Andere Planeten is the final of three wildly exploratory and staggeringly diverse new releases Ullmann released as part of his birthday celebrations. The indefatigable Berlin-based musician continues to strike out in new directions, searching relentlessly to discover new sounds, new territory and new forms for his ever-inventive improvisatory ventures. The first two albums were released on the big day itself, November 4, 2022. They included NotTwo Records release of For New Zealand, the second album from The Chicago Plan, Ullmann’s transatlantic quartet co-led by the saxophonist and trombonist Steve Swell with Windy City mainstays Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello, electronics and Michael Zerang on drums. Also out last November, this time via Leo Records, was Transformations and Further Passages, the sixth recording from The Clarinet Trio, Ullmann’s long-running collaboration featuring fellow reedists Jürgen Kupke and Michael Thieke.
There don’t seem to be rules to break where Das Kondensat is concerned. The experimental project spent eight years simply developing an aural vocabulary before entering the studio for their 2017 debut. The boundary-free project has only further evolved since; the title Andere Planeten (Other Planets) not only indicates the alien soundworld of the newly expanded quartet, but references the seismic impact of Arnold Schoenberg’s second string quartet.
Born November 2, 1957 in Bad Godesberg, Germany, tenor and soprano saxophonist, bass clarinetist, flutist, bass flutist and composer Gebhard Ullmann has been considered one of the leading personalities in both the Berlin and international music scenes. Hailed as “one of the finest improvising artists in the world” by the late piano master Paul Bley, Ullmann has recorded well over 60 albums over the course of his career, leading or co-leading a number of eclectic ensembles that blur the lines between jazz, free improvisation, contemporary classical, chamber music and electronica. Ullmann’s most recent accolades include the 2022 Deutscher Jazzpreis for woodwinds, the highest honor for the music in his home country; as well as seeing his compositions distributed by Vienna’s Universal Edition, one of the world’s most respected classical music publishers.
His working bands are the transatlantic projects Basement Research, The Chicago Plan and Conference Call, the Berlin-based Clarinet Trio, the electro-acoustic trio Das Kondensat, the worldwide first quarter-tone-piano-quartet mikroPULS, the electro-acoustic quintet GULFH of Berlin and the low drone project BassX3. He is also a member of the Hannes Zerbe Jazz Orchestra, the Scott DuBois Quartet, the Satoko Fujii Berlin Orchestra, and projects led by vocalist Vesna Pisarovic ad Russian sax genius Alexey Kruglov. As a composer he’s written several chamber music pieces including two string quartets and several solo pieces for woodwind instruments, along with larger works for classical orchestra and a new score for the 1929 movie Berliner Stilleben, directed by László Moholy-Nagy. His compositions are now distributed by Universal Edition, Vienna. Ullmann has recorded or performed with such luminaries as Paul Bley, Han Bennink, William Parker, Barry Altschul, Bob Moses, Keith Tippett, Trilok Gurtu, Andrew Cyrille, Sylvie Courvoisier, Lee Konitz, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Willem Breuker, Matt Wilson, Tyshawn Sorey, Mark Helias, George Schuller, the European Radioorchestra, and many others.
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