{"id":62847,"date":"2026-04-17T05:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/62847\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T05:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:09:08","slug":"olaf-rupp-berlin-eiskeller-scatterarchive-2026-the-free-jazz-collective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/62847\/","title":{"rendered":"Olaf Rupp – Berlin Eiskeller (scatterArchive, 2026) ~ The Free Jazz Collective"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n By
\n
\n Martin Schray
\n <\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n The \u201cEiskeller\u201d (German for ice cellar) is a tranquil area in Berlin\u2019s
\n Hakenfelde district (which is part of the Spandau borough), and it\u2019s
\n considered the coldest place in the city. Due to its special valley location
\n in the Spandau Forest, cold air masses accumulate there, leading to
\n extremely low temperatures in winter. The name comes from its former use as
\n a natural ice storage facility. During the days of the Berlin Wall, the
\n three farmsteads in Eiskeller, surrounded by GDR territory, were connected
\n to West Berlin only by a four-meter-wide and 800-meter-long corridor. The
\n place was almost isolated.\n<\/p>\n

\n Olaf Rupp\u2019s new album Berlin Eiskeller is also about isolation, albeit not
\n geographical but musical. \u201cWhen recording, I wanted to listen deeply to the
\n modulations created by saturation effects in the amplifier itself: octaves,
\n difference tones, ring modulator effects, and all that purring, creaking,
\n and gurgling that is always smiled at a little arrogantly in the genteel
\n world of musical aristocracy,\u201d says the guitarist. The result is music that
\n defies categorization – there are no rock patterns, it lacks even the
\n slightest hint of \u201cjazz\u201c, and the occasional sprinkling of melodies and
\n flageolets makes it too accessible for brutal noise music. Even new
\n classical music doesn\u2019t fit into any pigeonhole. That\u2019s why his music is
\n also somehow isolated.\n<\/p>\n

\n But Rupp isn\u2019t interested in pigeonholing anyway. He studied linguistics
\n (English and Spanish) and is a certified translator. Currently, he\u2019s reading
\n Marcel Proust. If you string together the titles of the first seven pieces,
\n they form a sentence from \u201c\u00c0 la recherche du temps perdu\u201d (In Search of Lost
\n Time):<\/p>\n

les murs, aussi bien\/ ceux du salon \/ de la salle \u00e0 manger \/ de la
\n cuisine que \/ celui de la cage de l’escalier \/embrassaient la pi\u00e8ce \/ la
\n s\u00e9paraient du \/ reste du monde<\/p>\n

, which in English means \u201cThe walls, both those of the living room, dining
\n room, and kitchen, as well as those of the stairwell, embraced the room and
\n separated it from the rest of the world.\u201d It\u2019s plain to see that the
\n isolation topic is picked up here as well. \u201cThe way the adjoining rooms
\n \u2018embrace\u2019 your own always carries with it the threatening idea of walls
\n closing in on you, leaving you unable to breathe.\u201d But the music is not
\n claustrophobic; on the contrary, it has something liberating about it.
\n Rupp\u2019s style consists of many nimble notes in atonal runs, and the clusters
\n he plays are more reminiscent of the style of Cecil Taylor. As with the
\n great pianist, Rupp also seems to have harmonic core elements, basic chords
\n and arpeggios, groups of notes that form horizontal and vertical axes, each
\n characterized by stark extremes in pitch, as in the first track, \u201cLes murs,
\n aussi bien\u201d. These modules and interval relationships, the aforementioned
\n octaves and difference tones, merge with structural formations to create
\n cells and characteristic motifs: Rupp can break down and reassemble these
\n basic building blocks, creating great tension and density, not James Joyce\u2019s
\n stream-of-consciousness-technique.\n<\/p>\n

\n But that\u2019s not all. In the title track, which closes the album, all these
\n elements are given plenty of time and space. The ring modulator effects and
\n flageolets complement each other and float feather-light through the room.
\n Rupp shifts from almost gently dabbed open chords and harmonics to bizarre
\n little flourishes. The effect is that the brittleness of the music has toned
\n down in favor of a pointillistic, psychedelic touch – as if Jimi Hendrix
\n were floating through space and experimenting with electronics. Being highly
\n abstract and demanding music (but by no means off-putting) Rupp\u2019s playing is
\n utterly captivating.\n<\/p>\n

\n Berlin Eiskeller develops a strange, magical pull, giving us 72
\n wonderful minutes to revel in sound.\n<\/p>\n

\n The album is available as a download. You can buy and listen to it on the
\n scatterArchive website.\n<\/p>\n

Berlin Eiskeller by Olaf Rupp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Martin Schray The \u201cEiskeller\u201d (German for ice cellar) is a tranquil area in Berlin\u2019s Hakenfelde district (which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[99],"tags":[20053,112,34587,190,34588,34589,10478,1971,4864],"class_list":["post-62847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-avant-garde","tag-berlin","tag-free-jazz","tag-germany","tag-improvisation","tag-improvised-music","tag-jazz","tag-music","tag-reviews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116418325101775251","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}