Recent Videos:
ENSEMBLE 5 live@FIM BASEL, MAY 25 2021
HEINZ GEISSER - FRIDOLIN BLUMER - RETO STAUB LIVE@WIM FEATURING IOANNIS MANDAFOUNIS - DANCE, FEBRUARY 5 2020 PART I
HEINZ GEISSER - FRIDOLIN BLUMER - RETO STAUB LIVE@WIM FEATURING IOANNIS MANDAFOUNIS - DANCE, FEBRUARY 5 2020 PART II
ENSEMBLE 5 live@AFTERBEAT Kyoto - Part I
ENSEMBLE 5 live@AFTERBEAT Kyoto - Part II

More Videos:
Ensemble 5 Wednesday 4+1 Series

New CDs on Leo Records:

THE COLLECTIVE MIND

BEST OF 2019 - New York City Jazz Record
THE COLLECTIVE MIND Vol.2

LUMINESCENCE

Press Quotes:

„The music is so abstract that it makes Cecil Taylor sound like Hazel Scott [...] Amazing!“: Lynn René Bayley, The Art Music Lounge
„Au fil du temps, le quartette, [...] poursuit une aventure musicale qui s’avère de plus en plus élaborée, maîtrisée et complexe. [...] Fascinant.“: Jean Buzelin, Culture Jazz
„There’s a rich complexity to the music, all of which is collectively composed in improvisation, but it never seems cerebral or remote.“: Brian Morton, Jazz Journal
„The Ensemble 5 has reached a point where they emit a ̈One and Only ̈ Aura through their collaboration of close to ten years.“: Yuki Omura, Jazz Japan
„Il gruppo è ormai una identità collettiva con una propria personalità ed un proprio approccio riconoscibile immediatamente.“: Vittorio LoConte, Musiczoom
„Un quintet entièrement improvisé libre avec une réelle finesse et une capacité à faire coexister des approches sonores individuelles en diversifiant le timing et le débit, la dynamique et les énergies par le biais d’une intense écoute mutuelle.“: Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, Orynx-improvandsounds Blogspot
„Mais puisque chacun se jauge avec attention, ou plutôt se tient à l’affût d’une brèche, parfois un vent de folie mesurée s’engouffre dans cette atmosphère suspendue. La longue attente nous entraîne sur une mer houleuse où le respect que chaque partenaire doit à l’autre permet de maintenir un degré de lisibilité de l’ensemble qui quintuple la capacité créative. Jamais autocentrée, elle entraîne l’auditeur dans une forme vivante à la fois éclatée et dans le même temps cohérente.“: Nicolas Dourlhès, CitizenJazz
„... eines der prickelndsten Ensembles des NowJazz.“: Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy
„... a sound world of continuing fascination.“: Stuart Kremsky, Mr. Stu’s Record Room
„... highly spirited music...“: Ken Cheatham, Jazz Views
„... a true simulation of human feelings.“: Ettore Garzia, Percorsi Musicali
„... the Ensemble 5 achieves its goals without compromise to create engrossment...“: Ken Waxman, JazzWord
„Wenn die vielstrapazierte Vokabel ‘Interaktion’ eine Berechtigung besitzt, dann beim Ensemble 5 um den Drummer Heinz Geisser. [...] Schickte man die hierarchiefreie, sensitive und kommunikative Musik dieses Ensembles ins Universum und kämen Aliens mit ihr in Kontakt, könnten diese möglicherweise annehmen, die Menschheit sei eine besonders intelligente, verantwortungsbewusste und sensible Rasse.“: Udo Andris, Jazzpodium
„Ein Abenteuer für Unverzagte.“: Manfred Papst, NZZ am Sonntag
„... eine befreit klingende Musik zwischen zeitgenössischer Klassik und Jazz...“: Christoph Merki, Tages Anzeiger
„...an entirely free improv collective that holds together cohesively, blending well the art of noise with a gentler vocabulary.“: Selwyn Harris, Jazzwise
„Their form of free music exhibits a level of sagacity in its earnestness and this brings on a marriage of vibrant momentum to acutely accurate definition.“: Ken Cheetham, Jazz Views
„Il tutto acquista quasi la dimensione di un rito sciamanico.“: Vittorio LoConte, Music Zoom
„... With Ensemble 5, Heinz Geisser has hit a gold streak. [...]... rich, thrilling improvisations that go straight to the point.“: François Couture
„...un abbraccio virtuoso e stimolante tra generazioni dalla mente aperta e dalla voglia continua di mettersi in gioco.“: Vincenzo Roggero, Italia all about jazz
„... a really enjoyable and uplifting listening experience.“: Joacim Nyberg, Soundofmusic
„...the five players from different worlds of music bring their abilities to create an astounding unity. I admire the expressions of this tight knit group.“: Yuki Omura, Jazz Japan
„Die Musik erreicht auch ohne exaltierte Dynamikkurven und Soundexzesse ein Höchstmass an Spannung; alleine in der Art und Weise, wie aufmerksam die Musiker aufeinander hören und - an unterschiedlichsten Orten ihrer Imagination andockend - dennoch im gleichen Film sind.“: Pirmin Bossart, Jazz'n'More
„... Frei geformter, transparenter, spannungsgeladener Jazz einer hervorragend aufgestellten, homogenen Band in ihrer zweiten Veröffentlichung.“: Christian Gysi, JazzLinks
„Für mich klingt das zeitgemäßer als Vieles, was sich so nennt.“: Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy
„... there is never a drift away from the metre and through the album the solidity is constant. This coherence in what is very evidently a suite of freely improvised free jazz is impressive: it depends of course on a vivacious, aural structure, itself drawn from a breadth of musical lexis and expression.“: Ken Cheetham, Jazz Views
„... The freedom Ensemble 5 exhibits [is] a freedom to make music, real music.“: Mark Corroto, All About Jazz
„If you like your pointillism pointed, rather than random, evolutionary, rather than open ended, then this should prove a very satisfactory listen indeed.“: Robert D. Rusch, Cadence Magazine
„... Ensemble 5 embraces a great deal of fertile musical space.“: Glenn Astarita, all about jazz
„A tightly-knit group playing dynamic, talktative improvisations with lots of control, as testified by the one-two punch two-and-a-half-minute opener ‘In short.’ Quite convincing.“: François Couture
„...on ne peut plus douter un seul instant du riche futur de l’Ensemble 5.“: Luc Bouquet, le son du grisli

more Videos:
Japan 2013
Trailer Wednesday 4+1 Series 2014/15

Ensemble 5

Heinz Geisser - percussion
Fridolin Blumer - double bass
Reto Staub - piano
Robert Morgenthaler - trombone

Ensemble 5, from left to right Robert Morgenthaler, Fridolin Blumer, Heinz Geisser, Reto Staub.

Over the past decade the working band around Swiss percussionist & composer Heinz Geisser - best known for his longstanding collaboration with William Parker in the Collective 4tet - has developed a telepathically attuned and radical, musical expression.

The different musical backgrounds of the four musicians, their broad vocabulary and their groundbreaking interplay make up the seeds for their vibrant and colorful music - created in real time and on the edge of the unknown. Their daring swarm intelligence doesn’t leave anybody unaffected in their audiences.

Since 2014 the Ensemble 5 has organised the "Wednesday 4+1 concert series" at WIM Zürich. In their monthly shows they routinely invite a different guest to join them for an evening of improvised music. Over sixty concerts have been held by now.

The distinctive identity of the Ensemble 5’s music has developed in particular due to regular meetings with guest musicians forcing them to deal with the ever-changing wild card of the unexpected. Unheard sound textures settle in the band’s collective memory and prepare the field for explorations of new musical territory.

The Ensemble 5 toured Japan in 2013 and in 2019. Their seven albums on the critically acclaimed British label Leo Records have been praised by the international press. "The Summary of 4" (2014) and "The Collective Mind" (2019) have been listed among "BEST OF THE YEAR" by the magazine The New York City Jazz Record. The latest release "LUMINESCENCE" captures the band live in Tokyo with Japanese guest musician and violin player Naoki Kita. As US- American writer Stuart Kremsky remarked: „The musicians proceed to unheard musical territory coalescing in a sound world of continuing fascination.“

Ensemble 5, from left to right Heinz Geisser, Robert Morgenthaler, Reto Staub, Fridolin Blumer.

Biographies:

Heinz Geisser (*1961 in Zurich, Switzerland), musician and composer, studied classical guitar with Ermano Maggini and classical percussion with Horst Hofmann at the Zurich Music Conservatory. By his mid-twenties he was awarded the soloist diploma on classical guitar. Self-taught on jazz guitar his first recording was in 1988 with Swiss saxophonist Urs Blöchlinger. In the early 90’s however, drums and percussion became his main instrument. Further on he has been dedicating himself to improvised music.

During an extended visit to New York City he formed the Collective 4tet with William Parker, Jeff Hoyer and Mark Hennen in 1992. Their half a dozen albums on Leo Records have received outstanding reviews including several four star ratings in the Penguin Guide to Jazz.

Heinz Geisser has performed and recorded with many leading artists in the USA, Mexico, Europe and Asia including Guerino Mazzola, Sirone, Mat Maneri, Rob Brown, Arthur Brooks, Scott Fields, Elliott Levin, Shiro Onuma, Eiichi Hayashi, Takayuki Kato, I Wayan Sadra, among many others. He has produced over 30 albums released on US and EU labels such as Leo Records, Black Saint, Music&Arts, Silkheart Records, Cadence Jazz Records, Ayler Records etc.

A collaboration with Indonesian movie director Garin Nugroho has led to the music documentary "Teak Leaves at the Temples". The movie premiered in 2008 at the international film festivals Rotterdam and Hongkong. In 2010 he formed the Ensemble 5.

Fridolin Blumer (*1984 in Zurich), double bassist, plays new and anachronistic music as an improviser and interpreter.

He started to play violoncello when he was eight years old and switched to bass at the age of fifteen. From 2003 to 2008 he studied at the jazz faculty of the music academy Basel/Switzerland.

By exploring the musical traditions, today’s acoustic events, groove and sound and the related way of playing the bass, Fridolin Blumer develops a genuine musical grammar.

Reto Staub (*1979 in Herisau/Switzerland) is as a crossover artist between stated and improvised music. As a piano player and real-time composer, he has developed his own expressive style over the years.

After studying piano with Tomasz Herbut and graduating at the University of the Arts in Bern/Switzerland he attended chamber music classes for contemporary music with Reinbert de Leeuw and Mauricio Kagel and theater music classes with Georges Aperghis and Françoise Rivalland. In 2006/2007 he was scholarship holder at the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt/Germany.

Reto Staub has participated in numerous world premieres of contemporary new music. He has performed at significant new music festivals in Europe and overseas with Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Nikel and Ensemble Linea (Wien Modern, Klangspuren Schwaz, Champs Libre Strasbourg, Festival Darmstadt, Contempuls Prag, Ultraschall Berlin, Tzlil Meudcan Tel Aviv etc).

Robert Morgenthaler (*1952), trombone and composition, is an international in-demand freelancer, soloist and improviser.

He had studied at the Zurich Music Conservatory and at Swiss Jazz School Bern. Being familiar with many music genres he has toured worldwide since the late 70’s, performing with legendary musicians such as Carla Bley, Victor Lewis, Steve Swallow, Bob Stewart, Joe Haider, Mel Lewis, Robin Eubanks, Michel Godard, Gunter Schuller, Jean-Paul Bourelly, Günter "Baby" Sommer, Lee Konitz, Hannibal Marvin Peterson, Kenny Wheeler etc.

In 1994 he formed the band Roots of Communication including Swiss-American singer Erika Stucky. From 1979 to 2018 he taught at the Bern University of the Arts.

Ensemble 5, from left to right Fridolin Blumer, Reto Staub, Heinz Geisser, Robert Morgenthaler; Photo by Bettina Scherz.

Discography:

	2012 SOLSTICE Ensemble 5 featuringVincent Daoud Leo Records LR 649	Liner Notes Music Sample 1 Music Sample 2
	2014 The Summary of 4 Ensemble 5 Leo Records LR 694	Liner Notes Music Sample 1 Music Sample 2 Music Sample 3 Music Sample 4
	2014 The Summary of 4 Vol.2 Ensemble 5 Leo Records LR 710	Music Sample 1 Music Sample 2 Music Sample 3 Music Sample 4
	2017 Live - featuring Elliott Levin Ensemble 5 Leo Records LR 784	Music Sample 1 Music Sample 2 Music Sample 3 Music Sample 4 Music Sample 5 Music Sample 6
	2019 THE COLLECTIVE MIND Ensemble 5 Leo Records LR 858
	2019 THE COLLECTIVE MIND Vol.2 Ensemble 5 Leo Records LR 864
	2020 LUMINESCENCE Ensemble 5 Leo Records LR 888

Contact: heinz@geisser.com