Doppelkonzert: Lucas Leidinger / Otis Sandsjö: Y-OTIS | Klaeng - die Serie #18

Berlin-based Swedish saxophonist Otis Sandsjö (Lucia Cadotsch, Farvel) presents Y-OTIS, his latest Geistesblitz - a protected space in which Elias Stemeseder (Jim Black Trio, John Zorn, Nels Cline, Philm) on his small synth setup, Petter Eldh (Django Bates, Peter Evans, Marius Neset, Kit Downes) is living out his 70s electric bass dreams and Tilo Weber (Animate Repose, Clara Haberkamp Trio, David Friedman) is navigating through shifted snares and kicks. This is experimental and instrumental beat music that moves between crass rhythms, eccentric synthesizers and extroverted saxophone techniques. Otis Sandsjö reveals: "Y-OTIS is a daydream come true. A daydream where a free jazz band tries to play contemporary trap gospel."

The studio recordings for the debut album were produced by Petter Eldh and will be released by We Jazz Records in 2018.

"A highly inspired debut album." - jazz thing

"This is how contemporary jazz should sound like! Best of both worlds."

• Oliver Korthals, Mojo Club Hamburg

"An album that celebrates tolerance of and cooperation with seemingly contradictory things and demystifies the concept of inspiration." - Spex.com

"Stumbling hip-hop beats, paired with collage-like sound surfaces, yes: sound chapades, can be found here as well as the movement of a neoclassical suite. Always in front: Sandsjös prayer-mill-like saxophone-loops, which are able to play their listeners in trance, as for instance on the most beautiful piece of the album, the sublime final track 'Multipopix'". - Zitty Berlin

The Cologne pianist and composer Lucas Leidinger (*1988 in Aachen) studied jazz piano and composition at the Musikhochschule Köln and the Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium in Copenhagen, where he successfully completed his Master of Music degree in summer 2015.

His musical work is documented on numerous recordings (debut album "Wandertrieb" with the band "Ebene Null" on "Traumton Records" 2013; "Daydream Visions" with the "Lucas Leidinger Quintett" on "Fuhrwerk Musik" 2014). Some of his current projects are the interdisciplinary ensemble "Lucas Leidinger Trio & Strings" (2016 Klaeng Records), the free improvising quartet "Mount Meander" (2016 Clean Feed Records, 2019 GottaLetItOut) and the "Leidinger&Daemen Duo" (2018 Leo-Records). Furthermore he is very active as a member of many ensembles at home and abroad and has performed at over 15
I've been listening to albums.

His oeuvre ranges from a variety of compositions for small and large ensembles to solo piano pieces, free improvisations, graphic notations, string quartets and theatre music.

He has won numerous national and international band and composition competitions such as the "Convento Jazz Prize 2010", the "Sparda Jazzaward 2012" and 2013 and the "DPA Competition for Composers 2014" in Copenhagen. Tours with various ensembles have taken him all over Europe and to Asia. He has also worked on radio and television productions for WDR, SWR, NDR, BR, the Belgian - and Danish - broadcasters.
radio, Deutschlandfunk and others.

In 2016 he was awarded the "Horst and Gretl Will Scholarship for Jazz and Improvised Music of the City of Cologne".

Lucas Leidinger lives with his wife and two children as a freelance musician in Cologne.