To play Jazz means: To transport and project a music so rich in information, colors and emotions that it frees your breath and opens your chest and mind.
FIELD has all the necessary ingredients: energy, humor and knowledge running deep and wide like a river. They also have the courage to tap into that river and dive down deep. Like the trickster, the mythological figure found in so many ancient indigenous traditions, who questions the rules and turns supposedly divine certitudes on their head, this band aims to become a vehicle for a re-positioning of inner and outer boundaries and limitations. Harvesting from the abundant pastures of music and all that constitutes “jazz”, armed and equipped with their instruments as tools and weapons, they act in the duality of light and darkness, of structure and anti-structure. Which will prevail?
FIELD plays Jazz.

Release

Concerts

Audio/Photos/Videos

Reviews

Dieser geradezu philosophische Überbau widerspiegelt sich in der raffinierten Instrumentalmusik von Field und macht diese Jazz-Band zu einer Formation, die nonverbal, also ohne ein einziges Wort, Botschaften transportiert, die von hoher politischer Brisanz sind. [...] Da war nichts vorhersehbar, und jede instrumentale Reaktion der Musiker barg eine gehörige Portion Überraschung, so dass es zu keiner Sekunde musikalisch öde wurde.

Paramount in its unforced musical sophistication, Heal the Rich is one Field trip many will want to take.

Overall this is a very solid statement by excellent musicians, who know exactly how to express their ideas and how to play in ensemble setting, sharing responsibilities and inspiring each other. The atmosphere may sound cold and alienated at first, but in time the listener is drawn into the internal universe these musicians create.

Die vier Musiker erreichen mit einer scheinbar beruhigend distinguierten Distanz zum Geschehen eine einzigartige Gruppendynamik. [...] Der grafisch interessant gestalteten CD würden noch die philosophischen Gedankensplitter Kempendorffs guttun, die er auf der Webseite des Labels publiziert hat.

FIELD lässt die Avantgarde wieder swingen. Jedes Stück auf HEAL THE RICH überrascht mit unerwarteten Tempowechseln und immer wieder neuen Rhythmen.

Throughout, the group's lightning quick interactions and reactions keeps the music flowing and exciting. The comfort and ease the members of Field have playing together is a treat to hear.

HEAL THE RICH richtet sich denn auch nur vordergründig an einen kleinen Personenkreis, in Wirklichkeit ist es gedacht für alle Menschen, die da Ohren haben zu hören.

FIELD plays Jazz. Period. Of course one feels invited to delve into the metaphor-laden accolades which have become the all-too familiar tune of reviews everywhere such as “the eruptive drum attacks spur on the sheer endless cascades of notes by the saxophone to leap to new ground while being gently carried by the warm guitar…” and so on.
I feel like this would not do FIELD’s music justice, because above all this band’s music is clear, straight-forward and honest. Its directness always keeps the listener close. Uli says he firmly believes that music in general and this music in particular could serve as an antidote to the ubiquitous and systemic processes of alienation encroaching upon us from all sides. When I listen to this record, I believe it, too.

FIELD’s new record is called “Heal The Rich”. It’s not called “Kill The Rich”, not least because this invitation (from which our title sets itself apart with such gentle humanity) would decimate a part of our audience and probably, ourselves, too. Besides, music is a formidable means of healing. And while there is no shortage of instruments of death in our world, there is a dire need for healing the alienation from ourselves and our environment which is currently ailing us. Music seems destined to help here, to serve as a potential instrument for a return to a meaningful life. A healing process or a process of reversal and reflection is urgently needed in many areas. In the Western world we are perfecting a kind of schizophrenia alternating states of an idle, click-driven empathy for the misery of the “other” and the simultaneous perpetuation of said misery by one’s own habits and (consumerist) behavior. In this context, our perception of the world, or everything of which it is made up - nature, weather, history, the environment, time - as a linear process instead of a complex system just exacerbates the problem. It facilitates the illusion that we are isolated from the rest of the world and from the consequences of our actions. This would explain the foolish yet constant call for more (economic) growth even though we should have known better since at least 1972 and should act accordingly. Plus, the trip we get from that daily pill of everlasting and beneficial growth will not just prove to be fatal but is, in its lack of vision, also endlessly boring and dull.

I feel that music and especially a music like jazz has a lot to offer in opposition to this. Its genesis doesn’t (primarily) follow a commercial objective, but revolves around pure content, it’s predestined to look at all sides of a coin: the process is always a part of the product. Jazz and improvised music harbour a special promise to be agents for a return, a repatriation of sorts, which could be the beginning or part of a healing process. Healing starts with cleansing and cleansing always entails a confrontation with the genuine, the essence, the concealed. Let’s leave the surface presentation.

Instrumental music is always absolute - without words as part of a performance, none of the above can be derived from or read into the music. Still, the music you will hear is played by four individuals who coalesce and coalise with one another, who have no mind for self-affected gestures of consternation or the withdrawal to an allegedly safe inner place. The topics of our time are pressing. If the next evolutionary step of humanity should be one of greater consciousness, we ought to start preparing for it.

(…) wie die vier Musiker plötzlich eine leuchtende Klangkollage in den Raum modellieren, leise, versonnen, mit singenden Becken und hellen Glockentönen, ist in seiner pastellenen Farbigkeit wirklich zauberhaft. Eine Musik wie von einem Windspiel, flüchtig, schwebend.
Zwischen diesen beiden Polen der Ausdrucksintensität, zwischen Windspiel und Jimi Hendrix, bewegt sich dieses Konzert und bietet damit eine Fülle von atmosphärischen Eindrücken und musikalischen Gestaltungsweisen: filigranes, geschwindes und dabei absolut präzises Zusammenspiel von Saxofon und Gitarre, friedliche und zugleich geheimnisvoll fragile Kantilenen der Klarinette, skurril stolpernde, ausgefuchste Rhythmen, mit großer Spielfreude zelebrierte Begleitbeats von Schlagzeug und Bass.

Auf Jazz-Schlagzeuger Oliver Steidle ist Verlass: Immer wenn der Wahl-Berliner, der in Pyrbaum aufgewachsen ist, bei einem Neumarkter Altstadtfest auftritt, begleiten ihn Hochkaräter der Modern-Jazz-Szene der deutschen Hauptstadt. Solche sind Uli Kempendorff (sax, clar, Komposition), Ronny Graupe (gt) und Jonas Westergaard (bs). In milder Abendstimmung, begleitet vom Gezwitscher der von Kempendorff kurz eingebauten Amseln, gab es spannende Kompositionen zu hören. Dass im Modern Jazz nicht einfach drauf los gespielt wird, erwies sich, als die vier Herren ein vier Seiten umfassendes Notenblatt ausbreiteten – und dann eine „Suite“ über die vier Himmelsrichtungen spielten. Der virtuale 360-Grad-Blick wurde begleitet mit einer Abfolge an Tönen, die auf das Erzeugen von Stimmungsbildern im Kopf abzielten. Dieses Anregen von Fantasie zeigte, was Jazz auch kann: Anstoß zu Kino im Kopf.

Field is one of Berlin's most promising new formations to come along in a while, nothing less than another »Supergroup« of the Berlin scene. Each of the nine songs is a microcosmos of musical inventions, climaxes and surprises.

All-Star-Formation of Berlin's jazz scene. Bebop for the 21st century. (...) the music is played with a rambunctuous joy and pulls you in. There's always something new going on but the listener is carefully taken along for the ride in an impressive fashion.

Kempendorff kann schreiben. Diese Musik bedarf nicht vieler Worte zur Beschreibung. Sie soll einfach nur so viel wie möglich gehört werden.