Info
𝗢𝘂̀𝗮𝘁 (Once upon a time)
sɪᴍᴏɴ sɪᴇɢᴇʀ | piano, voice, flutes, percussion
ᴊᴏᴇʟ ɢʀɪᴘ | bass, guimbri, percussions
ᴍɪᴄʜᴀᴇʟ ɢʀɪᴇɴᴇʀ | drums, percussions
Springing off a sound reminiscent of acoustic piano trios of the 50s and 60s, Oùat explores the memory and perspectives of hand crafted, collective, music making. Jazzin its most open operative meaning, in which improvisation is a real necessity, stimulates the trio to confront and investigate our times of sounds and movements. Oùat‘s music is transmitted through consistent listening and risk taking. An inviting work that gesticulates the most obvious as well as surprising in coming together.
Being one of many groups made possible due to the venue Au Topsi Pohl (2019-2022) in Berlin, Oùat started off with performing the music of Ellington, Hasaan Ibn Ali, Elmo Hope, Per Henrik Wallin and Sun Ra. Their debut album Elastic Bricks (LP | Umlaut | 2022) is exclusively dedicated to their own material and might evoke a dreamed-up vacation of Hindemith in Alger; sounds and tempos in a curious mixture of recognizable disorder and unrecognizable order. For their second release, The Strange Adventures of Jesper Klint (2LP |Umlaut | 2023) Oùat reiterates the trio music of Swedish pianist Per Henrik Wallin which is an escalating and beautiful venture of limits and questioning. Oùat continues to praise the sound and momentum of collective concentrated creativity, making as much as possible out of an idea, a shared place and time. This is most certainly heard in the digital release Trial of Future Animals; an advent calendar overwhelming Christmas (2023) in itself in twentyfour day-by-day long and very different song releases. A “best of”- Trial of Future Animals was self-released on CD by Oùat in spring 2024. The trio likes to invite guests and expand on uncommon forms. This can be heard in the collaborations with master clarinet player Rudi Mahall. Their record as a quartet, “The Straight Horn of Rudi Mahall” is a treasure glimpse of the uncanny mix of startling and straightness in German jazz.
Oùat (Once upon a time) can be heard as storytelling, a chatty trilogy instantaneously finding the sonorous meanings of what, where and when. How this is possible is another question. Simply: listen – it’s a good beginning, and end! Oùat’s members play momentous roles in the creative music scenes of Europe, from Marseille to Dala-Floda via Berlin. Their individual work is heard in groups such as Monks Casino, [ahmed], and The Art Ensemble of Chicago.
The musicians
Simon Sieger is a multi-instrumentalist, arranger and composer. His field of activity ranges from barrelhouse boogie to Sun Ra reinterpretations to hard-hitting sweet noise. In his own words, “Music has no boundaries; anything can go anywhere, with the right attitude. That’s the way the world should be.” He has been heard playing stride piano at noise concerts and Turkish maqam in a blues band. Often called a “hunter-gatherer” by his peers, he has recently played with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the Famoudou Don Moye Odyssey and Legacy Quintet.
Improvising bassist, Joel Grip, makes music at the countenance of the other.
Anchored to a spontaneously fermented musical approach, his music reverberates and transforms within a collective body of timing and sound with the aim of pushing it to intense, ecstatic and transformative levels. He has lived and worked in Stockholm, Baltimore, Paris and Berlin, and is the co-founder of artist run organisations such as Hagenfesten (Dala-Floda), Umlaut Records (Paris, Berlin, Stockholm), Au Topsi Pohl (Berlin), Umlicht Films (France, Sweden), Public Health Music (Ukraine, Sweden), and Curved Pitch. Active in groups Oùat, [ahmed], Vaka, [ism], Klub Demboh, Herr Borelgrip and a frequent collaborator with Sven-Åke Johansson and Assane Seck.
Michael Griener, self-taught by listening to and playing with many of his elders, spent his formative years as a teenager with bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall and began his freelance career in 1988, initially in intensive collaboration with Günter Christmann in Hannover, and since moving to Berlin in 1994 has distinguished himself as one of the most versatile drummers on the current jazz scene, as evidenced by his work with Mal Waldron, Butch Morris, Tal Farlow, Evan Parker, Aki Takase, Tony Malaby and many others. Together with Jan Roder he forms the rhythm section of the band DIE ENTTÄUSCHUNG, ULI GUMPERT QUARTETT, MONK’S CASINO and various other formations. Informed by a deep knowledge of the jazz tradition, he moves mainly in the border area between jazz and free improvisation, as for example in his trio with Ellery Eskelin and Christian Weber. In 2002, Baby Sommer brought him on as a lecturer at the Dresden College of Music, where he continues to teach jazz drumming. In March 2006, Griener received the “Most Creative Soloist” award at the New German Jazz Awards ceremony in Mannheim. His music has been documented on numerous CD releases, including Intakt, HatHut, FMP, Jazzwerkstatt, Moers Music and many more.