QUADRO NUEVO - GRAND VOYAGE

Since forming in 1996, the music of Quadro Nuevo has transported listeners to exotic locales around the world. These four intrepid adventurers, who hail from the South of Germany and Austria, have boldly sought out new sounds to incorporate into their distinctly European-flavored brand of music, venturing out to far away places from Mexico to the Balkans, Turkey to Tunis, Korea to Kuala Lumpur to soak up the local culture. To date, they have performed over 2500 concerts and on every continent.

Grand Voyage the group's 12th recording, documents their potent collective sound from Munich to London, across the Crimean peninsula and the Mediterranean, in New York City and Paris, then on to Transylvania and Malaysia. It's an exuberant, inspiring musical travelogue marked by instrumental virtuosity and an unpredictable air of discovery. Recorded over a three-year period (2008-2011), Grand Voyage includes the last contributions of guitarist and Quadro Nuevo charter member Robert Wolf, who was paralyzed in a tragic car accident in 2008. His gentle guitar work can be heard on a tango rendition of the moody jazz standard "Nature Boy" (recorded after a gala performance at New York's Carnegie Hall and featuring a guest appearance from American harmonica ace William Galison) and on the tender waltz "Lethe." Wolf also plays Turkish bouzouki on the exotic track "Antakya." The group's resident saxophonist and bass clarinetist, Mulo Francel, plays guitar on one track, a moving rendition of the standard "In the Still of the Night," in tribute to his fallen comrade. "I tried to imitate him on that song," says Mulo of Wolf. "He loves to play and to compose very quiet songs. Every time we play a ballad I think of him because he was a very quiet guy and this was his world, to play quiet songs with a very nice sound on the guitar. We all miss him."

Harpist Evelyn Huber, who replaced Wolf in the Quadro Nuevo lineup, brings a new musical dimension to the group with her unique virtuosity on tunes like the tango flavored tone poem, "Die Reise Nach Batumi," the dreamy Portuguese ballad "Cancao Do Mar," the bristling "Samba Para Parapente" and the popular Mexican tune from the 1940s, "Cien Años." She also plays dulcimer on the Turkish flavored "Meteora." Francel, who was originally a guitarist before switching over to tenor saxophone, brings a warm, Stan Getzian quality to the bouncy ditty "Die Abenteurer (The Adventurer)" and the lovely "Cien Años." His impeccable bass clarinet work is also featured on "Samba Para Parapente" and the sublime ballad "Dopo lo Spettacolo," and he offers some soaring clarinet work on the Turkish flavored number "Antakya." Accordionist Andreas Hinterseher provides the harmonic glue throughout this ambitious recording, also playing piano on "Dopo lo Spettacolo," while D.D. Lowka switches nimbly from assorted hand percussion to upright bass, giving Quadro Nuevo rare flexibility to morph into a myriad of colors and textures, which is evident on the richly-appointed three-movement suite, "Mosaique Tunisienne."

Several of the pieces on Grand Voyage were recorded in exotic locales. The restful "Secret Garden" was recorded in an open terrace in Kuala Lumpur. As Francel explains, "This was recorded in the middle of a very loud, very busy metropolis in Malaysia where there was a lot of construction going on during the day on new houses and big skyscrapers. Then in the nighttime, around 11 o'clock in the evening, we had a time where it was really quiet there. It was really hot and really humid and we went out on this terrace with our sound engineer and recorded this piece. And we named it 'Secret Garden' because it was like an oasis in this loud, big city."

"Goaz boq Muzik," a challenging fast-paced number recalling Ivo Papasov's Bulgarian Wedding Band, was recorded at an old castle in Transylvania. "We played a tour of the Balkan countries - Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania," Francel recalls. "We were on tour for several weeks where we'd play one night then have five days off. So we had time to travel and learn about the people there. Traveling in the middle of Romania is like traveling 100 years ago. We encountered Gypsies on their wagons with horses, collecting old metal that they sell in the next village. We were invited to play with them over in the Gypsy village, which was musically a very deep experience for us because they live in very poor conditions, but have a very interesting musical culture. Django Reinhardt came from that culture. He was a Gypsy too, touring around in wagons like that. So this tune 'Goz boq Muzik' was inspired by this area."

The beautiful Mexican folkloric number "Cien Años" was recorded in a mountain hut in the Austrian Alps while the three-movement "Mosaique Tunisienne" suite ("Morning," "Afternoon," "Night") was recorded in an old theater in Tunis. The final stirring track on Grand Voyage is an orchestral version of the album's opener, "Die Reise Nach Batumi," recorded with the NDR Radio Symphony Orchestra of Hannover.

Says Francel of Quadro Nuevo's mission: "In the beginning, we were four guys coming from different directions. I'm coming more from jazz direction and I very much like bossa nova. The Stan Getz-Charlie Byrd album (1962's pivotal Jazz Samba) was a big inspiration for me when I was just starting out. The bass player D.D. Lowka comes from Latin music. Robert Wolf comes from flamenco music and had toured with the great flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia. Our accordion player Andreas Hinterseher is very much into tango music and French musette waltz. And we put all of those elements together in our program. We played a tango, a French musette waltz, a jazz tune, a Latin tune, so everybody was represented. For years, that was our formula. Then we started to travel a lot and our experiences in other countries with other musicians and other music cultures began to influence our music. So in our music now there is a strong influence from Asian music, Oriental music, Middle Eastern music, Russian music and even Mexican music. And this all came with the years traveling in these areas."

Quadro Nuevo  offer a cornucopia of refreshing world music on their aptly titled release, Grand Voyage.

Grand Voyage - Track Listing/Personnel:
1. Die Reise nach Batumi (Mulo Francel) - 5:57
2. Cançao do Mar (Francisco Ferrer Trindade) - 2:30
3. Cien Años (Cervantes Gonzalez & Fuentes Gasson) - 3:16
4. Krim (Mulo Francel) - 5:35
5. Samba papa Parapente (Andreas Hinterseher) - 5:14

6. Aus der Stille der Nacht (Andreas Hinterseher) - 4:55

7. Nature Boy (Eden Ahbez) - 5:06

8. Die Abenteurer (Philipp Sterzer & Mulo Francel) - 4:12

9. Lethe (Robert Wolf) - 6:34
10. Antakya (Mulo Francel & Andreas Hinterseher) - 6:35

11. Meteora (Mulo Francel) - 4:33

12. Secret Garden (Mulo Francel) - 2:25

13. Mosaique Tunisienne (Morning) (Andreas Hinterseher, D.D. Lowka, & Mulo Francel) - 2:31

14. Mosaique Tunisienne (Afternoon) (Andreas Hinterseher, D.D. Lowka, & Mulo Francel) - 2:23

15. Mosaique Tunisienne (Night) (Andreas Hinterseher, D.D. Lowka, & Mulo Francel) - 3:29 16.Goaz boq Muzik (Andreas Hinterseher) - 3:52

17. Dopo lo Spettacolo (Robert Wolf) - 4:01

18. Die Reise nach Batumi (Orchestral Version) (Mulo Francel) - 5:33

Mulo Fancel: saxophone, clarinets

Robert Wolf: guitar, bouzouki, piano, steel drum
Andreas Hinterseher: accordion, vibrandoneon, bandoneon
D.D. Lowka: acoustic bass, percussion
Evelyn Huber: concert grand harp, hammered dulcimer

Also available on Justin Time Records from Quadro Nuevo:
Cine Passion, Tango Bitter Sweet, Luna Rosa, Mocca Flor, and Canzone Della Strada

For more information on Quadro Nuevo, visit quadronuevo.de