To celebrate the release of my new CD (Sempre Notte, Dark Companion Records) of songs recorded live at Porgy & Bess last year, I return with Annie Barbazza, John Greaves and the New Songs Ensemble.

Although some of the original material (songs with texts by Samuel Beckett, Ernst Meister, Giuseppe Ungaretti and Harold Pinter) will of course be included, it will not be a repeat performance of last year’s concert, but also feature new versions of other previously recorded but unperformed songs with texts by Samuel Beckett and Philippe Soupault (in French, from Many Have No Speech), Paul Auster (Hide and Seek) and Edward Gorey (The Hapless Child).

I had met John Greaves way back in 1976 when I was working with him on recording his iconic Kew Rhone album at my Grog Kill studio in the USA, then met again in 1987 for my Live project (with Jack Bruce, Nick Mason, Don Preston, Rick Fenn), and he also participated in my sort-of-an-opera School Of Understanding in 1996. We had always stayed in touch over the years and he was instrumental suggesting Himiko Paganotti for my Comment C'est album, and now, for this new project he has introduced me to Annie Barbazza, an enormously talented singer and a particularly good choice, since the program includes a number of songs with texts in Italian by Giuseppe Ungaretti.

Bjarne Roupé has been my favorite guitarist ever since I had returned to Europe, starting with performances and recording of my Cerco Un Paese Innocente in 1994, then as a member of my Chamber Music and Songs ensemble for a portrait concert at Porgy in 2006, and eventually participating on practically all my continuing projects/albums: School Of Understanding, Songs And One Symphony, Hide And Seek, Concertos, For Two, The Jazz Composer's Orchestra Update and, finally, my last album Coda.

David Helbock, another of my much valued contributors with an exceptional understanding of my music, has been involved in all my projects since The Jazz Composer's Orchestra Update.

And last, but certainly not least, the multi-faceted bass clarinetist Gareth Davis, who alone was responsible for initiating the original songs project and tirelessly continues attempting to present this music.

Supporting the singers and soloists will again be four string players, this time in the form of the Koehne String Quartet, one of today’s outstanding interpreters of contemporary music, founded in 1987 by Joanna Lewis, who has also participated in many of my projects in the past. (Michael Mantler)

Michael Mantler was once described in a major daily newspaper as "the least known famous Austrian musician and composer". A description which, given the musical innovations of the aforementioned, is esprit de l'escalier in jazz history. I know from encounters with musicians such as Pharoah Sanders or Larry Coryell how highly Mantler's musical visions and ideas are respected by his colleagues. The Swiss composer and long-time director of the Vienna Art Orchestra Mathias Rüegg noted that Mantler, along with Hans Koller, Joe Zawinul and Fritz Pauer, is one of the four musical personalities from Austria who have not only succeeded in international jazz, but have also left lasting footprints. Despite this professional recognition and appreciation within the music scene, Mantler was not granted the opportunity to be adequately presented artistically in the city of his birth. No promoter, no festival, no major venue, no renowned organization brought the music of this great son of this city to a national capital stage - with the exception of Porgy & Bess, of course. Our collaboration has now lasted almost two decades and I would like to point out in this context that all the projects we have realized - such as his three-day portrait in 2006 or the spectacular "update" of the legendary "Jazz Composer's Orchestra" from 1968 in 2013 in the year of our 20th anniversary celebrations or the song cycle "Comment c'est" with Himiko Paganotti (2016), or the performances of "For Two" (2011), "Orchestra Suites" (2019) and "Concertos" (2021) or, a year later, "Songs" with Gareth Davis, or even "The New Songs Ensemble", which was presented in 2023 - are among the highlights of my life as an organizer, which has now lasted a few decades. This is mainly because Michael Mantler has succeeded in developing his very own and completely independent sound language, which gives him an absolutely unique position and makes him completely unique.

Michael Mantler - born in Vienna, as mentioned above - grew up in Sankt Pölten, and he said in an interview that his older sister had given him a Charlie Parker record to listen to - a recording that awakened his interest in jazz. However, it was not the master saxophonist himself that particularly interested him, his interest was in exploring the roots of this music, and so he went back - swing, New Orleans, ragtime, spirituals. "From the roots to the source", so to speak, and with a background in European classical music. He took a roundabout route to his instrument, which he subsequently studied in Vienna before perfecting it at the legendary Berklee School of Music in Boston from 1962. Incidentally, he successfully completed both studies. Mantler used every free minute to visit the Mecca of jazz, New York. It was the legendary singer Sheila Jordan who made her daughter's room in her apartment available to Michael for visiting purposes, and it was also Jordan who introduced him to like-minded musicians such as George Russell. This lady is not only "the singer with the million dollar ears", as Charlie Parker described her, who incidentally often spent the night in her apartment, but also a woman whose grandeur brought many musicians together.

In 1964, Mantler was consequently a fighter on the front line of the "October Revolution of jazz" at the Cellar Cafe in NY, a four-day festival organized by Bill Dixon with people like Archie Shepp, John Tchicai, Roswell Rudd, Carla & Paul Bley, Jimmy Giuffre, Cecil Taylor, Steve Lacy, Sun Ra or - lo and behold - Sheila Jordan ... In an interview, he modestly describes his role at the time as having been "in the right place at the right time".

Mantler took the initiative, founded the Jazz Composer's Orchestra Association and released his first album "Communication" on Fontana in 1966. Mantler combined his search for new forms of artistic expression with efforts to create better working conditions for musicians: Distribution problems with JCOA records led him to establish the "New Music Distribution Service" in 1972, a distribution company that supported many independent record labels until 1990. In 1974, together with Carla Bley, he founded WATT Records, which included a record label, a recording studio and a music publishing company.

Mantler was a member of Charlie Haden's "Liberation Music Orchestra" and of course in Carla Bley's various projects, but since 1973 he has increasingly begun to explore the interface between language and music, setting texts by such illustrious contemporaries as Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Edward Gorey, Paul Auster, Ernst Meister, Giuseppe Ungaretti and also his own texts to music in a wide variety of formations, including symphony orchestras.

He returned to the West in 1991 and has lived and worked in Copenhagen and the south of France ever since. He once mentioned to me that his oeuvre was relatively small in comparison with that of other colleagues - an assessment which, apart from the fact that it is about quality and not just quantity, must also be objectively rejected. London Symphony Orchestra, Danish Radio Concert Orchestra, Danish Radio Big Band, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, NÖ Tonkünstler, Nouvelle Cuisine Big Band, Max Brand Ensemble, Big Band des Norddeutschen Rundfunks Hamburg and also works with his own Chamber Music and Songs Ensemble are just a few examples and also prove his continuous activity.

Michael Mantler did not actually want to compose anything new or make any "updates". "I have exploited my own universe as much as I consider desirable or necessary. I think I've said what I had to say, which is not to say it shouldn't be said more often than in the past. There is a wealth of material that has only been performed once in public. More performances would certainly be possible and interesting. Apart from a few exceptions, my projects have only ever been initiated and completed by myself, but at the moment I have neither the need nor the will to do it again." (Michael Mantler).

He logically described his (supposedly) final musical statement in this regard as "Coda" (released on ECM in 2021). But as we all painfully experience, times have indeed changed radically, and as already indicated in his quote, the texts that Michael Mantler had been working on for decades developed a frighteningly new topicality, which led to a rethink or the need to rearrange literary works by Samuel Beckett, Ernst Meister, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Harold Pinter and his own texts, or, as Mantler writes: 'Overwhelmed by the mercilessly pounding reports of a horrific war near us, I searched through relevant texts I had used in the past and chose appropriate passages - abstract in the case of Samuel Beckett and Ernst Meister (previously used for my album "Many Have No Speech"), as well as those of Giuseppe Ungaretti (from "Cerco un Paese Innocente") and finally (not at all abstract, but dealing very concretely with war atrocities in particular and the deplorable human condition in general), some of my own words from "Comment c'est". Even if they are not really "new" compositions, they will differ from the original versions.

In the search for the "right" voices for this, he drew on his pool of old friends such as the great John Greaves, whom he knew from his Henry Cow days and who worked on his legendary "Kew.Rhone." album (1976). He in turn suggested his musical partner Annie Barbazza, a particularly good choice as a significant part of the program consists of songs with Italian lyrics by Giuseppe Ungaretti. The Danish guitarist Bjarne Roupé has been his first choice since Mantler returned to Europe and is therefore very familiar with Mantler's musical cosmos. He has also collaborated with Austrian pianist David Helbock for over a decade. And last but not least, the versatile bass clarinettist Gareth Davis, who was responsible for initiating the original "Songs" project and continues to tirelessly attempt to present this music. The singers and soloists will be supported by four string players, this time in the form of the radio.string.quartet, one of the outstanding formations in the field of contemporary music, founded in 2003, which has also been involved in many of his projects in the past.

"Song recital for humanism" is the title of music critic Hannes Schweiger's review of the Michael Mantler New Songs Ensemble's concert on September 26, 2023, before concluding: "Once again, it is remarkable how Mantler has pulled the ensemble together into a concentrated, interlocking organism. Conveying a relaxed, eloquent precision. On top of that, the songs contain a further measurement of Weill/Eisler's achievements for the art song."

This recording is a recording of the aforementioned concert and is characterized by an almost magical drawing into the material the longer you listen. Similar to a "black hole", there is no escape while listening. The 17 songs fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and form a stringent overall picture with a dark, atmospheric urgency. A sound-tone-word epic that on the one hand illuminates the composer's entire musical spectrum, but on the other also provides many delicate insights into the darker regions of human existence and actions. A magnificent synthesis of the arts that challenges and rewards! An "update" that almost cries out for a sequel! (Christoph Huber, Artistic Director, Porgy & Bess, Vienna in April 2024)