From the vibrant improvised music scene of Copenhagen comes a new quartet with Aram Shelton, alto saxophone, Grzegorz Tarwid, piano; Tomo Jacobson, bass, and Håkon Berre, percussion.  Their music, involving an instant-compositional mindset, reflects their diverse backgrounds in music and life.  Their first album Hopes and Fears will be released by Polish imprint Multikulti in September, 2017.
 
Aram Shelton is an improviser and composer who performs on saxophone, clarinets, and live electronics.  He focuses on creative music grounded in and influenced by the rich history of avant-jazz and free improvisation; his writing and playing has been documented through more than two dozen albums to date through Delmark, Clean Feed, Not Two, Cuneiform and Singlespeed Music. From the United States, he's been an integral member of the creative music communities in the Bay Area and Chicago, and recently moved to Copenhagen. www.aramshelton.com
 
Grzegorz Tarwid is one of the most exciting young Polish pianists of recent years, listed alongside Sebastian Zawadzki or Kuba Sokolowski. His stage credits include performances with Zbigniew Namysłowski or Tomasz Dąbrowski, recently with Wojciech Jachna (with whom he playes in awarded trio Jachna/Tarwid/ Karch), Kuba Więcek (they both work in a band INTO INTERLUDE) and the well-known German bassist Robert Landfermann. He has also performed in a number of countries including Germany, Ukraine and Latvia. He is now based in Cologne, Germany.
 
Tomo Jacobson is a Polish-born double bass player based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He focuses his efforts on free improv and other creative musics. With over a dozen albums to his credit, he is mostly known for the projects he is a leader, or co-leader to, namely MOONBOW (ILK Music - 2016), MOUNT MEANDER (Clean Feed - 2016), or IL SOGNO (coming in 2017), as well his solo double bass work (recording 12 solo albums in 2017), and free improv encounters with acclaimed musicians like John Tchicai, Andrew D'Angelo, Lotte Anker, Adam Rudolph, Rasul Siddik, Frank Gratkowski, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Sun Araw, and many others. Tomo has performed in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Estonia, Poland, Italy, Cuba, Belgium, Czech Republic, Portugal, Los Angeles and New York. www.tomojacobson.com
 
Håkon Berre is Norwegian drummer and composer, currently living in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he works as a freelance musician and educator. Being an active member of the record label & musicians collective Barefoot Records, Håkon has contributed on over 20 recordings, as well as being one of the co-founders. Håkons playing is characterized by an inventive and energetic drumming, using a rich palette of sounds from a wide diversity of trash and objects, and sometimes also incorporating real-time electronics. This can be heard on a discography spanning 35 CD's and LP’s, and has also brought him to numerous clubs and festivals all around the world with musicians like Peter Brötzmann, Phil Minton, Axel Dörner, John Tchicai, Peter Friis-Nielsen, Sture Ericson, Liudas Mockunas and Susana Santos Silva. www.haakonberre.com

Hopes and Fears

Shelton / Tarwid / Jacobson / Berre - Hopes and Fears(excerpt)

Aram Shelton is an improviser and composer who performs on saxophone, clarinets, and live electronics. He plays with a distinct, harmonically rich sound and develops musical thoughts through constant motion, tonal shifts and complex sounds alongside clear melodic and rhythmic constructs. His vocabulary utilizes the range of extended techniques including multiphonics and harmonics, circular breathing, wind sounds and an exploration of the outer ranges of the instrument. Shelton focuses on creative music grounded in and influenced by the rich history of avant-jazz and free improvisation; his writing and playing has been documented through more than two dozen albums to date. He's been an integral member of the creative music communities in the Bay Area and Chicago, and is currently waiting things out in the E.U.