Fazer is a Munich-based post-rock infused jazz quintet. The group has signed to Christof Ellinghaus‘ City Slang (Calexico, Caribou, Tindersticks) and has now released their first single/video for the track “Grenadier.” Ellinghaus explains that he met Fazer bassist/producer Martin Brugger during drum & bass legend Goldie’s first-ever set at the premiere German club Berghain. While their chance meeting came at 4am, the two exchanged numbers with Ellinghaus explaining:
“It led to him sending us music, and us flipping out over the unique post rock textures in their very Teutonic cup of jazz. Listening to FAZER immediately took us back to our own glorious Tortoise days, but then here’s a bunch of musicians from Munich picking up the baton and running with it, turning it into their own groove machine? Well, count us in!“
Though the Munich has long been important to the German jazz scene with labels like Enja Records, ACT, and ECM operating out of the city, Fazer build on that tradition while drawing in a host of contemporary influences like post-rock and dub. Utilizing two drummers, Simon Popp and Sebastian Wolfgruber, the two combine with Brugger to create polyrhythmic grooves. On a track like “Grenadier,” percussion and bass simmer as trumpeter Matthias Lindermayr and guitarist Paul Brändle create a tantalizing melody that is as stylishly minimal as it is emotionally evocative.
Johannes Brugger has written and directed the video for “Grenadier.” A surreal affair that combines intriguing staging with video effect, he offers:
“I wanted to experiment with dream-like narrative elements. The story takes place in a dark alley, imaginary but strangely familiar thanks to tons of American movies we’ve watched. It takes place at an indeterminable time and plays the one dream we all had about running away from something to no avail.”
