Live!

“Live” is the eighth album by Teis Semey and showcases his quintet in full fervour, where they are best: live. The album presents a young European band that over long periods of performing have tuned in on each other's musicality and formed a tight-knit musical bond. Their extravagant mix of free jazz, punk and unconventional form reaches a new apex in this release of their 2025 concert from one of the most iconic jazz festivals of Europe: Jazzfestival Saalfelden. As the 2025 Artist in Residence, Semey highlighted his tenure with a concert by his Quintet on the festival mainstage. With wild riffs, sharp turns, and impressive soloistic efforts, the interplay stays the main character.

“The blend of jazz, indie rock, killer riffs, and lightning-fast improvisations possesses energy, fresh ideas, organization, and imaginative leadership. The guitar work, both solo and accompanying, is at times brilliant, the horns combine wonderfully —José Soares's alto is exuberant, tenor Jesse Schilderink is cold and measured— with timbral variations prompted by Sun Mi Hong's powerful drumming”. - All About Jazz

On “Live”, Semey and his Quintet put on display an enormous dynamic range. But throughout the both gentle Debussy-esque duet, with an emotional performance by José Soares (alto saxophone), You, Me, A Million Trees, the hectic Sun Song, written for Sun Mi Hong (drums), or thunderous cascading of The Gun Wielding Powerqueen of Rotterdam, upwound by insisting playing by bassist Jort Terwijn, the red thread is truly the bands ability to hold on to a strict lyricism and sensitivity while maintaining a hardcore punk attitude.

On the single Please Welcome the Giant of Rotterdam one can really hear the band in active dialogue. Flying off of the last note of Atlanta Airport Special Rawdog, with a kick-in-the-face-style unison anthem, developing into a wild post-Coltrane cacophony of a solo by tenor saxophone player Jesse Schilderink. Shining is the seamless interplay, in which saxophone, drums and bass push each other to the limits, while continuously finding space in the small dynamic pockets on the way to the top. Immediately preceding the climax, the solo dies down to a haunting lamenting death gasp, and swerves into a heavy riff over which a drum solo starts, first as small explosions, growing ever larger till the band rescues each other from destruction and closes the song with a tight short melody in unison. A dynamic counterpart is in the second single Song for my Siblings, in which a gentle, melancholic atmosphere brightens the scenery up. A bouncy and cute song that might as well have been from a dreamy singer-songwriter in the mid 2000s. As the song picks up tempo, we hear a bit of tenor saxophonist Jesse Schilderink again, layering some contrasting harsh lyrical energy on top of the bright song.

In a world being taken over by computers, this album represents the antidote. “Live” is not just an invigorating live registration from a great band, but also reads as an order: “live!”.