Gazelle & the Bear rely on “Weird Shaped Clouds”
Looking up can be very stimulating when the clouds pile up into idiosyncratic shapes over the horizon. The music of the local duo Gazelle & the Bear is special and complex, which is why Ines Kolleritsch and Julian Berann appropriately named their debut “Weird Shaped Clouds”. Pop, jazz and soul merge here to create a real heavenly spectacle. Everything is allowed, nothing has to, as Kolleritsch says: “It’s good not to think in terms of boxes.”
In doing so, the pianist and singer addressed external expectations. In this project, they were pushed aside from the start. “We were just on the same page and followed the sound that was just right for us,” she explains in an APA interview. “In this respect it was never really an issue which sound world it should be. If so, then we rather discussed where it shouldn’t go! It’s an exciting topic how you approach composition when you know it should be published . Do you want to write a hit? “Laughs the musician.
The answer: no. Whereby: Songs like “High Road”, which immediately settles in the ear canals, or the first single “Mama” are something like small hits, but not in the classic sense. “With us it is the healthiest approach that it doesn’t matter a bit”, says Kolleritsch about his own claim. “It doesn’t really matter! We don’t have the ulterior motive to end up on the radio.” And that’s exactly what happened with some of the pieces from the record released at the end of January, which should actually have been presented these days in the Vienna Radiokulturhaus. If it weren’t for Corona …
For Kolleritsch and Berann, who came together through a composition commission for the dance collective All Aut Females, 2020 was still good, despite the exceptional situation and countless cancellations in the concert area, because above all productive. “We actually didn’t know beforehand that we wanted to release an album,” says Berann, who is responsible for the varied drumming. “Certainly we would have continued to work on the music otherwise, maybe an album would have been made – but if so, then it would have been different. For me, it had been on my list for a long time: to publish music that I co-composed.”
It quickly became clear to Gazelle & the Bear that they only wanted to stay as a couple. “That’s what makes our music so special,” thinks Kolleritsch. “And my left hand was chosen to be the bassist, so to speak. It wasn’t planned at all, we just tried it and then it worked.” As if the pieces magically fall into the right places on the puzzle. This is what the record feels like when “Blossoming” invites you to float into other spheres or the collaboration with rapper stimulus, “When You’re Around”, turns into a compelling nod.
In any case, the focus during the writing process was on “song songs”, as Kolleritsch explains. “If the core of a song doesn’t sound good naked, it doesn’t sound good when it is produced. It’s an approach that suits us both very well. The song itself has to fit. What is it actually about? The form, the lyrics, the Feeling that he gives you? And then it makes the production even bigger and lets you dive deeper. ” In doing so, they worked “with many moods that merged into one another”. “We also had the privilege of taking our time and were not exposed to any pressure.”
In addition, the collaboration revealed a lot. “Through this project I became more aware of my patterns”, Kolleritsch refers to previous music projects. “I was able to put a lot of it off. I became less judgmental from song to song. And Julian showed me that you don’t have to question everything, but can also allow things. Cheesy – why not?” Laughs the singer. “We don’t make music for a scene, we make music for ourselves.” And Berann adds, looking at the amalgamation of jazz and pop: “Why shouldn’t these worlds be allowed to cross?”
The result that comes out of this should also be able to be heard live this summer. According to the current plan, Gazelle & the Bear want to visit Austria and Germany in June, starting on June 1st in the Stadtwerkstatt in Linz and with further stations in Salzburg (2.6.), Munich (3.6.), Innsbruck (4.6.), Feldkirch ( 5.6.), Offenbach am Main (9.6.), Potsdam (11.6.) And Berlin (12.6.).
(Interview conducted by Christoph Griessner / APA)
(SERVICE – https://gazelleandthebear.bandcamp.com)