The Journey

Tracklist

1. Frequencies I2:46
2. Room Expander6:44
3. Intrinsic Movements1:55
4. Storm & Sea6:06
5. Gravitation0:53
6. Moon6:27
7. Outer Space I1:44
8. Drifting3:48
9. Helix2:44
10. Secret Garden5:38
11. Condensation2:06
12. Expansion3:39
13. Outer Space II3:30
14. Concentric Circles6:33
15. Frequencies II1:41

Personnel & credits

• Rafael JerjenBass
• Jochen BaldesComposed By
• Johanna JelliciComposed By
• Michael GassmannFlugelhorn
• Johanna JelliciLyrics By
• Yves TheilerPiano
• Jochen BaldesTenor Saxophone
• Nils WogramTrombone
• Johanna JelliciVocals, Electronics

About this record

Genre

Jazz, Reggae

Discogs

View on Discogs ↗

Press

“cheerful, almost poppy music”Jazz thing (issue 130) ↗

“At once wondrously experimental and capable of swinging”Liner/promo text by Bill Milkowski (Down Beat contributor) ↗

Reception

"The Journey" drew respectable German-language press for a small Swiss-label date, all favourable. In Jazz thing 130 (5 Sep 2019), Rolf Thomas read the music as cheerful, almost pop-tinged playing that quietly interweaves several sound worlds, noting the drum-less line-up shifts between spacey textures and near-pastoral calm, and framing its charm as distinctly Swiss rather than German. Manfred Papst (NZZ am Sonntag) described a surreal, atmospheric journey blending jazz with electronic soundscaping and refined chamber-jazz playing, invoking a Charles Lloyd reference. Stefan Kuenzli (Aargauer Sonntagszeitung), under the heading "Elektroakustische Reise," praised Jochen Baldes as an outstanding Swiss tenorist and the band's traffic between acoustic and electronic realms. The band's own liner/promo blurb is credited to Bill Milkowski (a Down Beat contributor) and is widely reused; it is a commissioned liner text, not an independent Down Beat review. Across sources the recurring frame is an "inside-outside" aesthetic: a drummerless quintet melding acoustic colour with organic electronics. No negative reception surfaced. AllMusic, All About Jazz / All About Jazz Italia, JazzTimes, and any Italian-press coverage returned nothing for this title; no awards were found.

Background

Credited to "Jellici Baldes Spacetracker," led by vocalist/sound-designer Johanna Jellici and tenor saxophonist/composer Jochen Baldes (who wrote the pieces). The drum-less quintet is completed by Yves Theiler (piano), Rafael Jerjen (bass) and Michael Gassmann on flugelhorn (his role here is flugelhorn, not trumpet); trombonist Nils Wogram guests on tracks 6, 11 and 12. Recorded September 2018 at Hardstudios, Winterthur (engineer Andy Neresheimer); mixed by Thomas Fessler at 571 Recording Studios, Zurich; mastered by Klaus Scheuermann at 4ohm Music, Berlin. Produced by Jellici and Baldes, co-produced by Peter Buerli for SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen; released on Unit Records (UTR 4897). Project support from Pro Helvetia, SUISA, SIS, Kanton Zurich and SRF. The recording date is 2018; physical CD/Discogs entry is 2018, with the streaming/Bandcamp rollout listed later (2019-2020). The concept is an "inside-outside" aesthetic fusing acoustic jazz with organic electronics and ambient soundscapes by a drummerless band.