Swiss Minimalistic Jazz Ensemble AKKU Quintet Release New 'Live' Album

"Live" takes you on a 75-minute long musical journey and leads you into the cosmos of Swiss-based AKKU Quintet led by drummer and composer Manuel Pasquinelli (also known for his work with Sonar & David Torn). It contains five songs from different stages of the group's history, recorded at various locations between 2016 and 2020. You'll hear the touch and character of each player, acting as a part of the ensemble to create this atmospheric, minimalistic yet livingly driving music.

Says Manuel, "Playing this music live is always an intense and beautiful experience. While not perfect, live versions often have a certain quality and spirit, which are hard to achieve in the studio. We want to share some live moments we captured on different occasions with this album, especially in this challenging time for live music. We didn't do any editing. So you will hear truly handmade music. This album might be a good introduction to our work, and maybe one gets curious about the four studio albums we released before."

"They take the Swiss zen maximalist/minimalist approach of Nik Bärtsch's Ronin, Sonar, Schnellertollermeier to a different, but utterly logical conclusion. Fabulous stuff. Recommended!" - Steve Feigenbaum, Cuneiform Records

AKKU Quintet is based in Berne (Switzerland), from where they dispense a minimalistic jazz groove to great effect. Drummer Manuel Pasquinelli, who is also responsible for the compositions, founded the band in 2010. Their first concert took place in 2011. Since then, the band has released four studio albums and is playing live regularly. Their latest studio album, "Depart," was the first one released with 7d Media. Manuel Pasquinelli is also known as the drummer of Sonar, who are collaborating with David Torn and Bill Laswell.

Listen to the new album here: