In June, Leipzig musician Eva Klesse was named "Artist of the Year" at the German Jazz Awards. On December 5, she will be performing her current project "Voices" in our "Jazzclub Live" series in Leipzig. In this interview, she talks about who she wants to give a voice to with her album, how she categorizes her music and who has influenced her musically.

The "Voices" project covers a whole range of socio-politically relevant topics, from contemporary witnessing in the GDR and resistance against the Russian regime to queer hostility in the jazz scene, to name just a few. What unites these topics and how do you give them a voice on your album? 

The common thread is that we have collected perspectives from people from all over the world who we admire because they raise their voices in many ways against injustice and discrimination and fight to overcome them. We found this inspiring, which is why we collected these voices from a wide variety of countries and areas and tried to set them to music in very different ways: sung, spoken, layered, distorted, simply narrated - a diversity of voices in every respect.

What would you call the result? Is it spoken word music, a musical-political poetry slam or perhaps simply jazz as music that has always been genuinely political and had spoken word as an essential feature?
I always find it difficult to label my own music. There's this nice quote: "Talking about music is like dancing to architecture". When it comes to your own music, it's usually even more difficult. I prefer to leave that to other people. But we've come to the conclusion that it's like a musical essay. It's almost closer to a musical audio book than a jazz album and when we play it live, it's certainly closer to something performative than a jazz concert in the classic sense.

The accompanying essay begins with the coronavirus pandemic, which provided the impetus for the project to arouse internal resistance to external restrictions. To what extent is this attitude still necessary today after five years? What has changed in the external situation?
The coronavirus period presented both challenges and opportunities. The opportunity for us was the gift of time, under difficult conditions of course, because many freelance musicians had no money. The time and the opportunity to reflect were the basis for the project. The fact that it only came out now also has to do with the fact that the project simply kept us busy for years. You can't create something like this in just two months. It had to go through a longer process. And the attitude remains the same in any case. I think it's becoming more and more urgent for us as artists to make an explicit socio-political statement, to show our colors and take a stand. We also want this album to be understood in this sense.

Were there any role models or traditions for this explicitly political dimension in which you see yourself or yourselves?

We don't categorize ourselves in a certain tradition and say that we explicitly refer to this or that role model. But of course there are many - for example Max Roach and Terry Lyne Carrington, Charlie Haden and Carla Bley. Then, of course, there's John Coltrane and Mingus - so there's a huge variety of jazz musicians throughout history, including those who were explicitly political, who we all admire without consciously referring to them.

The intro song contains the words: "I wish the sound built a space for mourning". Music, art and politics form the fundamental relationship of this album. Are they on an equal footing? Is the music on this album merely a means of representation for the political content or are they so intertwined that they cannot be clearly separated?
Music offers the unique opportunity to negotiate certain things without words or to touch people on a different level. That's why content and music are always on the same level, but they each address different aspects of our humanity. On the one hand, there is the intellectual, textual side, and then there is the music - which exists as a quotation - that expresses what cannot be said.

Is there a risk that this album or the music will only be perceived as art, so to speak, and that the political aspect will be misjudged - in other words, that the aestheticization of it will be a problem?
I don't think there's any danger of that! In all the feedback we've received so far, both from people who have heard this album and, above all, from people who have experienced it live - we haven't been able to play it live very often - people have been very touched and, in some cases, affected and left speechless. What we haven't heard yet, here: But that was a nice jazz evening or something. This program is a real plank. It demanded a lot from us and it also demands a lot from the audience - as an intense and moving concert experience.

With such a challenging program, do you have an idea or wish of how listeners should best encounter it?
No, I'm like with the "normal instrumental classical jazz albums". There, too, we offer a story and a certain approach, but what the people who listen to us then do with it - how and where they see and sort the piece of music in their ear and head and heart and stomach - is entirely up to them. We want listeners who are open to it, who let it touch them and see what it does to them.

The first words of the album are: "It's all borrowed" and the title of the third part is: "Pass The Mic". Are both an expression of the responsible, withdrawing role that you are taking on or want to take on in this project?
It was definitely our aim to step back and pass on the mic. Also in a very practical sense, because from the starting position of the project, we were in a difficult situation as freelance musicians in Germany, but corona has once again made it clear that many people on this planet are in even more difficult positions and that many topics have also been lost in this big corona theme. The album has nothing to do with the pandemic at all, it deals with other topics that we felt were in danger of being drowned out. If we've managed to cede the stage to someone else, then we're happy about that. But of course it doesn't work completely, we're still here, we're still playing the music, we're still on stage.

You've already talked about the feedback from the audience, did the voices that were directly or indirectly heard on the album also get back to you?
People got to hear it, of course, as far as they were reachable - there are a few speakers on the album that you can't exactly reach directly by email - but those who heard it felt seen in what we made of it. That was the most important thing for us!

Speaking of being seen: The last song you titled as an anthem of hope is called "You cannot be what you can not see". What does that mean to you? And is Michelle Obama's statement on it: "If they go low, we go high!" perhaps a motto for the album, that music and strong voices can be used to counter all this oppression and discrimination to a certain extent?
The quotes were not chosen at random. We connect with them and would like to emphasize them with strength and with what we have in our hands - that is the music. It is a multitude of, above all, oppressive topics that are sometimes difficult to bear. That is precisely why it was important to us to have an outlook of hope at the end. To be honest, as a consumer, I find art that focuses exclusively on the bad things in this world difficult to bear. That's not what we wanted. We wanted to celebrate the fact that there are people who stand up to these terrible things, so that there is strength, power and hope at the end.

These topics have not actually lost any of their topicality, they have perhaps even intensified and new ones have been added in a rapidly changing world. Is there a need for constant repetition and expansion of this work of making voices audible so that they can continue to be heard - perhaps even with a "Voices II" album?

We would have to discuss "Voices II" again within the band. In any case, we've all tasted blood; for us it was perhaps one of the most important albums we've made so far, so we're certainly keen to get involved with it again. But probably with a little time in between. The next album will be a very simple, pure instrumental jazz album on which we simply play music. The voices project has accompanied us for several years with a lot of resistance in every respect. You can't do that every year. I would definitely like to continue with it, because there are endless topics in the backlash of the patriarchal, radical right-wing and conservative movements that are currently taking place. Then it would be about highlighting the dissenting voices.

When is the new album coming out? Is there anything firm yet?
If we stick to the strict two-year plan we've been following since the band was founded, it will be out in fall 2026, but I don't want to put my hand in the fire just yet.

We are eagerly waiting! In addition to the performance of Voices, there's also the annual benefizz concert in December: can you tell us anything about it yet?
We've been organizing the benefizz concert series with the fizz collective for 10 years now. It's about positioning ourselves as Leipzig's jazz scene and playing music. Also as a sign for the organizations we are collecting for. This year it will be "Doctors without Borders" and "Leipzig Homeless Aid". The concert will take place on December 18 at Neue Musik Leipzig. Unfortunately I can't reveal the line-up yet, we are still working on it, but there will be a very varied program from jazz, pop to free jazz, with well-known and newcomers - everyone is cordially invited to come along!

We'll definitely be there! Anything else you'd like to add?
The "Stimmen" concert in December is the first, only and one of the very first opportunities to experience this project live in Leipzig. Due to the large line-up of seven people plus sound engineer, this opportunity doesn't come around that often. We're really looking forward to it: Leipzig is where we founded the band!

(Interview: Lennart Winterkemper)