Recording of the Week, Stefanie Kunckler Ymonos - Amateur

Our latest Recording of the Week comes from Zurich-based double bassist and composer Stefanie Kunckler, now on her second release with her Stefanie Kunckler Ymonos quintet after 2017’s Le Jour Avec les Yeux Fermés, a folk/world-tinged record of which Amateur very much feels like an expansion. Stefanie leads her quintet with Thomas Lüscher on piano, Philipp Hillebrand on bass clarinet, Raphael Ochsenbein on accordion and Marcio de Sousa on drums, returning from the group’s last studio release.

The quintet’s dynamic sees the piano, bass clarinet and accordion taking the main melodic roles, opening the album on the title track ‘Amateur’ with the cool unison head melody, and again on the more dissonant Campo Verde. The addition of accordion to the ensemble makes an especially notable contribution to the texture and flavour of the record, adding that aforementioned hint of folk music to the sound as with Le Jour Avec les Yeux Fermés and a shriller top end to the head melodies. Ochsenbein plays around being either the centre of attention on top of the melody, or lying low to provide a droning bedrock for the more downtempo moments on the album. Between more energetic tunes we do get some atmospheric detours; In Vendita and Himmel Gelb mit Riss make for some of the more moody takes on the album; the former a more open and free composition unfolding into a droning outro, the accordion helping fill out the space with a low continuous rumble, while the latter adds distant, squealing woodwinds to the already eerie ambient backdrop.

Variety seems to be the key behind Stefanie’s compositional style; coupled with the energy of her more upbeat tunes, we get injections of world music and cinematic atmospheres. Her compositions make the most of the ensemble; Lüscher takes the lead on tracks like Blue For Ru and Himmel Gelb mit Riss with some romantic chordal piano, while Sousa’s drums provide both a tight groove or sparse percussion to open up the space during freer tunes. Stefanie herself provides some foundational bass accompaniment throughout, locking in tightly with the percussion. Though Stefanie herself makes the bass her main instrument, her background as a multi-instrumentalist (playing piano, guitar and flute) has no doubt given her an intuitive ear for arrangement.

Between folky, energetic tracks and moody, atmospheric detours, Stefanie’s compositions provide a healthy amount of energy and diversity for a riveting listen. Coupling a modern jazz understanding with European folk music and cinematic music, with a set of solid collaborators to back it up, Amateur further establishes and refines the genre-blending compositional stylings that made her first release so entertaining.