Tobias Meissl Trio

The trio interprets improvisatory compositions of the bandleader. While Tobias Meissl provides the source material and thus nominally acts as a composer, the music is largely designed in such a way that it would sound completely different with another ensemble. If the pieces were played exactly as they are notated, they would work perfectly; but that is for the most part not the idea. While Valentin Duit and Tobias Meissl have been making music together in a wide variety of contexts for more than 20 years, Ivar Roban Križić has been working with them for five years.

This results in a deep trust and musical communication, which brings about moments of temporarily ghostly mutual understanding. After initially singular trio concerts in this line-up, Duit and Križić played together as one of the most sought-after rhythm groups of the Viennese jazz scene in a variety of different musical situations.

Since autumn 2021, the Tobias Meissl Trio has developed through intermittently intensive rehearsal phases, the aforementioned collaboration in different sideman contexts, the work with the Valentin Duit Quartet in the same line-up since the end of 2022 – supplemented by Robert Unterköfler on the tenor saxophone – and last but not least regular performances such as a monthly concert in the Vienna Café Frame with these two bands a common sound and an individual way of interaction.

The compositions for the trio have therefore been written for a long time especially for this common sound and the common playing culture. This kind of loose interpretation is also deliberately factored into the conception of the pieces as well as partially into the type of notation.

Meissl sees his role as a composer for this ensemble primarily in providing musical topics of conversation and defining certain frameworks that are then discussed, explored and sometimes left behind together, and less in building musical sculptures that need to be reproduced as accurately as possible. The composed, sometimes detailed noted material thus serves primarily as a starting point or as a starting point. Entry into a network of contexts and is by no means “the piece” on its own.

This piece is created in the process of developing variation of the material, which can be understood, approached and read differently from time to time. Stylistically, the music is inspired and informed by different aspects, but clearly comes from a jazz approach to joint music making, while no superficial reference to concrete models (at least not intended), but rather the synthesis of an independent sound is strived for.

The music leaves a lot of freedom for individual design and the versatile musical interests of the band members of jazz (relative) about contemporary, experimental, improvised, European classical music etc. are invited to find their way into playing music together. Nevertheless, the pieces remain mostly, varying from performance to performance more or less obviously, as a reference. In this respect, this is largely structure-based improvisation, the aim of which, however, is not to constantly mark or show this structure superficially.

The result often has a quasi “through-composed” character, perhaps an improvisationally evolving musical prose, the structure of which is not always obvious. The basic idea remains to understand a piece of music as not (closed) regardless of the degree of fixation on paper, to recognize its changeable diversity and to explore its various possibilities and impossibilities.

For those who already know this, it is nothing new and it is also clear that it has been around for a long time. For some, however, these thoughts may be new and possibly even interesting. In order to experience a better (ab)picture of what has been written so extensively here, come to as many concerts of the trio as possible!

• Tobias Meissl – Vibraphon and Composition

• David Dolliner – Kontrabass

• Valentin Duit – drums