Lars Duppler is an insider tip that almost everyone knows: educated by John Taylor and Joachim Kühn, finalist at the Martial Solal Piano Competition, prize winner of the state of NRW at the Cité des Arts in Paris, on the road with his own bands and alongside Nils Wülker, Jens Düppe, Niels Klein and many more. When someone like him, now a docent himself, takes time off immediately after the equally passionate and successful solo program “Naked” and titles his next project “Unbound,” meaning unleashed rather than just unbound, that’s a clear, good sign.
The new trio with his longtime colleagues and friends Denis Gäbel and Jens Düppe works, as Duppler says, “without a net or a double bottom” and is “a logical extension of the solo program,” namely by supporting the saxophone in the melodic area and Düppe’s drums in the rhythmic area. The “unbound” in the band name refers to the freedom of the lineup, the musical concept remains open: The trio can play pieces that could also fit into its piano solo program, but it also makes pressure in the lower frequency range, because despite the missing bass, vamps and rocky parts are not missed out.
“By using Fender Rhodes and Moog instead of piano, I have completely different possibilities sound-wise,” Duppler says. “With the various effects, I have an additional instrument at hand, so to speak – the creation of “sound spaces” is a nice new possibility in connection with the fellow musicians: the music can breathe atmospherically, but also be rocky. Harmonically, I’m still unbound and keep all options open – and the saxophone grounds the music in the direction of jazz.” The three musicians skilfully and consciously use the “free” spaces that the line-up opens up for them on the one hand and that they create for themselves on the other. The transparency that this freedom offers them is what makes the trio so special – self-sufficient and wild, musical delight “unbound”.
