‘Found Sounds’ Goes Where No Man or Woman Can Right Now
By: Carol Banks Weber
Tags: Jazz, Markus Gottschlich, Album Review, Bruce Williams, Music

‘Found Sounds’ Goes Where No Man or Woman Can Right Now

Put your headphones on for this: Markus Gottschlich’s new concept album allows us to roam freely in this world, in the age of a deadly pandemic. Thank you.

U.S.-based, Austrian pianist/composer Markus Gottschlich absorbs what he hears from the world out there and pours his Found Sounds into classical, free jazz art. The magpie artist picks up on the natural rhythms of a busy subway, diners in the din of clinking glasses and a tiny watch alarm going off, a mother tending to her child, and even a ferocious hurricane approaching landfall, carefully records bits and pieces on his binaural microphone and hand-held recording device, then re-orchestrates entire pieces around his found sounds.

The nine-track album is Gottschlich’s third as a leader, composed mostly for jazz trio, and features a slew of diverse, instrumental voices, including trumpeter Bobby Shew, alto saxophonist Bruce Williams, Israeli percussionist Yogey Shetrit, bassist Martin Kocian, and drummer David Halasz.

“In this album, you will hear my way of interpreting the environment, which might entice the listener to use his/her imagination as one goes through their day. Furthermore, it’s my desire to make this improvised art form we call ‘jazz’ as accessible as possible, by relating it to sounds everyone knows,” Gottschlich explained in a DL Media press release. “By keeping my ears wide open to my environment, my awareness of the world around me changed, and so did I, lastingly. With some creativity and an open mind, I found that there is more in my environment than I thought; Sounds, more than any other sensory stimulus, spark my imagination.”

While exploring the outside world through Found Sounds, a four-year endeavor, the artist inadvertently opened an aural escape hatch to Vienna, New York, Miami, Taipei, and London — for the rest of us stuck at home listening in during an unprecedented pandemic. Yes, that.

For the shut-ins long suffering from unaddressed PTSD, depression, and anxiety…the gesture’s much appreciated.

“By keeping my ears wide open to my environment, my awareness of the world around me changed, and so did I, lastingly. With some creativity and an open mind, I found that there is more in my environment than I thought; Sounds, more than any other sensory stimulus, spark my imagination.”

There’s a lot to unpack in this independent, Nov. 27th release.

A foghorn sounding off in the darkness, lingering and taunting in “Shofar,” draws sounds of approval from the pleasantly surprised band members, and immediately conjures up a Maine seascape of fishermen hauling their catch at twilight.

Everyone’s familiar with the rhythmic hush, push and pull of a subway train and the disembodied voice corralling all. Gottschlich launches off that percussive ride with the drummer, all hands on deck, in “Trainology,” as if musing out loud, pushing thought parameters, twisting and turning over an old-fashioned Irving Berlin wraparound, and beyond — as far as the forward-thumping, hipper-than-thou bass can send you. And wow, can he send you. The Found Sounds virology sinks nicely into a straight-ahead bass-and-drum network of what could be, with occasional, mild detours of rebellion.

Gottschlich captures the frantic, singular energy of Hurricane Irma in the opening track, “Irmageddon,” rippling off that growing, hurtling current. He also manages to eke out a neat, tidy little melody, which he pounds into the chaotic stratosphere for all it’s worth…to symbolize Irma’s inevitable, propulsive landfall, and the helpless, awestruck feeling surrounding it. He throws in a typical jazz changeup — a bit of a Latin riff alongside the drummer — before Hurricane Irma’s commanding melody resurges for a final time.

That must be the Viennese horse and carriage trotting through in “Flaker Lied,” a ballad loaded with edgy pauses and meandering piano takeaways, straying from melody to tension-mounted, carnivorous assaults, before returning to the accidental groove of hooves on cobblestone.

Photo Credit: M. Gottschlich

He carves out an off-kilter intro into a stone-cold groove, mixed with jazz questions from the sound of men playing hoops in “Between A Rock And A Hard Place.” The underlying tune he carries on piano almost reminds you of a popular jazz standard, or the understudy, B-side backup from a forgotten, Oscar-winning 1940s musical. The bass wins again in its modicum of spectrum-spanning solos.

In the Zen-inspiring “Taipei,” you’re already there, as the band extracts the heart of the city in deeply pronounced notes and atmospheric conditions (locals opening up, strange-sounding, early morning birds, a woman’s voice through a metallic man-made echo chamber…is that a street merchant shaking open her plastic bags?). It’s what a hopelessly obsessed jazz musician would compose during his travels, to while away the time, keep in rhythm, and appreciate the exotic goings-on before him. All at once.

“I heard some Chick Corea influence and appreciate how tight the drums and bass are playing together, so complementary on each track. What a great group! The Found Sounds are interesting. It really adds a different sonic dimension between songs that reminds me of what it’s like to perform outside, where the ambience falls away once the music starts to fill in the empty sonic spaces in the air around you. I enjoyed the ‘Flaker Lied’ the most, because I like bluesy piano vibes. The ‘Taipei’ track is just beautiful music. I love how American jazz has been adopted all over the world as a form of musical self-expression and that musicians all over the world can be so great at communicating with it.” —Grammy-nominated Thomas Hutchings, NY saxophonist/music producer

“On The Brink,” my favorite, starts off with the everyday…you’re one of many in a crowd, a baby cries, a motherly voice asks, “Are you ok?” a beat later, and then Gottschlich showers you with hugs and kisses — musically — in a blend of tuneful, timeless pop and jazz artistry.

From Miami and New Mexico to the East Coast, and beyond, Markus Gottschlich picks up original, accessible music from “Found Sounds” just this side of classical, free jazz, and makes his mark upon the world.

The best part of the last track, “A Last Dance,” is that trumpet, sounding off in the distance, speaking for us all in wanting more. The magnificent, scenery-chewing bass, making one moment linger in the highlights. Or, Steinway artist Gottschlich gamely stringing up incandescent lighthouses of his own onto some low-pitched, downward-spiraling ending (cello?), refusing to let go…then that bottom having its final say, going lower than low.

Found Sounds might not have come to fruition, were it not for Providence. The original trio recording had been stolen in mid-2018, along with the computer housing, only to be found, and finished this year on the East Coast during COVID-19’s lockdowns.

Until we can go back out and about again, this will do very much.

Artist quotes from a DL Media press release.