by Ian Mann
October 19, 2016
/ LIVE
The Helbock Trio have created a highly distinctive and personalised sound and must rank as one of Europe's most adventurous piano trios.
David Helbock Trio, Dempsey’s, Cardiff, 18/10/2016.
David Helbock is a pianist and composer based in Vienna. Born in the small Austrian village of Koblach in 1984 Helbock began playing the piano at the age of six and was something of a child prodigy, self releasing his first full length album at the age of fourteen.
A frequent award winner Helbock has since recorded another fifteen or so albums, several of them for the Berlin based Traumton label. His current projects include tonight’s David Helbock Trio and another trio, Random Control which features the pianist alongside trumpeter Johannes Bar and saxophonist Andreas Broger. Both Bar and Broger play a variety of other wind instruments including clarinets, flutes, tuba and sousaphone and the group also makes judicious use of electronics. On the basis of tonight’s performance I’d relish hearing that intriguing looking outfit too.
Helbock has also recorded as a solo pianist and has collaborated in the duo format with both trumpeter Lorenz Raab and experimental violinist Simon Frick. He has been part of Michael Mantler’s Jazz Composers Orchestra, contributing to the 2014 “Updates” release for ECM, and has also been a member of the Collective of Improvising Artists or CIA. Helbock has also recorded with the collaborative groups Mistura and HDV, the latter a trio with bassist Lucas Dietrich and drummer Marc Vogel that can perhaps be considered a precursor of this current trio project.
Despite such an impressive CV Helbock is little known internationally, and particularly so in the UK. However all that might be about to change with the signing of his current trio to the prestigious Munich based ACT label founded by producer and impresario Siggi Loch. Being a part of the ACT stable is pretty much a guarantee of quality and it was on the strength of this I headed off to Cardiff on something of a whim to check out the intriguing looking Mr. Helbock and his band. I was certain that I was going to find the music interesting at the very least.
I’d done some research before of course and knew that Helbock cut a very distinctive figure with his omnipresent black and white beanie hat with its ‘piano keys’ design. I was also aware that Raphael Preuschl played the rarely seen bass ukulele rather than the usual double bass. Tonight’s line up was completed by drummer Reinhold Schmolzer who proved to be as unconventional as his colleagues behind a drum kit augmented by a variety of small cymbals and other percussive devices.
The line up of Helbock, Preuschl and Schmolzer appears on Helbock’s ACT début, the recently released album “Into the Mystic” from which virtually all of tonight’s material was drawn. From the opening bars the first item sounded strangely familiar – and no wonder it was the 2nd Movement of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, played solo by Helbock utilising a prepared piano sound. It’s also the piece that opens the new album. Immediately it was obvious that Helbock, tall, gangling, bearded and bespectacled had archetypal ‘pianist’s hands’ with characteristically long fingers and a span capable of bridging an octave. His classically honed technique was little short of astonishing.
Much of the “Into the Mystic” album is inspired by myths and legends from around the world. The Beethoven snippet quickly segued into Helbock’s own composition “The Soul” based upon a Sufi legend recounted by the 14th century Persian poet Hafez. Spirited, intense, dramatic and highly percussive with some thunderous block chording from the leader this piece also saw Helbock treating the piano as a ‘whole instrument’, frequently reaching into the instrument’s interior to pluck, strum and strike the strings. It came as no surprise to learn that Helbock has also studied with drummers and regards the piano as ‘a giant percussion instrument’. Among contemporary piano trios only Johann Bourquenez of the Swiss group Plaistow seems to have taken this concept quite as far as Helbock - albeit in a very different way in view of Plaistow’s sound being more directly inspired by modern dance music and electronica.
But for all its adventurousness Helbock’s music is not all blood and thunder. Based on Greek myth “Eros” was more reflective but still saw Helbock making extensive use of the insides of Dempsey’s beautiful Kawai piano. Like the young British pianist Elliot Galvin Helbock is fond of using toys and other tiny devices within the body of the instrument but his approach is less obviously playful and iconoclastic than Galvin’s. That said Helbock may be a deep and serious thinker but there was still room for an element of humour within his music.
Preuschl wrote the next piece “Louverture” which was introduced by a solo passage on his remarkable bass ukulele with its four thick strings. The only time I’d seen such an instrument played before was by Vicente Archer at the 2015 EFG London Jazz Festival during a performance by Cuban pianist David Virelles’ Mboko group, and even here Archer moved between this instrument and conventional double bass. Cutting as distinctive a figure as Helbock Preuschl sported a Che Guevara style beret and played his instrument wearing Albert Steptoe style mittens. But his dialogue with the consistently inventive Schmolzer was thoroughly absorbing and he also demonstrated his ability to play a walking bass line as his tune toyed with elements of orthodox swing, an unusual occurrence in a group as busy and eclectic as this.
Helbock’s “The Power Of Myth” commenced with a left hand piano motif offset by right hand interior scrapings that mimicked the low rumble of far off thunder. As Preuschl and Schmolzer entered the proceedings the tune took on the characteristics of a dramatic slow march, albeit one periodically punctuated by fast, energetic, hard grooving passages. Extreme stylistic and dynamic contrasts within the course of a single composition are something of a hallmark of Helbock’s writing. A particularly absorbing element here was the interchanges between Helbock and Schmolzer, something that reminded me of the creative partnership between pianist Michael Wollny and drummer Eric Schaefer in ACT label mates .
The first set ended with a segue of “The World Needs More Heroes” and “Adventures”, introduced here by the scraping of Schmolzer’s snare drum allied to Helbock’s sparse piano chording. On the album “Heroes” is a gently elegiac postscript but here it morphed via an unaccompanied drum passage into the supremely dramatic “Adventures” with Preuschl and Schmolzer establishing an unstoppable groove incorporating the distinctive sound of Schmolzer’s dampened tom. Meanwhile Helbock hammered away at the keyboard in a manner that variously reminded me of Wollny, Neil Cowley and even Esbjorn Svensson, his solo garnished with some audacious classically inspired flourishes. Having brought this furiously rhythmic passage to a climax the leader reached into the piano’s interior one more as the piece finally resolved itself with a more gradual and atmospheric diminuendo.
A small but attentive and appreciative Dempsey’s audience gave this eccentric but brilliant trio an excellent half time reception.
At the break one or two reservations were expressed about Preuschl’s bass ukulele with some suggesting that it lacked the expressive range of the double bass. However Preuschl seemed to come more into his own during the second set and any misgivings seemed to have been forgotten by the close. In any event the instrument gives this trio a signature musical and visual identity and certainly sounds very effective on the “Into the Mystic” album. Immaculately produced by Siggi Loch the record captures all the nuance and fine detail of the Helbock Trio’s playing but without diluting their essential energy, playfulness and audacity. These guys play with the assuredness and spirit of adventure of those who ‘know they are good’.
The second half began with a variation on the Beethoven piece that had started the first, this time seguing into the album track “Masks” which saw Helbock’s dampened piano strings interlinking with the bass uke and Schmolzer’s percussion to create a quirky and infectious groove, a pleasing example of the trio’s lighter, more humorous side. Preuschl delivered an enjoyable solo above the busy patter of Schmolzer’s drums and Helbock’s unique ‘piano percussion’.
“Into the Mystic” also demonstrated an element of humour in a freely structured intro that saw Helbock deploying prepared piano techniques and also dramatically scraping the strings with a drumstick as Schmolzer manipulated a set of chimes. Preuschl carried much of the melody as his colleagues conjured up a range of fascinating sounds around him that stretched both themselves and their instruments to the limit.
Helbock acknowledged the influence upon him of the great Thelonious Monk. The tune “Spiritual Monk” was therefore an expressive, heartfelt homage that included some appropriately Monk-ish piano as Schmolzer moved between brushes and sticks. However even here Helbock’s use of the piano’s interior ensured that even though directly inspired by Monk the composition was very much the Austrian’s own.
The next piece was unannounced but I’m fairly certain that it was “Mother Earth”, one of the new album’s most forceful and vigorous cuts. Powered by Schmolzer’s brilliant hyper-active drumming this high energy piece included solos from Helbock and Preuschl plus a scintillating series of piano and drum exchanges.
In his notes to “Into the Mystic”Helbock declares;
“Modern films and modern art can also fulfil a mystic function in society. For example the work of Joseph Campbell, an American mythologist, was the main influence for the ‘Star Wars’ movies”.
Indeed the album includes three brief deconstructions of John Williams’ famous “Star Wars Theme” in which the tune is linked to Arthur Gold’s theme from “Exodus”. There’s also a fuller take on the “Star Wars Theme” with the trio’s distinctive approach ensuring that it becomes very much their own. Tonight an impressionistic introduction featuring piano and hand played drums led to Preuschl’s bass uke playing the familiar melodic motif that then became the basis for an EST style groove, the whole thing topped off with an energetic drum feature from the consistently excellent Schmolzer.
Despite the lack of bums on seats the admittedly sparse crowd (around twenty or so) were able to tempt the trio back for a deserved encore, which I’m fairly sure was Thad Jones’ “A Child is Born” played here as an abstract but highly effective ballad.
This was a hugely enjoyable concert and my last minute decision was more than justified by the quality of the performance. The Helbock trio have created a highly distinctive and personalised sound and must rank alongside Wollny’s and a few significant others as one of Europe’s most adventurous piano trios. The percentage of CD sales to audience members must have been extraordinarily high, nearly everybody in a very select gathering seemed to buy one, no mean return at £15 a pop! My thanks to David and his colleagues for speaking with me afterwards, like most jazz musicians they were really nice guys.
Those that stayed away, including the RWCMD students who normally swell the audience at this venue, missed a treat. Londoners, don’t let this happen to you. Catch the David Helbock Trio at The Vortex on Thursday, October 20th 2016.