The M Project - Movin' On (CD)

The Hamburg jazz guitarist Bernard Fichtner presents a new album. And gives rare insights into his "music laboratory".
Developing a unique profile that makes you listen more closely - this is the goal pursued by the Hamburg jazz guitarist Bernard Fichtner with his new album Movin'on (Bernard Fichtner's M-Project). He has clear ideas about how this can work. "I always manage to do something of my own when the music is given an understandable form," he emphasizes. "On Movin' On I chose mostly non-complex, symmetrical shapes."
The sound: There are many ostinato motifs in the total of eight pieces, which Fichtner develops further and garnishes with sparsely used, spherical effects. This creates a warm and lyrical sound that is reminiscent of the European soundscape of the style-defining ECM label.
The musicians: Bernard Fichtner is characterized by an unpretentious style. His solos develop their flow from the stories they tell. They interact with and react to the rhythmic, dynamic and melodic accents set by his fellow musicians.
Fichtner chose the Hanoverian pianist Markus Horn because his harmonic and melodic sensitivity enables him to pick up and continue the melodic lines of the guitar.
The pulsating rhythm of the Hamburg drummer Heinz Lichius is a great enrichment for the overall sound due to his varied playing.
Giorgi Kiknadze, also from Hamburg, underscores this foundation with a double bass that is not limited to an elementary tonal structure, but goes beyond the harmonic essence by eloquently expanding and enriching its lines. Trained at the Berklee College of Music in Boston /USA, Fichtner worked for many years on various musical productions, went on tour with artists such as the Israeli singer Esther Ofarim, wrote film music, worked as a studio musician and taught. He masters the entire keyboard of the different styles, is equally influenced by rock and funk, creates driving grooves, explores fusion, soul and rhythm n blues - and finally ends up back in jazz. Most recently, he brought modern jazz fusion and nu-jazz sounds into the world with the CD Points of View.
Lothar Trampert wrote about this in Gitarre & Bass: "The music is above all expressive and has a sentimental, brittle beauty that you never have to think of in comparison to any well-known genre size."
The working method: What makes this project special is not just the music. There are also the rare insights into his work process that Fichtner gives in a video call (see homepage). He shows how an idea emerges from a collection of short musical phrases, which he continues and develops. He also takes the viewer into the world of recording software and uses examples and screenshots to demonstrate how he converts his ideas into individual tracks and processes them.

01 momo
02 Moonful
03 More Summer
04 Mastermind
05 Mc
06 Move On
07 More like more
08 M rotation