Floating Heartbeat

Tracklist

1. Floating Heartbeat3:55
2. Moment I2:47
3. Shara Mohammed Ali4:25
4. Moment II1:38
5. Deep Blue5:26
6. Mysterious Flower6:10
7. Moment III2:12
8. So Near And Far Away8:35
9. Moment IV2:26
10. Prince Of Persia8:15
11. Warm Embrace5:38

Personnel & credits

• Christian BergerOud, Guitar
• Michael GassmannFlugelhorn
• Dusan PrusakFretless Acoustic Bass Guitar
• Dominic DopplerDrums

About this record

Michael

Flugelhorn

Genre

Jazz

Style

World

Press

“Balsam fuer die Seele”Christian Berger artist site press page ↗

“warm, colorful and groovy sound”Christian Berger artist site AION Quartett page ↗

Reception

No professional critical reviews of Floating Heartbeat were found in any jazz publication (AllMusic, All About Jazz and Italia, JazzTimes, Down Beat, Musica Jazz, jazz n more, jazzthing, Concerto, JazzConvention, Europe Jazz Network). All About Jazz returned 403 (bot-blocked, not verifiable). Discogs returned no usable result for the specific release. The only reception-flavored material located is on bandleader Christian Berger own website, which quotes brief unattributed audience reactions to AION Quartett concerts (balm for the soul; simply beautiful) rather than press criticism. The album and group are described, largely in the artists and promoter own words, as melodic chamber-jazz blending oud-led oriental traditions with jazz improvisation, warm colorful and groovy, with detailed arrangements opened up live by improvisation. Reception for this small self-presented Swiss date is essentially absent in the critical press; thin coverage is the honest result.

Background

Album credited to AION Quartett, the long-running project of Swiss oud player guitarist composer Christian Berger (leader and sole composer of all tracks). Personnel: Christian Berger (oud, guitar, composition), Michael Gassmann (flugelhorn), Dusan Prusak (fretless acoustic bass), Dominic Doppler (drums). Recorded at the ZHdK Studio (Zurich University of the Arts) in October 2016; released 2017. Tracklist includes Floating Heartbeat, Moment I, Shara Mohamed Ali, Moment II, Deep Blue, Mysterious Flower, Moment III, So Near And Far Away, Moment IV, Prince Of Persia, Warm Embrace, plus Release Now. The name AION refers to a Greek concept of time. The AION project has run 20 plus years in various lineups and has toured internationally including Cairo, Alexandria, and Bangalore India. Label note: the task names NOIA Records, but no Italian jazz NOIA Records catalog entry for this album could be confirmed; results for NOIA Records surface an unrelated electronic label and an unrelated 1998 gothic-metal album titled Noia. The release is distributed via Swiss retailer CeDe and is on Spotify and Amazon; treat the label attribution as catalog data not independently corroborated here.