Hans Reichel taught himself violin from the age of 7 and then played in the school orchestra for about 9 years. At 15 he became interested early rock music and began to play guitar, being initially influenced by Donovan, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones and later Frank Zappa, Cream, Jimi Hendrix and many blues players. In moving between different groups, Reichel played bass guitar for a time and even for a brief period worked in a duo with a musician who played the Renaissance instrument, the crumhorn. He gave up making music for a number of years while studying graphic arts and working as a typesetter but in 1970 came to record a collage tape of guitar music that, when sent to the jury of the German Jazz Festival in Frankfurt, led to his appearance at a special concert for newcomers. This led to discussions with Jost Gebers and the release of music on FMP.

Reichel is particularly recognised as a solo performer, as evidenced by his discography. But in recent years he has played more group than solo concerts, with established partners such as Rüdiger Carl and Sven-Åke Johansson, in the September Band with Carl, Shelley Hirsch and Paul Lovens, in duos such as those recorded with Tom Cora and Fred Frith, and in ad-hoc groupings such as with Le Quan Ninh and Dominque Repecaud. Various all- daxophone groups have also appeared, sometimes mixed in with treated cellos. He told Chris Blackford, tongue in cheek: "My favourite format is the trio, and quite often I played a duo because I was lacking an idea for who the third person could be".



Rüdiger Carl has been involved in improvised music from 1968, recording his first record in January 1972 and then playing with a wide range of musicians including Arjen Gorter, Makaya Ntshoko, Louis Moholo, Maarten van Regteren Altena, Tristan Honsinger, Johnny Dyani and Han Bennink. His long-standing partnership with Irene Schweizer began in 1973 and continues to the present day and for a three year period, from 1973 to 1976 he was also a member of Globe Unity Orchestra. He began to give solo performances in 1977 and in 1978 started two other long-term professional partnerships, with Sven-Åke Johansson and Hans Reichel. All three musicians were members of the Bergisch-Brandenburgisches Quartett (the fourth member being Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky) and they have both appeared in duos with Carl, Carl and Johansson are members of the Swing Dance Band (with Alexander von Schlippenbach and Jay Oliver), Carl and Reichel have been members of the September Band since 1993, and the trio of Carl/Reichel/Johansson has itself been performing since 1994.

Rüdiger Carl has probably made the most striking change in improvised music, virtually forsaking the quintessentially jazz instrument - the tenor saxophone - and taking up one with totally different associations and means of expression: the accordion. This was manifest in recordings on Buben, his duets with Hans Reichel, and though he continued to play the two instruments virtually side-by-side ( in addition to clarinet), the - what some might deem to be drastic - move was completed and cemented on Vorn which even featured a version of Paul McCartney's "Those were the days". Following this recording, the COWWS Quintet was formed, continuing Carl's musical relationship with Schweizer and adding Philipp Wachsmann, Jay Oliver and Stephen Wittwer. While quite varied moods are apparent from the recorded output of the group, the lasting impression is one of folk and song influences, emphasised by Carl's accordion.

© Jūratė Kučinskaitė

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