featuring:

Johanna Weckesser (DE) - Guitar/Composition/Voice
Manuel Schmiedel (DE/USA) - Piano
Igor Spallati/Bernhard Meyer (IT/DE) - Bass
Moritz Baumgaertner (DE) - Drums

Creating a sound that is taking place somewhere in between Contemporary Jazz, Art Songs and Classical Music this new quartet doesn't only carry the listener into original compositions, but also into the colorful and scenic worlds of O. Messiaen, C. Koechlin and C. Debussy. Intensive, deep and sensitive, but many a time at its full tilt, the musicians slash themselves a way through detailed, complex compositions, jarring noiseparts and free improvisations which thrillingly carry you off into surrealistic dreamworlds.
Using the guitar not only in a traditional sense, Johanna Weckesser keeps on searching for ways to expand her sound range from heavy distortions to feedbacktechniques, organ imitations or completely alienated sounds.
With great instrumental skills, political and artistic lyrics, a pure voice and an harmonically colorful and special songwriting she appears not only as an excellent musician but also as an artist with a vision of her own, sharing the stage with some of the most sought-after musicians of the European musicscene:

Pianist Manuel Schmiedel, who is currently living in NYC, has been hired to play with world-famous musicians like Greg Cohen and Kurt Rosenwinkel. With extraordinary taste and stunning technique he enriches the bands sound.
The highly intuitive and versatile play of Drummer Moritz Baumgaertner (a.o with Bonaparte, Julia Hülsmann, MeltTrio and many of the cutting edge projects of the German improvising scene) provides virtuosic rhythmical shapes and structures which combined with Igor Spallati's incredible skills on both classical- and jazz bass (who himself has shared the stage with Fred Hersch, Joe Chambers and many others) lead this band to places from where they can immerse in a soundworld far from stylistic boundaries.

Sept 2014 Kurt Rosenwinkel picked his former student Johanna Weckesser to play a concert at the new concertseries at Jazzclub A-Trane, Belin: 'Next Generation presents by the greats of Jazz - Vol 3 - Kurt Rosenwinkel presents:..'

second seeing third aligned
came to be when sight was blind.
with the vision thus obscured,
saw instead with what she heard.
living color, dreaming blue,
sounding dark and tasting true.

is a Berlin based Band featuring:

Johanna Weckesser (DE) - Guitar/Composition/Voice
Raphael Meinhart (AT) - Vibes/Piano
Bernhard Meyer (DE) - Bass
Christian Tschuggnall (AT) - Drums

Zola Mennenoeh - Voice
Johanna Weckesser - Guitar

playing a selection of the beautiful songs by the French composer
Charles Koechlin (1867 - 1950)

Details coming soon ...

Johanna Weckesser is a Berlin based musician - guitarist, composer, improvisor and singer. She is regularly touring through whole Germany and parts of Europe.

Venues selection:
"Telekom Streetgigs" Hannover (support for "Clueso"), "International Jazzclub A-Trane" Berlin, "Übel und Gefährlich" Hamburg, "Idealbar" Copenhagen
Appearances in - TV (TV2 Lorry DK), Newspapers (Zeit Online) and various Radiostations

Recordings selection:
old DDR Rundfunk Nalepastr (Berlin) with "Johanna Weckesser Quartet" and "Bluehead&Robin"
radiobuellebrueck/Tobias Siebert (Berlin) and Atomino Studios (Erfurt) with Lasse Matthiessen
Recall Studios (South France) with Philippe Caillat

Johanna has been sharing the stage with Kurt Rosenwinkel(US), Greg Cohen(US), Ingo Pohlmann (DE), Lasse Matthiessen (DK) and many excellent young musicians from the European musicscene, such as:
Raphael Meinhart (AT), Christian Tschuggnall (AT), Moritz Baumgaertner (DE), Liz Kosack (US), Manuel Schmiedel (DE/NYC), Igor Spallati (IT) Bernhard Meyer (DE), Zola Mennenoeh (DE)

Johanna was a first prize winner of "'Jugend Musiziert" several times.

Others about her:
"Johanna Weckesser is the freshest new voice in improvisational music I have heard in many years. Her musical persona darts from a tropical butterfly to a cosmic meteorite shower without batting an eyelash. She is perhaps the only young musician I could imagine to actually inspire one of the old guards like Ornette, Pharoah and David Murray. As a guitarist, she is one of the most gifted of her generation. As an improvisor, she is perhaps the start of a new movement in more meaningful creative expression."
Greg Cohen (bassist with Ornette Coleman, Tom Waits, Woody Allen etc.)

"Johanna was my student and already after the very first contact I knew, that here I saw a special and outstanding musician. It didn't take much time, and we started playing in a duo together besides the lessons. A great guitarist and composer with fantastic and colorful potential. I am looking forward to see her grow."
Philippe Caillat (FR)

For more information/booking requests:
johanna-christina@gmx.net
0049 176 23471566

All Photos and ,Hypersense Freddy' Text by Liz Kosack
All Videos by Kai Eiermann, sound by Charis Karantzas
Webgestaltung: Johanna Weckesser
Programming & helping hands: conArte Medien

© Johanna Weckesser 2015