Lucia Cadotsch Speak Low at Bimhuis

Fascinating contemporary versions of famous songs by vocalist Lucia Cadotsch and her Berlin-based improv trio. ‘Eerily beautiful, compelling, remarkably melodious and illuminating’ (The Guardian, *****).

Her album Speak Low earned 5 star reviews in Downbeat and The Guardian and she won the ECHO (German Grammy) for best jazz vocalist of 2017. Swiss-born singer Lucia Cadotsch is being praised for her contemporary versions of standards such as Bitter Fruit, Don’t Explain and Gloomy Sunday. Her clear, unadorned vocals form a fascinating contrast with the daring ensemble playing of tenor saxophonist Otis Sansjö and double bassist Petter Eldh, both well-known in the Berlin improvised music scene....

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Fascinating contemporary versions of famous songs by vocalist Lucia Cadotsch and her Berlin-based improv trio. ‘Eerily beautiful, compelling, remarkably melodious and illuminating’ (The Guardian, *****).

Her album Speak Low earned 5 star reviews in Downbeat and The Guardian and she won the ECHO (German Grammy) for best jazz vocalist of 2017. Swiss-born singer Lucia Cadotsch is being praised for her contemporary versions of standards such as Bitter Fruit, Don’t Explain and Gloomy Sunday. Her clear, unadorned vocals form a fascinating contrast with the daring ensemble playing of tenor saxophonist Otis Sansjö and double bassist Petter Eldh, both well-known in the Berlin improvised music scene.

In spite of the minimal acoustic line-up they’re evoking a wide range of sounds and timbres, from classical instruments to synthesizers and 808 drum machines. The trio performs under the name Speak Low. A remix version of the eponymous album appeared earlier this year.

‘So ingenious is the way vocalist Lucia Cadotsch reimagines the canon of standards that the
songs feel fully in the here and now. The subtly intense swirl of the instrumentalists—Sandsjö’s multiphonic effects, Eldh’s visceral thrum—helps reinvest such songs as Don’t Explain and Strange Fruit with tension and truth. Cadotsch’s singing has an intensity of its own. Her tone is deceptively neutral, but she cuts to the heart of these songs from another angle, with an almost classical purity of intonation and a serene sense of rhythm’ (Downbeat, *****).

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