Hawkins & Niescier present // Intensity – Fire – Obsession

Niescier and Hawkins met at the Jazzfest Berlin, raved about each other's music, found parallels and relations. After the premiere at the "unerhört festival 2019" in Zurich, the decision to collaborate was obvious.
Now their joint duo CD has been released.
Through her horn, Niescier awakens all our humanity, evoking at times guttural lament, frenzied precision and lyrical tenderness.
Hawkins seemingly sheds all self-consciousness in favor of a somnambulistically sure intuition that never forfeits its luminosity.
The two share a whole range of obsessions and mindtrips in addition to fire and devotion-their impossibly intense encounter thoroughly explores how far they can go musically.

Angelika Niescier really needs no introduction to German audiences. She is one of the musicians who, as a composer and saxophonist, further develop European jazz and bring it to an international level. She has been awarded the Albert Mangelsdorff Prize, the Echo Jazz, the Quarterly Prize of the German Record Critics twice, was Improviser in Residence in Moers, to name just a few of the many outstanding awards. She plays with jazz greats such as Joachim Kühn, Gerald Cleaver, Nasheet Waits, Sylvie Courvoisier, Tyshawn Sorey, Achim Kaufmann and Gerry Hemingway and Kris Davis, among others.

Aleander Hawkins is also no stranger to local audiences as a composer and pianist. His own distinctive sound world is defined by his research to reconcile both his passion for free improvisation and his deep fascination for composition and structure. With his solo program, or in collaborative ensembles with Evan Parker, Tomeka Reid, Hamid Drake, he has delighted audiences and critics alike for years.
As a highly sought-after and versatile sideman, he performs with Anthony Braxton, Shabaka Hutchings, Matam Robert and the legendary South African drummer Louis Mholo-Mholo, among others.