Wildern Tobias Christl with Peter Ehwald

• 1 Sound of Silence 07:04
• 2 Anywhere I Lay My Head 04:27
• 3 Take On Me 04:26
• 4 Video Games 05:34
• 5 Avalanche 05:53
• 6 Love Will Tear Us Apart 04:25
• 7 König von Deutschland 04:18
• 8 Toxic 03:59
• 9 Dead End Street 03:09
• 10 I Will 03:05
• 11 Blue Monday 05:30
• 12 Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) 04:22
• Total Runtime 56:12

Info for Wildern

Tobias Christl, born 1978, is a rarity, a singer the likes of which there never was before in German jazz. Neither a crooner nor a scatter, and least of all a pop musician disguised as a jazzer. Much more a storyteller, somewhere between indie and improvisation. A Berliner by choice, Christl is a vocal artist, a songwriter, improviser, speaker, composer, DJ and co- founder of the Cologne KLAENG collective. He plays piano and keyboards, clarinet and guitar, and studied, among others, under Theo Bleckmann in New York.

'Wildern' (poaching) is the title of his ACT Young German Jazz debut. Why? 'What we like to hunt most are good songs', he says. 'Wildern' is a foray through the dense underbrush of four decades of pop music, through songs from greats like Leonard Cohen, The Smiths, Björk, A-HA, Joy Division, Lana Del Rey, Paul Simon, Tom Waits and Rio Reiser. With an audible joy in deconstructing, tearing down and rebuilding, truly new music is created in this jazz-quintet setting; music rich in rough edges, contrasts, breaks and unexpected turns. All the while, the soul of the songs is preserved. Some might say it is truly laid open. Listening to the first ten thrilling seconds of the opener 'Sound Of Silence', you will soon understand what they mean.

The songs on 'Wildern' are more than just reinterpretations. Christl: 'Each version is an homage that tries to show the original in a new light. If you move the spotlight a fraction away from the centre of a song, a whole new context arises. If you can then succeed in separating that from the original and allowing it to grow free, a new, emancipated version is born, just as if the mother song has given life to a wildly pubescent child that doesn't dream of adhering to rhythmic constraints.'

For Tobias Christl, and for the entire Young German Jazz generation, there has never been a pure school of jazz. Their concept of jazz defines itself quite naturally from the sum of all their personal influences and impressions, regardless of what genre they come from, and from the desire to create something of their own that doesn't – and shouldn't – fit into any predefined category. And so, 'Wildern' is not crossover or fusion – it is quite simply jazz. Full stop.

strong>Tobias Christl, vocals, effects
Peter Ehwald, tenor saxophone, clarinet
Sebastian Müller, guitar, effects
Matthias Akeo Nowak, bass
Etienne Nillesen, drums Guest:
Simin Tander, vocals (on track 8)

Produced by Tobias Christl
Recorded at Deutschlandfunk, Studio Köln
Producer for Deutschlandfunk: Harald Rehmann

Tobias Christl
born 1978, studied vocals and school music from 2001 to 2009 at music schools in Würzburg, Nuremberg, Cologne and Weimar. In 2001 he received a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship and studied for a year in New York.

Tobias Christl is a voice artist and all-round musician. He is a songwriter, improviser, voice-over artist, composer and initiator, and plays the piano, keyboards, clarinet and guitar. His musical passion has given his vocal expression an unlimited horizon.

Tobias Christl sings and plays in numerous bands and projects and his vast stylistic range makes him one of the leading singers in Germany. He is equally in demand as a studio singer.

He has toured through countries including the USA, Russia, Taiwan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, France and Italy and has won prizes such as the Jugend Kulturell competition, the Vokal.total competition, the German Music Video Award, was nominated for the Bremen Jazz Prize and was in the final of the Panikpreis competition.

Tobias Christl’s music is experimental and always looking for the innovative and perfect moment. His current projects are the Lieblingsband, with Pablo Held, Robert Landfermann, Tobias Hoffmann, Niels Klein and Jonas Burgwinkel. The band Wildern with Matthias Nowak, Etienne Nillesen and Peter Ehwald. He makes German-language pop music with his band Herbe Sahne, in which is supported by Hanno Busch, Dominik Krämer and Claus Schulte. Together with the pianist and composer Jürgen Friedrich he has given concerts for the past year in the duo Friedrich Christl. He plays the keyboard and backing vocals and sings in the synthpop band Cosmono, with Tobias Hoffmann, Frank Schönhofer and Ralf Gessler.

In addition to having his own bands, Tobias is a guest in various ensembles such as the Swiss formation Mats-Up, the Bundesjazzwerkstatt, the Maxime Bender Orchestra, Fred Köster’s Verwandlung, the U.F.O. Big Band and in the theatre ensemble of Cologne Schauspielhaus theatre.

Tobias collaborates in the jazz collective KLAENG as a promoter. He organises a wide range of series of concerts. He is also out and about as a DJ for clubs in Cologne and Berlin.

Since 2006 Tobias Christl has given workshops and vocal tuition. Until 2011 he taught at the Henneberger Bonn Music School and at the Open Jazz House School Cologne.

Since 2013 he has been teaching jazz and pop vocals at the Institute For Music And Media at the Robert Schumann School of Music and Media in Düsseldorf.

This album contains no booklet.