David Orlowsky, Daniel Stelter, Tommy Baldu

David Orlowsky:
David Orlowsky is internationally renowned for his captivating and expressive clarinet playing and is now considered one of the world’s leading interpreters of the clarinet repertoire from Mozart to Golijov to Klezmer music. As a Sony exclusive artist, he has released seven CDs to date and has twice been awarded the ECHO Klassikpreis. His musical partners have included renowned artists such as Daniel Hope, Andreas Haefliger, Vilde Frang, Nils Mönkemeyer, the Fauré Quartet and the vocal ensemble “Singer Pur”, with whom he won an ECHO Klassik in 2011 for their joint album Jeremiah.

His compositions are published worldwide by Schott Musik/ Advance Music and the music books enjoy enormous demand. Born in Tübingen, he studied classical clarinet with Prof. Manfred Lindner at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen and with Charles Neidich and Ayako Oshima at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Today he lives in Berlin.

Daniel Stelter:
With his inimitable, unagitated and yet memorable style, Daniel Stelter has long since made a name for himself in the German jazz scene. He is one of the most sought-after guitarists in Germany. On his musical path as a solo artist and composer, Stelter has already released five albums under his own name. In addition, he is a much sought-after sideman for numerous studio and live productions, where he has worked with greats such as Wolfgang Haffner, Lulo Reinhardt, Till Brönner, Annette Louisan, Laith Al-Deen, Seven, Jan Delay, Ringsgwandl, Xavier Naidoo and many others from a wide variety of genres. His artistic career was shaped by the European tour with jazz legend Al Jarreau in 2016 and the subsequent tours as a duo with Lulo Reinhardt in 2018 and 2019.

As a lecturer for guitar at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main, Daniel Stelter fulfils his great desire to be able to share his diverse experiences and extensive knowledge with his students.

Tommy Baldu:
Drummer Tommy Baldu, – born in Karlsruhe – has already worked with musicians such as Edo Zanki, Laith Al Deen, Emiliana Torrini, Rebekka Bakken, Triband, Sebastian Studnitzky, Andre Heller, Söhne Mannheims, Xavier Naidoo, Music Show VOX TV, Gregor Meyle, Rilke Projekt, Daniel Stelter, Georg Ringsgwandl and many more. He is increasingly working on new sounds and music with interesting artists at the house of Baldu! His concern: to produce authentic music. His approach: let the artist recognise creative space. His sound aesthetic: dusty/rough/innovative.

“Intelligent and full of soul” Schwäbisches Tagblatt

On the current album “Begegnung”:

“Daniel Stelter is a jack-of-all-trades on the guitar” Jazzthing

“the guitar dominates and the accompaniment [is] with few exceptions very restrained, tasteful, but calculatedly serving the music” Jazzthetik

“Sovereign in all saddles […] one of Germany’s most versatile and best guitarists” Akustik Gitarre

“Daniel Stelter […] shows himself to be a man of quiet, restrained sounds with a wide stylistic range. Stelter’s music avoids everything loud, shouty, vehement. […] On the twelve titles of the disc he prefers small instrumentations. The musical exchange takes place in twos, threes, fours or fives – and it is so intense that you only notice the small instrumentation when you look in the booklet for the people involved in each track.” Rondo Magazine

“Virtuosic across stylistic boundaries” Mannheimer Morgen

“Daniel Stelter moves confidently between jazz, pop and classical music with his inimitable, unagitated and yet memorable style.” Badische Neuste Nachrichten

“Music giants like Al Jarreau, Till Brönner, Wolfgang Haffner, Lulo Reinhardt or Jan Delay have left their mark on Daniel Stelter with his unmistakable style.” Music Tip of the Week in the Pinneberger Tageblatt

““It’s certainly no coincidence that we’re talking about scents, timbres and hues,” ponders David Orlowsky, “so colors, sounds and scents go far beyond what can be described in words. And for me, the really exciting things in life begin where words end.” On his previous album “Alter Ego”, on which he created beautiful sound paintings and fantastic harmonies together with Viennese lutenist David Bergmüller, his imagination was immediately awakened. This phenomenon is even more evident on “Petrichor”, as the names of the pieces already indicate the direction the album is heading in. There are titles such as “Lisboa”, “Magnolia”, “Sunscreen” or “Marrakesh”. You could almost think you were in a very exquisite musical perfumery.

“Lisboa” makes me think of a certain place in Lisbon where I often sat. There was a bakery and a fish restaurant and the aroma changed depending on the direction of the wind,” remembers David Orlowsky, “Gasoline is about that typical petrol station smell. For me, it promises freedom with a pinch of danger. You’re on the move. I love this state,” he admits and presents a restless, lurking and very intense melody in the piece. “In ‘Circus’ I think of visits to the circus with my father when I was a child. Back then, there were elephants and tigers, plus the smell of the ring and cotton candy – it all captivated me and I dreamed of traveling with a circus.” Listening to the music, you almost feel like you’re standing in the middle of the dusty circus ring.

With every single title, David Orlowsky takes us on a journey. Like in a movie, he zooms in on details, illuminates small but important situations and takes us into magnificent fantasy worlds. It is amazing how masterfully he knows how to transform his feelings and memories into music. One of the most mysterious songs on this album is “Marrakesh”. David Orlowsky recalls: “I was only briefly in Marrakesh once, when I was passing through to go surfing. It was my first time in Morocco. Our cab broke down and we were standing on the street in the middle of the night. Suddenly I was overwhelmed. I could physically feel that I had never been to this place before. It wasn’t until we were driving on that I realized it was because of the new smells. It was kind of exciting.” That’s exactly what the music sounds like.

The soundscape of the album is often calm, some might even call it melancholic, others will certainly find something comforting when listening to it. All of this is exactly the composer’s intention, as it describes the feelings that are also triggered by special and positive smells. David Orlowsky has even processed memories of his childhood in a village in southern Germany on “Petrichor”. In a completely new version of “Hejo – Spann den Wagen an”, he tells of approaching rain and the smell of freshly mown fields. In every piece, but especially in this one, it becomes clear what a great clarinettist David Orlowsky is. He plays with complicated techniques, incorporates the sounds of the keys into the music and elicits sometimes very soft, sometimes hard, rhythmic and percussive sounds from his instrument. After more than 20 years in his trio, which specialized in klezmer music, he first broke away with the album “Alter Ego” and completely broke free with “Petrichor”. In the process, he met new friends. Guitarist Daniel Stelter and drummer Tommy Baldu are just as much jacks-of-all-trades on their instruments as David Orlowsky. Lillo Scrimali, who plays on various keyboard instruments in four pieces, is also no stranger to the music world. “We met backstage at a jazz festival and got talking straight away,” says David Orlowsky. Of course, all the musicians had heard of each other and knew which projects were currently in progress. “We immediately hit it off and then spontaneously embarked on a short tour of German jazz clubs together. The concerts were very playful and new song ideas came up at every sound check. We couldn’t get enough of that.”

Just as with smells, meaningful music is not forgotten even after decades.