Album release: Fabian Dudek: Distant Skies, We Dream

“Distant Skies, We Dream” released on Traumton Records

Nuanced to powerful, always extremely attentive in their interplay, a working band that has noticeably grown together, a dynamic spectrum ranging from quiet to passionately escalating passages, contrasts and condensations - that is Fabian Dudek’s quartet.

Dudek released his quartet’s debut album Creating Meaning (Fixcel) in 2019 and the follow-up album Isolated Flowers (Traumton) in 2022. Both productions and the band’s concerts met with an enthusiastic response, with the latter being nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award. Now Dudek’s quartet presents new works on „Distant Skies, We Dream“.

The already remarkably high quality has been raised even further through Dudek’s sophisticated compositions, whose rhythmic sophistication and precise detail set a striking mark in the contemporary jazz landscape. And through open spaces, which can be shaped by his fellow musicians and invite improvisations, on a terrain that is undoubtedly broader than before. For example, when pianist Felix Hauptmann references the aesthetic of modern Classical music four-minute intro to the opus magnum „The River Flows Everywhere” and later in the same piece plays in an almost impressionistic manner. The music also thrives on the fact that they can surprise each other. „To achieve this the pieces need to have a certain openness, perhaps even fragility, that allows different paths.”

The album, which was recorded as part of the „NICA live” concert series at JAKI, was released on 24 May 2024 by Traumton Records.

What was planned as a studio production surprisingly turned out to be a live recording in the end. „We had recorded the pieces in the Fattoria and actually thought the results were great,” says Dudek, “especially as we had already polished the repertoire in concerts beforehand.” Back in Cologne, the quartet gave a concert at JAKI, „which was actually a bit difficult. All the more we all played ‘on fire’ and the gig developed an extremely strong energy.” Due to the intensity of the interplay, it was decided quickly to use only the live recordings for the album, even though the piano in the club did not have the sound quality of the grand piano at the studio. „I look for and sometimes need a bit of dirt,” grins Dudek, who appreciates not only Coltrane, Feldman, Ives and Sakamoto, but also James Brown with Maceo Parker, Tom Waits and some hip-hop artists.

„This album is a milestone for me personally, because I’m now at a point that I’ve been striving for for a long time,”

summarises Fabian Dudek with contentment.

„I have been seeking to get a band to flow and at the same time integrate experimental aspects into the music. We’ve managed to do that really well and it’s extremely fun to play the pieces.”

For all its emotional power, the band is more pointed than ever, consistently realising small-scale structures and letting its expressiveness flare up in a targeted manner. Further facets of this impressive development are the expansion of the sound colour palette, above all through David Helm’s electric bass, but also the synthesiser, Dudek’s punctually shimmering flute and his extremely variable expression on the saxophone.

Line-up:

Fabian Dudek – alto-saxophone, flute, compositions
Felix Hauptmann – piano, synthesizer
David Helm – bass
Fabian Arends – drums

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Recording: Dirk Schmidt
Mixing & Mastering: Martin Ruch
Cover art and design: Benjamin Rueckert

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The album was released on CD and is also available digitally.