Album Review
Swim-Two-Birds is an ominous place. Snámh-dá-én, as it is called in Gaelic, is located on the banks of the Shannon River in the middle of Ireland. That, in any case, is what is written in Flann O'Brien's novel, "At Swim-Two-Birds". The Irish author's great work, a droll story that appeared in 1939, amused James Joyce, impressed Graham Greene and retained its influence and impact even after O'Brien's death. In 1990, when saxophonist and composer Achim Gaetjen created his seven-member music ensemble in Bremen a city that really exists in northern Germany the Irishman's book was taken as the source for the band's name. Such a choice is not made by chance. The connection was obvious. In Flann O'Brien's wonderfully complex opus that jumps around artistically and with relish between persons, places and stories, Gaetjen discovered the unbridled storytelling and trademark of a kindred spirit. The band called its debut album "Not Serious". But how serious were Gaetjen and his adventurous bunch in actual fact? Swim-Two-Birds never seriously wanted to be a jazz septet. In the hardcore underground ears were rubbed in astonishment at the abundance of ideas, and even from the presumably more open crossover perspective the band remained exotic with its daring sounds and the bizarre song poetry of lyrics writer and drollery keeper Jack Marlow. Uncompromising originality, as the history of all arts teaches us, has a hard time of it. Ten years and three albums later. The uncommon hyphens in the name have disappeared (the only "concession" to conventions that the band could be accused of during all this time). The members and stylistic accents have changed several times, but gratifyingly enough, pigeonholing its music should be no easier for those fond of attaching labels. Despite the change in personnel, in spite of the different, often breathtakingly exciting development phases (songs by Welshman Jasper Hood, "a German period" with lyrics by Rolf Kirschbaum), the leitmotif was never lost, a forward-surging continuity runs through the band's history. The decisive key is in Gaetjen's striking compositional guidelines. At the same time the band lives from the pronounced individuality of its members and from their willingness to place their extraordinary abilities at the service of the collective. The current line-up is the best example: besides the "old hands" Gaetjen, Benesch and Hart, the band includes musicians with an impressive list of diverse references (Phillip Boa, Frank Zappa, Velvetone, Joachim Witt, etc.), while GU continues the band's tradition of brilliant word artists with an additional highly explosive variant. Special significance is attached to the title of this long overdue album. Nearly six years separate the predecessor, "The Bloody Thumb Cookbook", and "Sweet Relief": six eventful, productive Swim Two Birds years, in which diverse recordings were made that would have deserved an official release, in which the band could be experienced live on numerous occasions all the way to a several-week triumphal Brazil tour at the invitation of the Goethe Institut. The only problem was with the enthusiastic record company. A creative bunch of this sort simply does not let itself be forced down paths that the music market apparently requires. Sweet relief!! Swim Two Birds, the fourth new ideas from that ominous place in the mind in which all of this here and a lot more is possible.