Ronin / Lupus in Fabula / To Beatle Or Not To Beatle

[Bernhard Wagner LD <loopdelightml-NDI3MDE=-@bernhardwagner.net>]

Monday I attended a concert by Ronin, whose Zen Funk concept and  
music is well worth checking out: http://www.nikbaertsch.com/, last  
year they released a CD "Stoa" on ECM. They work a lot with  
polyrhythmic repetition, however without the use of loop machines.

At the concert I bumped into Rätus Flisch, the bass player who  
concluded the Zurich Loopfest 2005 with the band "Flisch - Röver -  
Pfammatter".

He handed me a flyer "Lupus in Fabula", which is what the original  
line up has evolved into. It's still Rätus Flisch (flischnews.ch),  
Christian Röver (christianrover.com), but a new italian drummer/ 
percussionist Enzo Zirilli (enzozirilli.com).

So yesterday was their last gig of this tour in Winterthur, Esse  
Musicbar and I had the pleasure to see them live.

It was a terrific concert. The first set was very powerful and upbeat  
while the second was more mellow. The style of their music is mostly  
jazz. Both Rätus and Christian are professors at jazz institutions.
Christian used a headless Steinberger with transtrem and a "Voodoo"  
guitar. I couldn't find information about it, but Christian presented  
the instrument to the audience and said it's produced in Turin. Its  
head looks like that of a classical acoustic guitar. The lower  
strings go well into the domain of the bass guitar. Also the higher  
part of the fretboard is fretless, so you can have a bit of that as  
well. The instrument easily picks up any contacts with its body which  
Christian applied beautifully in one piece as he played the  
percussion on the guitar's body. Also he played around with the strap  
attachment which generated some eery squeaks that he accumulated in a  
loop.
Christian used two Boomerangs. He told me afterwards that he also  
plays duo gigs with Enzo where he even uses three Boomerangs. He is  
very fond of the operation concept and the touch and response of the  
Boomerang buttons. I asked him about how he does the synchronization  
of his Boomerangs and he just pointed to his feet with a smile. He  
said, if after two minutes he starts hearing a phase shift between  
the loops, he was good... (the shorter the loop the harder this is to  
achieve of course)

Enzo is a terrific drummer and percussionist. He synchronizes his  
time to the loops with apparent effortlessness.

Rätus plays a double bass and uses an Oberheim EDP with the original  
foot controller. I particularly enjoyed his use of the instrument as  
a source of unexpected and surprising sounds.

Their new CD "Lupus in Fabula" appeared on hmtz records (http:// 
hmtzrecords.hmt.edu/)

Christian also released a self-made CD "Version 0.72 live - To Beatle  
Or Not To Beatle" February this year.
You can hear the Voodoo guitar, occasional ring modulation and a lot  
of loopage going on in a masterful jazzy, and often a tongue-in-cheek  
sense of humour. All pieces are morphs between different covers of  
famous pieces (e.g. "Love Me Tender" + "You've Got To Hide Your Love  
Away" = "Love My Tender Hide").
Check it out (christianrover.com)

Bernhard