Reduce by Max Andrzejewski´s Hütte

The floating Hütte

We absolutely have to call Max Andrzejewski, born in 1986, one of the most important protagonists of the young German experimental music world. Whether as a drummer or as a composer - in an ensemble, he likes both at the same time - he has been exploring the worlds between contemporary classical music and jazz, between experimental rock and minimalism for years.
If there is something like a permanent fixture in the wealth of his award-winning releases and projects, then it is certainly his quartet HÜTTE: The band, founded in 2011, with Andrzejewski as the composing drummer, the saxophonist Johannes Schleiermacher, the guitarist Tobias Hoffmann and the bassist Andreas Lang, is really outstanding and won the new German Jazz Prize in 2013.

Now in September 2023, if you want to include their Robert Wyatt tribute record from 2019, the fifth HÜTTE album entitled "Reduce" will be released.
Robert Wyatt is definitely a good reference when it comes to the new recordings, as would the late works of Talk Talk, Arthur Russell or Miles Davis on "In a silent way", but also minimalists like Kali Malone or Jakob Bro.
Rarely have Andrzejewski and his band been heard so accessible, reduced and floating. So, in terms of Mark Hollis' definition, we're almost dealing with pop music here. In any case, the fellow musicians seem to feel at ease in their bandleader's newly prescribed minimalism.
"The pieces arose from a need to go into intermediate or floating states, for loops, for reduced material – to immerse the listener, to make them calm down a bit and “immerse” them in a present state" Max says and poses the question to himself about his most recent endeavors in his Hütte (Hut) "Is this an escape from the state of the world or am I doing this because I am getting old?"

The basic compositional arrangement, in fact, often are only very small loops with minimal shifts that Max and his band use to captivate us so much in the 9 tracks of Reduce.
Some parts are distilled from Max's compositions for contemporary classical music - ensembles - and turn into more improvisational music.

Andrzejewski comments on the project as follows:
"The need for this reduced music certainly also stems from my excessive work as a composer of contemporary chamber music in recent years - the idea of 'freeing' the musical material, of illuminating it from the 'other side'."

But of course, the individual, virtuoso expression of all HÜTTE members on their instruments and the fact that they have been a band for over 10 years playing together, are extremely important factors for the great intensity on this album.

By the way, the album title can also be read politically: Reduction as a means of de-growth, pulling out of the delusion of an turbo-capitalistic economy built on short-attention-spans and the urgent questions about sacrifices that each one of us – no matter if we inhabit administrative offices or not - can do to keep our planet habitable.

There will be no physical CD or LP for the album! Instead Fun In The church releases, a strictly limited, hand-numbered screen-printed poster (with download code!) by the Berlin based designer Moritz Borchardt.
Fans that are so inclined are welcome to hang this poster in their own hut!

(Text by Maurice Summen)

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BIO of Hütte
"Hardly any other young jazz band has caused as much attention in Germany in recent years as Max Andrzejewski's HÜTTE," says the enthusiastic music journalist Wolf Kampmann. HÜTTE won the New German Jazz Prize in 2013, released four albums - partially reinforced by a vocal ensemble - and played international tours, e.g
Eurojazz Festival Mexico, International Jazz Festival Nicaragua, Managua Jazz Festival Guatemala, Honduras, Jazz Festival El Salvador, at the South Tyrol Jazz Festival (IT), Enjoy Jazz Festival Heidelberg, Umbria Jazz (IT), April Jazz National Concert Hall Dublin (IR) , J.O.E. Festival Essen, Just Music Festival Wiesbaden, Jazz Units Berlin, Jazztage Regensburg, NueJazz Festival Nuremberg, KLAENG Festival Cologne and many more.
In October 2018, the band and two guests realized a tribute program for the great British artist Robert Wyatt, commissioned by the Leipzig Jazz Days in co-production with the Enjoy Jazz Festival, which was released as an album in 2019.
This group of strong individuals – drummer and composer Max Andrzejewski, saxophonist Johannes Schleiermacher, guitarist Tobias Hoffmann and bassist Andreas Lang – cultivates passionate musical madness of the highest quality with enthusiasm and defiant eccentricity. Avant-garde music, lyrical melodies and expressive freedom... the HÜTTE is on fire.

Max Andrzejewski (*1986) is a composer / improviser / drummer living in Berlin.

maxandrzejewski.de