Currently available from Brambus Records:
Oriental Village
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Since 1992, the "Althaus Schonhaus Express" is on the road with Heiner Althaus and Sascha Schonhaus playing the saxophones, Hans Feigenwinter on the piano, Banz Oester a the bass and Norbert Pfammatter on drums. "First Station" was the title of their 1994 recording debut and the new album is their first album for Brambus and the first release for Brambus of 1999, "Oriental Village."
From the beginning the quintet combined in a powerful and competent way the uneven meters and colorful scales used in the folk music of the balkan with the improvising and communicating qualities of jazz music. Through the creativity and experience of each musician they create a new sound, improvised and still theme-related. A musical experience on the edge of cultures, emotional, full of contrasts and thrilling sounds. Through the original compositions the band expresses power, intelligence and a humble humanity. "In Coltrane's Footsteps" was to read in "Der Bund" in late 1997 and further more: "The music played by the Althaus-Schonhaus Express combines aspects of jazz (improvisation, interplay, groove) with elements of various folk-music. The repertoire of the group consists namely of treatments of traditional folk music, with the focus on Turkey and Rumania, but Israel and Japan are not missing either. Along with this comes the originals of the musicians with an exotic flair. All in all this can be heard as a legitimate continuation of John Coltrane's search for "World-Music." The new album represents the result of the work of a group of excellent musicians!
