CUSH

UWE OBERG   piano
SAADET TÜRKÖZ   voice
PAUL LOVENS   drums & percussion


audio (live in Wiesbaden 2004):  push/pull 1  push/pull 2  push/pull 3  push/pull 4  push/pull 5
video (concert Berlin 2013)

The music of CUSH flows freely between traditional singing, improvised music and jazz.
Saadet Türköz comes from Istanbul, has kasach forefathers and combines in a unique way turkish and kasach songs with contemporary
improvisation. Uwe Oberg uses the piano as an orchestral instrument and goes with preparations to faraway soundscapes. Paul Lovens is
one of the most influential drummers of the free music-scene.

The German pianist UWE OBERG (*1962/Offenbach) develops his music from the energy of Jazz and the sound of the New Music. "Oberg is
one of the most interesting free players of the younger generation". ( Michael Rieth/Frankfurter Rundschau)
Since the eary 1980ies he plays in various musical contexts between Jazz and Improvised music, with different ensembles or as a soloist.
Currently he leads his own Trio/Quartet, where he plays his own compositions as well as pieces by Thelonious Monk and others.
The project LACY POOL (w Christof Thewes tb / Michael Griener dr) plays exclusively compositions by Steve Lacy. Duo w EVAN PARKER,
trio w FRANK PAUL SCHUBERT & GUENTER BABY SOMMER. He works with dancers, composes music for theatre and silent movies.
He played with many international musicians, like ALFRED HARTH, PETER KOWALD, XU FENGXIA, MATTHIAS SCHUBERT, PHILIPPE MICOL,
ULI PHILLIPP, TONY OXLEY, SVEN-AKE JOHANSSON, RUDI MAHALL, URS LEIMGRUBER, SAADET TÜRKÖZ, HEINZ SAUER, SUBROTO ROY
CHAUDHURI, PAUL LOVENS, ADAM PIERONCZYK, ERNESTO MOLINARI, EVAN PARKER a.m.o. Numerous CDs.
"...a remarkable musician, who has developed an unique sound as an free improvising sound-explorer as well as a Jazz-improvisor" ( Peter Niklas Wilson). In 2007 Oberg received the Jazzprize of the state of Hessen.

SAADET TÜRKÖZ from Zürich works mainy in the swiss scene and combines turkish and kasach songs with contemporary improvisation. She again and again draws from the musical tradition of her forefathers and thus found a fascinating and unique sound. She plays with Martin Schuetz, Elliot Sharp, Eyvind Kang, Werner Luedi, Urs Leimgruber, Uwe Oberg, Thomas Rohrer, Miya Masaoka, Norbert Moeslang, Andy Guhl, Peter Kowald, Gianni Gebbia, Ikue Mori, Ruediger Carl, Okkyung Lee, the Koch-Schuetz-Studer Trio, Pascal Schaer, Nils Wogram, Jaques Widmer, Mark Dresser, Fred Frith, the Black Sea Trio, Larry Ochs, Carl Stone, Xu Feng Shia, Peggy Lee, Mich Gerber, Peter Schürli, Fritz Hauser, Graham Haynes, Satoshi Takeishi, Alex Cline, Brent Arnold, Yagi Michiyo, Makigami Koichi. a.o. CD "Marmara Sea" (Intakt).

PAUL LOVENS
Born in Aachen, Germany, 6 June 1949; Drums, percussion, musical saw, etc.
Paul Lovens played the drums as a child. Self-taught, from the age of 14 he played in groups of various jazz styles and popular musics and from 1969 has worked almost exclusively as an improvisor on individually selected instruments. He has worked internationally with most of the leading musicians in free jazz and free improvisation, among whom have included the Globe Unity Orchestra, the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, the Schlippenbach trio, Quintet Moderne, Company, and a duo with Paul Lytton. He has undertaken concert tours in more than 40 countries, is a founder member of a musician's cooperative and has produced recordings for his own label, Po Torch Records since 1976. He has worked with painter Herbert Bardenheuer. Despite very rare solo performances, and although giving occasional concerts with ad-hoc groups and an involvement in projects with film, dance and actors, Paul Lovens' main interest and work is musical improvisation in fixed small groups. In the mid-1990s these small groups numbered around 16, of which a few were part of a special selection, called 'vermögen'.

Paul Lovens somehow epitomises the free drummer/percussionist who is not there to lay down the beat and kick everyone else into action but to listen, colour, contribute, guide, and occasionally direct, the overall cooperative sound. In concert one cannot fail to be moved by his intensity and concentration and there is an overiding feeling that even the most random events are somehow planned in time. In this respect, there is a nice irony that on the Nothing to read CD with Mats Gustafsson, Lovens describes his kit as consisting of 'selected and unselected drums and cymbals'. Miking seems to be a problem at times with some recordings giving him undue prominence and others insufficient. Good recordings are Elf bagatellen, Nothing to read, Pakistani pomade, and ,stranger than love.