Vibratanghissimo: "Astor"
Tango meets Jazz - Music by Astor Piazzolla and Oli Bott

Label: AO-NRW
Distributer: NRW Vertrieb
www.vibratanghissimo.de

Juan Lucas Aisemberg: Viola
Oli Bott: Vibraphone
Tuyêt Pham: Piano
Arnulf Ballhorn: Doublebass

"Sensitive, poignant, fascinating…highest categorie!" TIP, Berlin
"Brilliant!" Kulturradio, Berlin
"Music with an unmistakable sound - head and shoulders above the rest." Jazzpodium

Thanks to the innovative and fascinating instrumentation (vibraphone, viola, double bass and piano) and the group's own arrangements, influenced by jazz and improvisation, Vibratanghissimo has an exciting and distinctive sound.
Oli Botts' creativity on the vibraphone, the Argentinian roots of viola player Juan Lucas Aisemberg, Arnulf Ballhorn's virtuoisty on the bass and the sensitive charm of pianist Tuyêt Pham completes this unique physiognomy of the ensemble.

Juan Lucas Aisemberg was born in 1967 in Budapest as the son of an Argentinian family of musicians. He grew up in Italy. He studied in Rome with Lina Pettinelli, in Gstaad with Alberto Lysy, in Berlin with Bruno Giuranna and Robert Jeremias, and in Cologne with the Amadeus Quartet.
He has been a viola player with the Deutsche Oper Berlin since 1993 and plays regularly with various chamber music ensembles. Juan Lucas Aisemberg is one of the founders of "NoviTango", a group which essentially devotes itself to the Tango and Argentinian music. He has worked with artists including Richard Galliano, Maximiliano Guerra and Gustavo Beytelmann, given concert tours worldwide and made numerous recordings both at home and abroad.

Oli Bott studied vibraphone and composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston with teachers such as Gary Burton and Bob Brookmeyer. He graduated "summa cum laude".
Since then he works as a freelance vibraphonist and composer in Berlin. He received several scholarships by the city of Berlin and composition commissions for his own jazz orchestra. Many of his concerts throughout Europe were recorded by TV and radio. He obtained awards at various international competitions such as the "NDR-Musikpreis" for bigband conductors, the 1st prize at the Improvisation Competition in Leipzig, the Europ Jazz Contest and the Wayne Shorter Award, USA.

Tuyêt Pham was born in Paris to Vietnamese parents. She studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris with Annie d'Arco and Germaine Mounier. After graduating with "excellent", Tuyêt Pham moved to Berlin as a DAAD scholar where she continued her piano studies with Professor Klaus Hellwig. She also received tuition in Lied accompaniment from György Sebök, Aribert Reimann and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
Tuyêt Pham has performed both in Germany and abroad, predominantly in ensembles and frequently with members of Berlin's major orchestras. Alongside classical music she also plays works by Latin-American composers.

Arnulf Ballhorn studied with Professor Zepperitz at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin where he graduated in 2004.
He joined the Komische Oper Berlin in 2000. One of his main interests is contemporary music and as the bass player with "Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin", Arnulf Ballhorn has performed at many international festivals. His knowledge of jazz was furthered through private lessons with Miroslav Vitous, Renaud Garcia-Fons and Gary Willis.

"The nine tangos sound suprisingly modern and above all different: Aisemberg and Ballhorn provide dark, languorous, centred sounds which Bott counters with a cool tone on the vibraphone surrounded by Phams warm arpeggios. Furthermore, each musician looks back to different musical roots - contemporary, classic, jazz - resulting in 'Astor' being equally modern and historically aware. A successful experiment." Jazzthing

"Brilliant!" Kulturradio, Berlin

"Tango is international and timeless. The Berlin quartet Vibratanghissimo demonstrates the creative potential hidden in this music. Oli Bott's arrangements amalgamate improvisatory gestures of jazz with tango's zest of life." Jazzzeitung

"Piazolla's imaginatively arranged pieces and Bott's wonderful own compositions create jazzy-chamber music sounds of a very exceptional kind. Sensitive, poignant, fascinating…highest categorie!" TIP, Berlin

"Music with an unmistakable sound - head and shoulders above the rest." Jazzpodium

"With his lyrical playing, the viola player Juan Lucas Aisemberg interpretes my husband's music with romance and great inspriation." Laura Escalada Piazzolla

"With Vibratanghissimo the tango has arrived at a new superlative. No-one plays from music, the musicians understand each other instinctively, sophisticately develop a theme, which is burst open with feeling, then returned to, quite as a matter of course. Bandoneon farewell: Vibratanghissimo virtuosically present four equal instruments, each one of which can play all the voices. The audience too, in a sold out hall, lets itself be entranced by these jazzy-chamber music sounds - only seldomly is an electrifying moment of silence ruined by misplaced clapping. The final applause is enormous." Der Tagesspiegel Berlin

"One should really be careful with the superlative - this quartet already uses it in its name - can they keep to their promise? The answer is a categorical "yes". Tango music by Astor Piazolla, newly arranged and composed by Oli Bott. Wonderfully relaxing, one's head becomes free - the visitors in the Jazz Club on Lindener Berg seem to be holding their breath, it's so quiet at moments. Listening to the hushed sounds, the virtuoso solos and the creative potential of this fantastic, passionate quartet. The applause after the pieces is all the more intense." Gerrits Review

"Like no other formation in the jazz-circles upon the Spree, this group manages to create new faces for works by one of the most popular composers in Argentina." Berliner Morgenpost

"With Vibratanghissimo the tango reaches new heights." TIP, Berlin