Elisabeth Harnik Earscratcher

Austia / USA

Elisabeth Harnik, piano; Dave Rempis, alto and tenor saxophones; Fred Lonberg-Holm, cello, electronics; Tim Daisy, drums, percussion

Elisabeth Harnik, an accomplished Austrian-based pianist and composer, is connected to Slovenia both by descent and through her concert activity with various bands. She has launched the Earscratcher project to celebrate her 50th birthday and to embark on new musical adventures, but the pandemic thwarted her plans. Now the quartet have finally set off on their first tour. 
As an improviser, Harnik works within an electroacoustic-inspired sound-world, using specific preparations and extended techniques while pushing the limitations of the piano. Her performances draw on physicality and introspection, intuitive playing and high precision. Employing a unique approach to her instrument, as well as to composition, Harnik likes to combine her signature post-dodecaphonic modernism with free jazz, improvisation and acoustoelectronics. 
Initially involved in the vibrant Austrian impro scene, Harnik has built an international career, working among others with Chicagoan avant-garde experts who casually transition from jazz to contemporary experimental music. This is how the Earscratcher quartet emerged, blurring the boundaries between composition and improvisation, blending tonality and atonality at a blistering pace, and unexpectedly coupling basic rhythmic coordinates with the richness of striking time loops. 

There are no more barriers, no divides between clarity and abstraction. We can look forward to a great deal of ad hoc reactions, vivid imagination, extreme auditory sensitivity, and synergy. What initially sounds like a hesitant exploration, instantaneously develops into an intriguing provocation, a desire for more and more. Let yourself be enchanted by this new music! (Partially sourced from Hannes Schweiger's promotional text)

http://elisabeth-harnik.at/
https://www.daverempis.com/bio/
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/fred-lonberg-holm
https://timdaisy.wordpress.com/
https://catalyticsound.com/

All artists are members of the creative music cooperative Catalytic Sound.