Album Release: Stefan Schönegg “Enso: On a withered tree a flower blooms”

Stefan Schönegg’s new album “Enso: On a withered tree a flower blooms” released by impakt Records on December 13th

For his ensembles, all under the title Enso, the Cologne-based bassist, composer, and improviser Stefan Schönegg writes contemporary chamber music for various instrumentations.

Since 2016, Schönegg has focused on minimal material that allows for a patient exploration of timbres and melodic gestures and blurs the boundary between improvisation and composition. Enso has thus developed into a collective term for a growing number of participants who interpret Schönegg’s music.

“On the withered tree a flower blooms” is Enso’s 7th release and the second with Marlies Debacker on piano and Etienne Nillesen on snare drum. The almost 45-minute piece is drone music, a slow, subtle layering of meandering textures. While the previous album “A Simplified Space” was mainly about silence and expression of the moment, this album invites you to immerse yourself in a completely different way: Through the finest rhythmic and harmonic ramifications, the music develops an immediate pull, into its pure essence - the sound.

Line-Up:

Stefan Schönegg - double bass, composition
Marlies Debacker - piano 
Etienne Nillesen - extended snare drum

•••

Recorded April 2023 at Chamber Music Hall Deutschlandfunk, Cologne

Released on 13th December by impakt Records

Producer ­– Thomas Loewner
Recording producer ­– Stephan Schmidt 
Recording engineer – Hendrik Manook, Philipp Wissler
Recording technician –­ Jens Müller
Mastering – Giuseppe Ielasi