Between virtuoso songwriting and deconstruction: Marek Johnson and WRENS at the Schaubühne Lindenfels
On Monday evening at the Schaubühne Lindenfels, two bands showed that jazz is much more than just a bunch of academic professional musicians shredding. Cologne musician Marek Johnson and his quintet presented sensitive songwriting that focused on storytelling, pathos and pop. The New York quartet WRENS then broke a few musical dams with their mix of noise, hip-hop and free jazz and thoroughly rinsed the audience's ear canals with a stream of modular synthesis, rap and drums.
Marek Johnson, born David Helm (vocals, bass), performed with his four-piece band - consisting of Wanja Slavin (synthesizer, saxophone), Shannon Barnett (vocals, piano), Leipzig guitarist Bertram Burkert (guitar) and Hanno Stick (drums). They opened the evening with songs from their two albums "At Home Singing" (2022) and "Mumbling on the Floor" (2024) and presented well-balanced songwriting without playing one note too many. The focus was on David Helm's voice, which pleasantly dominated the majority of the songs. With virtuoso ease, Helm sang his way through the registers of his chest and head voice. His sympathetic, easy-going expression and phrasing were sometimes reminiscent of Jeff Buckley or Ed Droste from the band Grizzly Bear.
The instrumentation fulfilled its purpose: it introduced, accompanied and set accents. However, it suffered from its well-tempered lack of frills. Outbursts and excesses were almost completely absent from the songs, which meant that the performance threatened to wear out quickly, as it repeatedly stumbled over its shortness and lack of edge. The sometimes lengthy pauses after the songs didn't exactly help to maintain the dense emotional storytelling. Despite this, there were glimpses of virtuoso songwriting that proved the timelessness of good pop music.
After the short break, the musical contrast could hardly have been greater: Because WRENS took to the stage. Instead of minimalism and controlled songwriting, the quartet from New York focused on improvisation, energy and the chaos of free jazz, hip hop and noise. The band was led by trumpeter and rapper Ryan Easter, accompanied by drummer Jason Nazary, keyboardist Elias Stemeseder and cellist Lester St. Louis. Together they formed a deconstruction machine that worked its way through the musical possibilities of frequency synthesis. Modular synthesis, pitched trumpet solos and tireless exploration of infinitely expanding rhythmic counts formed the soundscape for Easter's expressive vocal performance.
The full strength of the performance unfolded at the latest when his rap interludes were added to the improvisational storm. The unapproachable wall of free jazz suddenly became personal, intimate and literally tangible. At one point, Ryan Easter wove the explanation of the band's name "Wrens" into the performance. The name has no deeper meaning, he explained. It's about "owning" your name and owning it with pride. A perfect name for a band whose music takes on every note played with radicalism and makes it possible to experience jazz again as a resistant performative act.
TEXT: MATTHIAS PROPACH
