Album Release: Luise Volkmann & Été Large "The Stories We Tell"
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Album Release: Luise Volkmann & Été Large "The Stories We Tell"
02.10.2025|
On 3 October, Luise Volkmann and her large ensemble Été Large will release their new album ‘The Stories We Tell’.
Cologne-based saxophonist, composer, bandleader and NICA artist Luise Volkmann is a passionate border crosser who expands her vocabulary from album to album. Her aim has always been to conceive the unthinkable and realize the impossible. She has also applied this maxim to the third album by her band Été Large. The title, tellingly, is ‘The Stories We Tell.’
Let’s take a look back. The large formation Été Large was conceived as big from the start. Not because it is a band with many members—there are quite a few of those in Germany—but because Luise Volkmann moved with seven-league boots beyond traditional notions of big band and conventional genre formats. It was never about the thousandth fusion package of certain styles or new perspectives on what already existed. Instead, it was about an anarchistic alternative to the established music business, whatever you want to call or locate it—without making any concessions. With Été Large, Luise Volkmann unleashes a genuine creative force that defies comparison. The group’s first programmatic album ‘Eudaimonia’ (2017) was about proving something. In the second, much more personal chapter ‘When The Birds Upraise Their Choir’ (2020), she demonstrated that she no longer needed to prove anything. Now follows the third act, ‘The Stories We Tell,’ where she can leave behind everything apodictic and simply tell stories. ‘For me, the first two albums had the character of a homage,’ recaps Luise Volkmann. ‘That is not the case at all with the new album. As it’s simply about storytelling, the strength of the album lies more in a kind of introversion.’
These stories reflect a new commitment to simplicity. Everything superfluous must be stripped away so that the passion can manifest itself all the more clearly—and the stories that need to be told. Luise Volkmann is a brilliant storyteller who implements her stories with narrative power and poetic sensitivity. Music is not an end in itself. It’s about something. Every note, every syllable triggers something in the listener, but also globally in the long term, according to the butterfly wing theory, because the energy of the songs often takes unexpected paths. The composer is aware of this responsibility, and this mission is palpable, even if it is conveyed here in an absolutely unobtrusive and unpretentious manner.
‘The Stories We Tell’ marks the tenth anniversary of Été Large. But this is not the only reason why the album documents the result of an individual and collective maturing process. The leader and her collective have succeeded in focusing on the essentials. In her arrangements, Luise Volkmann takes a very cautious approach to the possibilities of a large formation. The sounds of the individual instruments are given plenty of room to breathe. She works with well-contrasted, congenially complementary human voices. Yet each instrument also acquires an individual color that not only flanks or underpins the vocals but in turn makes non-verbal statements. Only in the subtle osmosis of voices and instruments can the songs fully unfold their ultimate effect. Luise Volkmann approaches a kind of artistic perfection, fully aware that she neither can nor wants to achieve it. Because ultimately, it is also about the spaces in between, which only the listeners can fill with their imagination.
‘In times when polarization is becoming more and more noticeable, I want to give my music the power to juxtapose ambivalences with its stories. I can be angry or sad about different things at the same time and still show understanding for other feelings or attitudes. Making the complexity of thought and action tangible and thus creating the basis for an open dialogue is important to me. That’s why I place the verbal and non-verbal sides of storytelling on an equal footing.’
Musicians: Casey Moir - voice Laurin Oppermann - voice Conni Trieder - flute (Track 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11) Nicolas Schwabe - flute (Track 1,3, 5, 6, 12) Luise Volkmann - alto saxophone Peter Ehwald - tenor saxophone Rémi Fox - baritone saxophone Johannes Böhmer - trumpet Marleen Dahms - trombone Johanna Stein - violoncello Athina Kontou - bass Yannick Lestra - keyboard and electronics Paul Jarret - guitar Max Santner-drums
All music composed by Luise Volkmann
Production: Aufgenommen Juli 2024 at Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal Köln Radio-Producer Deutschlandfunk: Thomas Loewner Audio Engineer: Oliver Dannert Recording Director: Gunther Rose Recording, Production, Editing: Tobias Hess Mixing: Sebastian Clobes Mastering: Christoph Stickel Graphic Design: Elsa Westreicher
