Chris Cutler - CASSIBER 1982-1992

Heiner Goebbels

The initial planning was done in Moscow and I only entered the picture when the local organisers in St. Petersburg asked me to write notes for the concert programme — and an article for a local newspaper. Leningrad was then the centre of New Jazz, Free Improvisation and “Classical” avant-garde, while Riga — the third stop on the tour — was the centre of Rock-In-Opposition. In fact, it had been through Nick Sudnik, founder and leader of the Rigan group Zga that I had first heard recordings of Cassiber, Art Bears, The Work, Etron Fou Leloublan, Universe Zero and other bands that worked along similar lines: a music that seemed to merge the best of all worlds: the passion and energy of rock, the improvisational freedom of jazz and the compositional complexity of the avant-garde. I immediately fell in love with it. So the idea that some of these musicians would actually be playing in Leningrad seemed otherworldly. However, those who had even a vague idea of what these bands stood for constituted a tiny group of connoisseurs, and the novelty of Western bands appearing in the USSR was already on the wane: a few months earlier poor organisation and zero promotion had attracted no audience at all for the then still largely unknown Sugarcubes , with Bjork, and the concert had to be cancelled. So I put all my enthusiasm and conviction into the newspaper article in the hope of luring in anyone with even the faintest interest in serious rock (the prog-rock audience was substantial in Leningrad at this time). In the event, although the venue was not full, neither was it embarrassingly empty.

Come the day, I had no idea how a largely unprepared audience would react to these strange sounds. But when I watched a group of gopniki (our local term for what in England are known as yobs or chavs) in the back rows, they were sipping beers — but listening intently without booing or giggling. The Moscow concert (which unfortunately I missed) was in a smaller venue, and included Soviet bands Ne Zhdali , from Tallinn, Dzhungli , from Leningrad and both Zvuki Mu and Vezhlivy Otkaz from Moscow, which helped put the music into a more familiar context.

Chris Cutler

What I remember most is the feeling of stunning musicianship, incredible energy, freshness, inventiveness — and extraordinary conviction emanating from that stage. We were happy. Three of us: pianist and composer Sergei Kuryokhin, cellist and producer Seva Gakkel and myself, spent most of the day with the bands, talking, exchanging ideas and arguing. In particular I remember a wonderful cruise along the Neva on that beautiful May day — when St. Petersburg is at its best.

Epilogue: Chris Cutler and his wife Kersten stayed with me and my wife in Leningrad, and I remember clearly a heated argument we had with him and Christoph Anders, Cassiber’s vocalist. Of course I was aware of my new friends’ leftist political views, and sympathised with their opposition to their own Western establishments, but I could by no means acquiesce to their predilection for socialism. We knew better, we had lived our lives under this socialism, and thanks, but no thanks. But in spite — or perhaps because — of such political arguments, those few days marked the beginning of long friendships. A few months later I was in London, visiting Chris Cutler in the empty school in which he lived in Clapham Old Town, and it was there that I met Amy Denio, a saxophonist from Seattle. This contact, in turn, allowed me a year later to take two Russian jazz bands to the Good Will Games Festival in Seattle. And when, in the following year, the Frankfurt based Ensemble Modern came to Russia with a programme featuring Stravinsky, Ligeti and Kagel (with Kagel conducting) they included a piece in the programme by Heiner Goebbels — and Heiner came along. We got together, of course, and Sergei Kuryokhin could think of no better entertainment than to take Heiner to a wedding party. The guitarist of Sergei’s band, Popular Mechanics , was going through a heavy metal phase at the time and was celebrating his (fifth) marriage in full black leather gear: jeans, jacket and cap — all picked out with chains and studs. His new wife, a tiny Oriental woman from Eastern Siberia had, as her only guests, her parents and a couple of brothers who had traveled thousands of miles with a supply of the local moonshine (alcohol was hard to come by in St, Petersburg then), meanwhile, the only guests from the groom’s side were Kuryokhin, myself and poor Heiner who didn’t have a word of Russian. I was petrified, but Heiner drank exotic beverages and ate no less exotic food, seeming especially to enjoy it when the Siberians started singing their ethnic songs. It’s been more than twenty years now, but every time I see Heiner, he invariably, and warmly, reminds me of that evening.

Christoph Anders

Mostly, we toured in Heiner’s car. Somehow we got all the equipment, including Heiner’s full size Yamaha electric grand, his PPG synthesiser, all the amplifiers, guitars, metal sheet, Korg, saxophones, trombone, accessories and my entire drum kit (which I used to send out to Frankfurt in advance on the train) into, and on top of, his car, with the four of us, and space to spare, inside. We flew to Brasil — with all the equipment in a container (courtesy of the Goethe Institute) and to Japan, London, New York and Newfoundland, of course, but mostly it was car and autobahn.

CC

GIG LIST

as far as we have all been able to put it together.

1982

AUGUST

5-16. Sunrise Studio, Kirchberg. Switzerland ( Man or Monkey ).

OCTOBER

1. Frankfurt, 18 Deutsches Jazzfestival,

3. Hannover

4. Berlin, Musikhalle

8. Nancy, Jazz Pulsations Festival

10. Zurich

12. Hamburg, Markthalle

17. Schwabinger Brau, Munich (recorded by radio)

NOVEMBER

1. Mannheim Jazzfestival

10. Koln, Kolner Jazz Haus Festival

DECEMBER

3. Wurzburg

5. Frankfurt

7. Bremen (Radio Bremen)

12. Neuchatel

14. Thalwil

15. Biel

17. Basle

18. St.Gallen

1983

FEBRUARY

19. Berlin, Festival des Politischen Liedes

21. Leipzig

22. Prague, Alternativa

MAY

14. Reims, Musiques Traverse

20. Duck and Cover at Moers Festival

JUNE

2. Strasbourg, Jazzpressions Festival

3. Pforzheim, Musik U Theatre festival

10. Innsbruck

11. Burg Maur

12. Goppingen

13. Bamberg

JULY

1. Unna

25-29. Recording Studio Workshop at the Cantiere Internazionale D’Arte, Montepulciano with Cassix

30. Concert in town square

AUGUST

23. Copenhagen, Medborgerhuset

27. ICA London, Actual Festival

28. ICA London Actual Festival ( Duck and Cover )

30. Stockholm

31. Oslo

SEPTEMBER

5. Helsinki

OCTOBER

23. Hannover, BAD

24. Kassel

28. Berlin, Loftfestival

29. Berlin Jazz Festival ( Duck and Cover )