Freigeweht (LP)

Released in 1981, the debut of the legendary keyboardist from Eberhard Weber's Colours band and later the Jan Garbarek Group, Freigeweht presented Rainer Brüninghaus as a highly original and idiosyncratic sound sculptor in his own right, accompanied by ECM stalwarts Kenny Wheeler on flugelhorn and drummer Jon Christensen as well as oboist Brynjar Hoff. In a review of the album from the year of its release, the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung traced Rainer's influences and minimalist designs back to Steve Reich, calling Brüninghaus "the most imaginative musician to employ minimal art in the realm of jazz. (…) Though he neither uses minimal art as ideology nor as replacement for a rhythm section, but in a more playfully constructive way, as an element that can undergo change." Jon Christensen adds uncompromising propulsion to Brüninghaus's lyrical themes, which are evocatively fleshed out by Wheeler and Hoff's contemplative tones.