Meanwhile, there is no longer a piano, but instead a synthesizer. Our drummer also plays e-drums, and our saxophonist uses an Electronic Wind Instrument, EWI for short. We just want to have as much leeway as possible on our instruments and create many different, multi-faceted sound levels."

Lena-Larissa Senge formulated the goal of the band stating: “With us, music triggers sensations and interpretations, and that's exactly what we want to achieve with our audience. People should definitely interpret it in the way they find best, and we don't want to specify how they do this. That's why I like to leave a lot of room for imagination in my compositions. We also always hear very different interpretations from our audience.” Lariza has already reached this audience on numerous tours through Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, and the band won the Study Up Jazz Award in Osnabrück in 2016. Lariza's own sound aesthetics, which it has developed over the past few years, are now in full bloom on “Weave”. “All electronic instruments used by us serve to expand the sound palette,” Lena-Larissa stated. “It's about creating colors of sound, and all instruments have different roles. The combination of acoustic and electronic instruments continually creates new sound constellations. This has become a great playground for us, allowing even more complex weaving of sounds. This also creates completely new material.” Many of the songs on "Weave" are connected by jointly improvised "Interludes". This is how a carefully constructed album has been created, which reliably paves the way between experimental sounds, trendy patterns and devotion to jazz. "Is this still jazz?" saxophonist Angelika Niescier asked and immediately replied enthusiastically: Without a doubt! With the joy of experimentation en masse from a band that blurs boundaries with joy.”

Lena-Larissa Senge, vocals, synthesizer
Darius Faryar. bass
Lukas Schwegmann, drums, electronics
Raissa Mehner, guitar
Lorenz Schnle, saxophone, flute, EWI

LARIZA
das Kölner Quintett um die Sängerin und Komponistin Lena-Larissa Senge kombiniert Jazz und Pop sowie elektronische und experimentelle Klänge zu einem fesselnden Neugebilde.

Mit Neugier, Hingabe und Präzision bedient sich LARIZA Elementen Populärer, Elektronischer und Globaler Musik, schöpft aus der Freiheit der Improvisation und bettet diese Einflüsse in unkonventionellen kompositorischen Strukturen ein. In kontinuierlicher Zusammenarbeit mit ihren Bandkolleg*innen Lukas Schwegmann (drums), Duy Luong (bass), Raissa Mehner (guitar) und Lorenz Schönle (sax) kreiert Lena-Larissa Senge Songs, die die Welt reflektieren, die uns umgibt und auch das Nicht-Offensichtliche beleuchten. Die Songs bahnen sich ihren eigenen Weg unter die Haut, geformt aus organischen Grooves, differenzierten Sounds und facettenreichen Vocals.

Lena-Larissa Senge gründete die Band 2014 in Osnabrück am Institut für Musik, wo ein Großteil der Band ein Jazzstudium absolvierte. Mit Abschluss des Bachelorstudiums verlagerte sichder Schwerpunkt der Band 2018 nach Köln. Nach studiumsbedingten Formationswechseln,wobei der Kern der Band erhalten blieb, besteht die Band in der aktuellen Besetzung seit 1,5 Jahren. In der jetzigen Formation arbeitet LARIZA kontinuierlich an einer eigenständigen Klangsprache, die sich durch die Einbindung von Syntheziser, Ewi und Drumsamples nun vermehrt auch synthetischerKlänge bedient. Aus akustischen und synthetischen Sounds formt LARIZA eine eigene Klangästhetik, die den Puls der Zeit aufgreift und gleichzeitig authentisch und eigenständig bleibt. Feingefühl, Komplexität und Aktualität stehen im Fokus des gemeinsamen Schaffensprozesses.

Nach einer Auszeichnung durch den Study Up Award Jazz 2016, unternahm die Band Tourneen durch Deutschland, Österreich und Tschechien und spielte bei namenhaften Veranstaltungen wie dem bundesweiten Jazznachwuchsfestival Leipzig oder der „New Faces“ Reihe in der Jazzschmiede Düsseldorf. 2020 erhielt LARIZA das Auftrittsstipendium der Dr. Carl-Doerken Stiftung. Nach zwei bereits veröffentlichten Tonträgern (2016, 2017) und mehreren Singles in den letzten zwei Jahren, soll dieses Jahr ihr neues Album WEAVE erscheinen.

This album contains no booklet.