The title FRUITS OF SOLITUDE refers to Duke Ellington’s composition Solitude, which has been an important source of inspiration for me since my youth. The first band in which I played at the age of 16 had this piece in their repertoire, but I was not aware of the Ellington recording at that time. For the current programme – it will be recorded as a CD for Werner Uehlinger's HAT HUT label - I wrote some variations about Solitude which should be considered as a starting point only. There are also a number of new pieces unrelated to Solitude, including a reference to Martial Solal, the composer of the film score of Godard’s A Bout de Souffle, or a Garden with Blue Terrace inspired by David Hockney.

This (new) septet line-up is partly made up of mini-ensembles such as the G(ood)luck trio with Mario Arcari and Attila Pasztor, or the long-standing duo with Peter Herbert. Daniele D'Agaro and I are old friends – in the 80s we played together in Andrea Centazzo’s Mitteleuropa-Orchester. I met the phenomenal horn player John Clark at the Outreach-Festival in Tyrol, and star bassoonist Milan Turkovic, who recorded with Wynton Marsalis, completes our septet with a ‘cosmopolitan’ vibe.

This programme was made possible by a composition commission from the Government of Lower Austria and support from the SKE Fund.