Press reactions to "Silberne Lachtränen"

Harmony and dissonance are two musical terms that normally preclude each other. With her second album (after "Memories of a Swan Song"), Henriette Müller has succeeded in reconciling opposites. It is difficult to describe directly how her ten titles, reminiscent of chamber music, converge and diverge harmoniously. The first CD still featured a post-Coltrane style to a large degree, excessive and marked by free-jazz motifs, whereas "Silberne Lachtränen" ("Silvery Tears of Laughter") is of a considerably more refined nature...Her saxophone modulates a landscape of lyrical story lines and sound formations with an almost spoken quality. The rest is provided in reserved to contrasting manner by Simon Pauli's bass structures and Johannes Bockholt's percussion. Much of what is considered jazz is missing. But it is not New Music either, for it incorporates too many rhythms and influences based on different global shades of sound. But this is precisely the tension out of which the music of Henriette Müller is articulated.