Nighthawks

Nighthawks
Today
Date of release: 08-27-10
Distribution: edel Kultur
42601090195 HER

A short keyboard motif – its sound seems to emanate from a music box. It is joined by a bouncy, increasingly climactic groove with a jazzy-percussive trumpet on top creating an effervescent, pulsing atmosphere. "Boutique Korkut" - we are right in the middle of the vibrant Belgian quarter in Cologne. Once again twilight falls, the sun sets and the night begins to the musical soundtrack of the Nighthawks.

The Nighthawks project, launched at the end of the 1990s, is the brainchild of trumpet player Reiner Winterschladen and multi-instrumentalist and producer Dal Martino. Since their first album "Citizen Wayne" (1998), the duo has been known for its profound and stylish jazzy lounge music. However, stirring up associations and images, the Nighthawks' music goes much deeper than that. "I think it's great and very important that the listener has visual associations while hearing the music", says Dal Martino. "Our project started with film music. For me, it is still important that each track has a little script. We aim to trigger images which in turn release certain emotions."

On their new album "Today", which is their fifth studio album to date, the Nighthawks have embarked on an unusual and extraordinarily exciting world tour of a different kind. It is not really what one would have expected of them. At the start, they only had one aim in mind: "Back to the roots", summarises Dal Martino. "In the sense that we let our ideas run wild and developed melodies and groove fragments without asking ourselves whether these sound fragments fitted together. The final structure of the album crystallized much later." Their unceasing curiosity to explore new musical horizons has once again led the Nighthawks halfway around the world - especially to eastern regions.

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Musicians certainly depend on ideas, suitable ideas. Ideas is something the Nighthawks have never been short of. However, at the start they did not know where these original ideas would eventually lead them. They were happier not knowing, aware of the restraining effect that too much rational analysis would have on their curiosity and instincts. Instead, the Nighthawks placed their trust both in themselves and their ideas. This time, their travels led them into the thicket of the Romanian forests, the glamorous Brazilian Trancoso, to the picturesque "Rialto Hotel" in Warsaw and to the almost deserted steppes of Iran. "I have been travelling around a lot these last few years, I was in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Moldavia," says Martino. "Of course that affected our music, especially as I met fantastic singers such as Anna Maria Jopek from Poland or Emilia Istvan, a Roma icon, whose qualities have given the new album a unique character."

Things cannot always be planned when you work on an album. Emilia Istvan is a case in point. "In Timisoara, I heard 'Ederlezi', a traditional Roma song which impressed me a lot. It's a wonder that the song finally made it on to the album as Emilia is constantly on the move around the entire Balkan region. By lucky coincidence, I managed to record her voice in a hotel room in Bucharest. When the piece was completed I realised that it effectively represented the starting point of our journey which eventually led to 'Male Tesknoty' featuring the fantastic Anna Maria Jopek and Sting's guitarist Dominic Miller."

Both 'Ederlezi' and 'Male Tesknoty', a Polish hit from the 80s, demonstrate Dal Martino's and Reiner Winterschladen's unique ability to reshape a musically rather absurd original into a typical Nighthawks soundscape. The epic 'Dust', the last track on the CD with its somehow Arabesque melodic motif, is evidence of their universal pretensions. On top of this, their music is becoming increasingly compact. Not one note is out of place, not one sample is used just for the sake of it. The Nighthawks are resounding proof of the premise that less is more.

In many cases, their music works like a soundtrack to an imaginary film. The new album 'Today' is no exception. One should just listen to the bouncy grooving and mysterious 'The Consul Is Driving' which would make a brilliant soundtrack for a psycho thriller. The slightly wistful 'To The Bar And Back' would also perfectly complement the film noir genre. "Even after the recording process has started, an album such as this always requires numerous decisions to be taken. I could name each album 'One Million Decisions'. However, in the end I believe that only things that really strike a nerve with us pass through the filter of my spirit."

The new Nighthawks CD, which has been called 'Today' for good reason, demonstrates what Dal Martino and Reiner Winterschladen are getting excited about in the here and now. It is a musical journey of discovery: soul, jazz, pop, reggae, Latin American and Arabic influences, melodies from Poland and the Balkan region - driven by their passion for experiment, the Nighthawks are not concerned with borders. Aside from their undoubtedly top class musicianship, it is their curiosity and their love of the unusual what makes 'Today' so exciting and entertaining. [more information for download]

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