müller
guitar – double bass – percussion – electronics
müller – a quartet with a centre of gravity: Lothar Müller ’s guitar. He plays his instrument with the expression of a singer – the guitar sings, speaks, tells stories. Is this jazz? müller gets jazz dressed up in the prettiest things: rock grooves, country, sampling, soundscapes, wah-wah, slide, feedback, all deftly combined.
Lothar Müller’s compositions are characterised by clear structures, intense, often melancholy atmospheres and the warm vocal tone of the guitar, showing simple, beautiful melodies. Influenced by the Beatles, by their extraordinary wealth of ideas and inventions, Lothar Müller followed his way via Santana, Hendrix and Clapton, until the path led to Abercrombie, Scofield and Frisell. Jazz offered him more expressive possibilities, more space and time.
In müller´s music, borders are fluid – or disappearing altogether, the power of music making everything possible. Sound journeys all over the world, explorations of “No Man’s Land ” and “Kindercountry ” existing alongside arrangements of pieces by Luiz Bonfas and Björk. The language of müller is universal, the guitar is song. Lothar Müller refers to himself as an autodidact, having learned with the help of a book called “Beatles Complete” and a hi-fi. He started out as a singer in various bands. In the 90s, he took lessons with John Abercrombie and Jim Hall.
After receiving the International Jazz Prize of Trier in 1990, Müller went on to win the Jazz Podium of Lower Saxony several times (the last being in 2002).He has played with Cunnie Williams on the latter ’s tour of Europe, taken the Müller Trio on concert tours to Russia (2001)and China (2002)and worked as a theatre musician at the Schauspielhaus Hannover and the Berliner Ensemble.
Thomas Hempel studied percussion at the Hilversum Conservatory and has played with Bart van Lier, Rolf Zielke ’s Blow Up, Paul Imm, Jerry van Rooyen, Klaus Ignatzek and others.
Andreas Henze completed his study of the classical double bass at the music academy of his native town Kassel, then moved to Berlin with a sojourn in Hamburg. Today he is strongly involved in improvised music.
Albrecht Husen studied percussion at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hanover, composed and did arrangements for musicals, commercial jingles and his band “Coustics”, with which he won the Jazz Podium of Hanover in 2001.
Thomas Hempel and Andreas Henze have been playing with Lothar Müller in the Müller Trio since 1999. After the production of the CD Q in 2002, Albrecht Husen joined the band. Müller Trio became müller.
Lothar Müller – Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Loops
Andreas Henze – Bass
Thomas Hempel – Drums
