Das Kapital

 One Must Have Chaos Inside To Give Birth To A Dancing Star

improvisations by Das Kapital.

released as vinyl and CD may 24th 2024

Das Kapital, the return. The German-Danish-French musical UFO with troublemaking tendencies that we have been listening to for quite a while now releases a new album that contrasts with previous productions. Much darker, to put it bluntly, like our times? Whatever the case, the intimate musical connection between the members of the trio is more than ever present, to magnifying their music in this (slightly sepulchral) aesthetic which smacks of unpredictability and darkness. Underground and organic, it stretches temporality by imposing often obsessive rhythms which are probably close to the chaos and gestation of the dancing star evoked in the title of the album. To get the answer, re-read “Thus spoke Zarathustra” or let yourself be immersed in this musical sum, very poetic, rich in lyricism that does not hide its flaws. This will do you the greatest good.

Yves Dorison culturejazz.fr  OUI

Powerfully titled, it carries as its banner a phrase from Nietzsche: “You have to carry chaos within you to bring a dancing star into the world.” By referring to it, Das Kapital brings into being the thousand lights of spontaneous creation, an effervescence illuminated by the good genius of the moment. What springs from this dancing star comes from a studio where the trio locked themselves up, for five days, without any preparation, with no themes in their pockets or lying around in their heads. Primitive to a certain extent, as if on the edge of a new land, not yet explored, except that he has the long-tested science of instruments, the technique of collective playing for more than twenty years. They certainly improvise, but in an sideways language that recalls free jazz as much as post-bop without reheating the dishes. The exercise is akin to a conversation where musical ideas are exchanged, never falling sideways but continually bouncing back, metamorphosing into force by the elliptical art of Daniel Erdmann, the permanent invention of Edward Perraud, and Hasse Poulsen’s moving soberness. A passage of words illuminated by Maikol Seminatore, carver of spatial sounds, of magnifying focuses. Jazz is free but moves to the rhythm of strolls carried by gentle emotion, inner experience, that of the maturity of the wise man who looks at the sky with the eyes of first love.

Guy Darol – Jazz Magazine CHOC

"John Lennon, what do you think about French pop music?"
Lennon replied: "The same as English wine."

VIVE LA FRANCE is a tribute by three European musicians to their country of residence. A tribute dedicated to the history of France and its cultural grandeur.
France is a country of poets, of literature, a country of lovers of words, a country of explorers in the realms of imagination. France is also a country of great composers, even if we have the unfortunate habit of dividing high culture and popular culture. For Das Kapital there is no difference. The jazz of this trio draws as much from the ideas of Ravel, Lully, Pancras-Royer and Satie as Claude Francois, Johnny, Plastic Bertrand not to mention the great singers-storytellers: Brel, Brassens and Barbara.

Das Kapital has an confirmed and recognizable musical language, 16 years of touring and making projects and records has left a sense of each other that ressembles telepathy more than anything else. The sound of Das Kapital is always palpable, even under the most surprising stylistic disguises. The willingness of the three musicians to discover, divert and reinvent the pieces they play always makes you feel like they are playing their own music.

With Vive la France, we want to be unify and be consensual. Not in the intolerant and exclusive sense these two words are often associated with. On the contrary: everyone must be able to find a place in France and in the world, even those with intolerable habits. Long live France really means: long live the multitude, long live the community of individuals. If we are proud of France, it's not because it's the best country in the world, but because that's where we live, that's where we have chosen to live, and that's a country and a people whom we wish a happy future. As in the country of jazz, everyone should be able to choose to belong to France. The country should be proud to be home to people wearing road safety jackets and high-level administrators at the same time. There must be a good place for all. That's it: a place for life. So long live France! .

" Without distinction of class, Das Kapital aligns works composed by Maurice Ravel ("Pavane for a dead infant "), Erik Satie (" Gymnopédie "), Jean-Baptiste Lully (" March for the ceremony of the Turks and Georges Bizet ("L'Arlesienne") with compositions that some would describe as minor. Such as the painful song called "Born To Be Alive", which hurt our ears in the late 70s; or "Come d'habitude” (My Way) with it's sentimental lyrics. French song has a very good place on this disc, with versions of songs by Barbara ("Ma plus belle histoire d’amour "), Georges Brassens ("Le temps ne fait rien à l’affaire"), Jacques Brel (" Ne me quitte pas ") or Charles Trenet ("The sea"). A heritage telling a certain history of France. »(Denis Desassis)

Vive la France is released on Label Bleu in February 2019 on CD and LP - On the vinyl, which is a double, there are three pieces that have not found a place on the CD.

Each piece of the album is a story in itself, where music and ideas intertwine. So it is very difficult not to be sensitive to the charm of Vive la France, a daring and jubilant album. Couleurs Jazz

In the end this "Vive la France" is a beautiful tribute a bit disrespectful, but tonic and welcome. Their work can be compared to the original punk spirit but this time in a jazz version. To listen to with interest. B.Jean / Electrik bamboo

Partisans of indecency and irony, Das Kapital is not content to hoist the colors of the French flag, they mix them up brilliantly. Guy Darol / Jazzmagazine

On "Long live France! "The cheeky and irreverent approach of the trio Das Kapital offers new colors and beautiful contrasts to some pearls of popular and classical French music. These monuments of the French heritage come out exhilarated and invigorated ... as do those who listen to them! Nicole Videmann /www.latins-de-jazz.com

Let's say things in all simplicity: Daniel Erdmann, Hasse Poulsen and Edward Perraud, under their disguise as punks, are lovers of music, all music. par Denis Desassis

This “Vivre la France” is so successful that we are waiting impatiently for the continuation of the adventures of Das Kapital.. Thierry Docmac /Bayou Blue Radio – Paris-Move

The unavoidable, Jazz News

Das Kapital convinces once again with its magnified taste for the simple melodies and personal expressiveness of three impressive musicians. Pierre Tenne / Jazznews

The three composers and soloists continue the decompartmentalization of styles, eras, between popular and scholarly music. From key composers, they revisit pieces dating from the Renaissance to the 1980s. A disco tube transformed into blues, the melody sublimated in a Gymnopedia of Erik Satie, the bow of Poulsen caressing the 

strings of his guitar on a verse of Ne me quitte pas ... It's magic! L'Humanité / Fara C

Always followers of the well-timed shift and the random road, they leave us with delightful music, built with crafted care, which despite its funny looks is perfectly learned because performed by those select musicians, non-genre experts, who yield nothing as to the requirements that are theirs since the beginning of the daskapitalesque adventure. Essential.        Yves Dorison /Culture Jazz

The music is splendid from start to finish. Alain Fleche / La Gazette Bleu

The music is re-read and arranged in the Das Kapital sauce for the pleasure of ears and stylistic collisions. Noty a second do we get bored and we await each piece with the thrill of the unexpected, while humming or whistling. Alain Lambert /musicologie.org

Vive la France is a delightful concert (and record) in which Das Kapital mixes classical music, free music, popular music, bop, blues ... in a jubilant cocktail of disrespect and seriousness! Bob Hatteau / Jazz à Babord

We can say that in the case of Das Kapital, France is inspiring and creative, contemporary and universal! Music'actu

.. Das Kapital is not afraid to make join impossible opposites. And they are right!Showing once again that Das Kapital is a specialist in musical reconstruction, it is a pleasure to hear so much inventiveness. But, beware, conformism is not the goal of these gentlemen. To our greatest delight ! Philippe Vincent /Jazznicknames

Les chroniques de HiKo

A great bath of libertarian rejuvenation! Jean-Paul Gambier / Clap Coop

Das Kapital does not just hoist the colors of the French flag, they mix them brilliantly. 

 Guy Darol jazzmagazine february 2020.