Cologne Jazzweek: C.A.R.

Johannes Klingebiel (drums), Kenn Hartwig (bass), Leonhard Huhn (synthesizer here) and Christian Lorenzen (saxophone, electronics, voice) met during their studies at the Jazz/Pop Department of the Cologne University of Music and Dance; their quartet C.A.R. was formed in 2011 when Klingebiel and Hartwig graduated from there.

There are references for the C.A.R. sound. Of course, there is Karlheinz Stockhausen with his electro-acoustic New Music, who taught Jaki Liebezeit, Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt before they founded CAN and caused a sensation with Kraut rock. But jazz-rock also plays a role for C.A.R., with its odd meters and broad soundscapes, as well as proto-techno à la Kraftwerk, metal or math rock.

The four from C.A.R. simply call their mix Kraut-Jazz - and are therefore open to fusions of all kinds: rock and pop, electronic dance music, rocking jazz or jazzy rock. In any case, their stylistic openness also stands for the aesthetic diversity of their music.