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Der Vierte Zustand: Layers (Creative Sources)

The Cologne-based free improvising trio Der Vierte Zustand — vocalist Hanna Schörken, guitarist Christina Zurhausen, and drummer Ramon Keck — om a compelling blend of experimental soundscapes, noise rock influences, and free jazz energy, driven by Schörken's acrobatic wordless vocals, Zurhausen's effects-laden guitar textures, and Keck's dynamic rhythms.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Ramon Keck-drums

Christina Zurhausen-guitar, effects

Hanna Schorken-voice


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UPC: 5609063408522

Label: Creative Sources
Catalog ID: cs852
Squidco Product Code: 35768

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2025
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recording at Topaz Studios in Cologne, Germany, in July, 2024.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Der Vierte Zustand (The Fourth State) is the German, Cologne-based free improvising trio of vocal artist Hanna Schörken (who also has a duo with cellist Emily Wittbrodt), guitarist Christina Zurhausen, and drummer Ramon Keck (who also plays in Zurhausen Trio and her Endgegner quartet). This trio has been performing since 2021, relying on the idiosyncratic approaches of its musicians and mixing the sound language of new music, the energy of free jazz and song structures of noise rock. Its debut album was recorded at Topaz Audio Studios in Cologne in July 2024.

True to its title, this trio's aesthetics exist outside the common norms. The music flows in an urgent, free-associative, and playful mode, flirting with the eccentric and the provocative, and always searches for cathartic climaxes. Schörken sketches the emotional territory of the improvised pieces with her pixie-like, acrobatic wordless delivery; Zurhausen pushes the envelope with snaky and thorny, effects-laden guitar lines, and Keek anchors the commotion in seductive grooves. The elusive fourth state is a transcendental power in the energetic interplay of soundscapes, grooves, and noises.The centerpiece is the 15-minute "Three Paces In Front Of Me", a mysterious, sparse story that slowly gains more ritualist, percussive nuances and complex emotional shades as it progresses. This piece, as well as the other shorter one, highlights Der Vierte Zustand's gift of evoking vivid and imaginative sound universes that act according to their own, free-associative logic."-Eyal Hareuveni, Salt Peanuts


Get additional information at Salt Peanuts

Artist Biographies

"Ramon Keck started his musical career in the samba percussion group "Caipiranha" at the age of 13, where numerous performances were made at home and abroad. The change to the drum set took place quickly, in which he gained further experience in various youth and student bands.

In 2008 - 2012 he completed his studies at the Musikhochschule Köln in the main jazz drums, with numerous projects in the field of jazz, soul and rock.During this time, he took lessons with Keith Copeland, Alex Vesper and Jonas Burgwinkel and attended workshops with Alex Riel, Keith Carlock and Jim Black.

Keck's drumming is inspired by rock and jazz music in equal parts. From driving grooves to intricate beats and casual swing to abstract sound paintings. Here every music is celebrated with an independent style and energetic live performance.

Currently existing bands are the Jazz Grunge combo "Exit", the self-directed video game jazz project "Endgegner", also arranged for the Keck, the freely improvising duo "Dialectical Flow" and trio "Der Fourth Condition".Several CD productions and extensive concert activities throughout the country, e.g. Also at festivals and abroad.

Since 2017, he has been head of the percussion area at the municipal music school Meerbusch. "

-Ramon Keck Website (Translated by Google) (https://www.ramonkeck.com/)
3/26/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Christina Zurhausen comes from the Ruhr region in western Germany. However, she has lived in Cologne for over 10 years, where she began her studies in jazz guitar and now works as a freelance guitarist and composer.

She then studied jazz guitar at the Osnabrück University of Music, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in 2014. There, she studied with Frank Wingold, Joachim Schönecker, Philipp van Endert, and Angelika Niescier, among others.

She also attended numerous masterclasses and workshops with, for example, Philipp Catherine, Lionel Loueke, Christian McBride, Dave Liebman, and Kurt Rosenwinkel.

From 2014 to 2018, she participated in the Peter Herbolzheimer European Masterclass Big Band, led by John Ruocco and Erik van Lier.

As a teenager, she was interested in punk, rock, and grunge music. Bands like Nirvana, Slime, The Doors, and Rage Against The Machine were her heroes. Until, in her early 20s, she heard jazz guitarist John Abercrombie by chance. It was love at first hearing, so to speak. From then on, a passion for jazz music developed. Musicians such as Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, John Scofield, Bill Frisell, and John Coltrane were new companions.

Christina is active as a guitarist and composer in the fields of jazz, rock, funk, and improvised music. In 2015, she founded the jazz grunge quartet "Ausfahrt," combining her old rock influences, particularly the aesthetics of 90s grunge rock, with the free, improvisational spirit of jazz. Catchy melodies, energetic improvisations, contentious riffs, and an expressive sound are hallmarks of this quartet.

The band's debut album, "Vergessene Möglichkeiten," was released in 2018 on Fattoria Musica Records. The second album will be released in July 2021 on the Swiss label "Unit Records."

Other bands Christina is involved with include the video game jazz band "Endgegner" and the trio "By The Way," featuring singer Emese Mühl and pianist Frank Wunsch.

Christina can be heard in many different ensembles, but also enjoys spontaneous meetings with musicians and creating music in the moment. The parameters here are always freedom, the further development of her own sound and language, and the desire to make an expressive musical contribution to the world.

Christina is currently a guitar and band instructor at the Offene Jazz Haus School in Cologne."

-Christina Zurhausen Website (https://www.christinazurhausen.com/)
3/26/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Hanna Schörken, born 23 of July 1985 in Duisburg, Germany. In 2005 she moved to Köln, in order to study comparative literary studies at the University of Bonn. At this time she began writing her own poems and soon she had readings in several cafés and institutions. While concentrating on publishing, writing and reading her poems she started to experiment with her voice. Her readings became more and more voice performances. She decided to study Jazz Singing and moved to the Netherlands in 2008, where she was accapted at the ArtEZ Conservatory / Institute of the Arts. She studied and attended workshops with: Silvia Droste, Romy Camerun, Fay Claassen, Florian Weber, Markus Stockhausen etc. She sings and performs in several projects of jazz and free improvised music as well as interdisciplinary projects in the field of dance, literature and music."

-Mapado (https://www.mapado.com/en/lyon/hanna-schorken-et-thibault-gomez-duo-jazz)
3/26/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Morgana 3:35

2. Firm Liquid 7:13

3. Toxic Impact 0:37

4. Evolve Or Repeat 8:17

5. Fog Lights 0:55

6. Three Paces In Front Of Me 15:16

7. Matter Or Fact 2:59

8. Nuclear Sun 1:03

9. Deep Strokes 1:53

Related Categories of Interest:


Creative Sources
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Trio Recordings
Unusual Vocal Forms
New in Improvised Music
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Search for other titles on the label:
Creative Sources.


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