AKKU Quintet – Live (7d Media, 2022)
“Live” is the new album from Swiss progressive jazz ensemble AKKU Quintet. The group plays spellbinding, lengthy musical pieces that evolve slowly. Their style has been called minimalist jazz.
AKKU Quintet is led by drummer and composer Manuel Pasquinelli (also known for his work with Sonar & David Torn). The live recording contains five songs from different stages of the group’s history, recorded at various locations between 2016 and 2020.
Most of the material on “Live” is from the albums “Aeon”, “Molecules” and “Stages of Sleep”. Manuel says about the album, “Playing this music live is always an intense and beautiful experience. While not perfect, live versions often have a certain quality and spirit, which are hard to achieve in the studio. We want to share some live moments we captured on different occasions with this album, especially in this challenging time for live music. We didn’t do any editing. So you will hear truly handmade music. This album might be a good introduction to our work, and maybe one gets curious about the four studio albums we released before.”
AKKU Quintet is based in Bern, in eastern Switzerland. Composer and drummer Manuel Pasquinelli founded the band in 2010. AKKU Quintet has released four studio albums and performs live regularly.
AKKU Quintet lineup: Manuel Pasquinelli on drums; Michael Gilsenan on saxophone and effects; Maja Nydegger on grand piano and keyboards; Markus Ischer on guitar; and Andi Schnellmann on bass.