Since 2014 Swizz saxophonist Urs Leimgruber and Andreas Willers are working as an improv duo that can be heard on the live recording Pale White Shout.
Together with Alvin Curran on piano and sampler and Fabrizio Spera on drums they form the quartet ROME-ING, that released a live recording of their performance at Casa Del Jazz in Rome.
Currently available is a trio consisting of Urs and Andreas with Berlin trombonist Matthias Müller.
‚A soft undertow of sounds that become music. That are music. A journey into the unknown. Luring and alluring. Discovery of tones and movement in space, sneaking around each other, commencing to dance. Surprises minute by minute – despite a deeply organic collaboration. Eventually the music accelerates, accumulating energy. And then again: approaching the threshold of audibility. Fragile shapes of sound, spontaneously crafted in the scent of the wood dust in a workshop of fantasy: the entirely unique poetry of a musical encounter. Andreas Willers and Urs Leimgruber: a truely sharp-eared meeting.‘ Roland Spiegel, editor Bavarian Radio (BR)
,Guitarist Andreas Willers (Germany) and saxophonist Urs Leimgruber (Switzerland) are among Europe’s most prominent improvisers and free-thinkers. On this outing their experimental metrics are quite rangy and focused, offering the antithesis to a madcap free-form blowing session. The duo alternates between controlled thematic buildups and subdued encounters with polytonal dialogues along with certain parts that elicit notions of exotic birds communicating in a tropical rain forest. …, the artists generate a whole lot of depth via multihued textural components and vastly interesting concepts that often lead to explosive cadenzas and a myriad of fascinating subplots.’ Glen Astarita, allaboutjazz.com(****)
‚Attentively communicating experts…. It is also coherent how electronics (electric guitar with various effects units, samplers) and acoustic instruments cooperate here and lead to attractive color mixes. It goes without saying that the four highly concentrated musicians do not restrict themselves to conventional tone formation, but rather appreciate the delimitation and create remarkable sound mutations with their instruments. A live set too, free from idle times and improvisational clichés.’ Udo Andris, Jazz Podium 4/20
‚The wit of the musicians is surprising, their keen perception, their unleashed simultaneous play, the grasp for unision performance und free flying counterpoints, that personal gesture at the right spot. The organic body of sound implodes and explodes into thousands of micro particles and passages that appear to have been written out. The different moods, sound contrasts and flowing batches result into an extraordinarily dense musical experience.’ P. Bossart, Jazz & More Magazine (CH) ****
‚Due to the reticence at the beginning, a continuous course of events arises, in which structural details of individual adult and re-ebbing episodes are acquired in order to be dismantled or transferred into something new. It is wonderful to hear how musicians of this quality are able to mutually guide and complement each other, but also to throw in, sustainably represent and contrast with the current course of events in question, and thus change it.’ Freistil mag (A)