” Many dont know that Schick studied the saxophone and started becoming a rather prolific voice on the instrument & the new jazz scene of the time before more or less completely focusing on his experimental electronic and sound work. Though he never stopped playing the alto (like many often claim) he simply stopped booking saxophone gigs as he found a much more open and less defined canvas & audience in the new experimental and electronic underground scenes of Berlin and all over the world.
Only a few saxophone albums were released in the past years even though his trio Decollage kept working for all the years. Usually they performed only a few secret gigs per year, mainly attended by an insider audience of close friends, dedicated fans and collegues.
Meanwhile another generation of improvisors from all over the world has arrived in Berlin, among them Australian bassist Clayton Thomas who is vitalizing strongly & with fresh impulses into the very diverse scenes of the city playing basically anything from electro-acoustic minimalism to the most expressive free jazz. It was him who by curiosity asked Schick to meet for a few “acoustic” rehearsals and he thus initiated this new trio – and came up with a wonderful idea – namely asking to join German drum legend Paul Lovens.
The music of this trio can be easily described as jazz. And namely as free jazz – without stylistic fears and pre-connotations the trio goes on stage without prepared tunes, all the musical decisions are made directly on the spot. The music clearly and constantly references & quotations from all periods of the second half of the 20th century and beyond. Quotations of tunes are thrown in only as a trigger for certain moods and textures, tempi or modes, and the trio from there immediately takes off into extensive and fresh swing.”
Ignaz Schick & his network of Zangi Music 