Quehenberger & Kern at the listed MPS bar. October 2023/Villingen. Photo: MPS-Studio
The two Viennese by choice Philipp Quehenberger and Didi Kern have been on the MPS studio wantlist for some time. Improvised huge keyboards & lush percussion, a completely different idea of free music.
Kern played in the hottest hardcore band in Austria: „Fuckhead“ or Bulbul, improvised with Peter Brötzmann, Marshall Allen, Linda Sharrock, Ken Vandermark or worked on a project with Peter Weibel (Wiener Aktionismus / later ZKM director).
„For my part, I was never a jazzer. Not a free jazz player either, more of a farmer jazz player. I came from brass band music and later got really into punk and hardcore. Then techno came along in the 1990s. So if someone says free jazz, all well and good, but it's actually improvisation.“ (Kern in an interview with Mica)
It's not free jazz either. What is it? Power improvisation? The rich sound doesn't get lost in annoying, small fragments of noise. It's something big, something tangible. Kern is a very precise drummer who brings a lot of energy and creativity to the drumheads. It's a pleasure to watch how the two of them get on blindly on stage.
Kern on drums, Quehenberger on keys. Live in the MPS studio. Photo: © Jens Heid / MPS Studio 2024
Both grew up in the provinces, Kern on Lake Attersee and Quehenberger in Innsbruck. Teen Quehenberger was musically socialized very early on by his father, jazz, techno and punk rock. The whole thing in his blood. He was allowed to attend Sun Ra concerts as a child and Cecil Taylor also visited the Quehenberger house. A formative experience for him.
I play what I hear. But yes, the fact that you can't see through it or say why you think it's somehow good . . . The free jazz thing has accompanied me from an early age. Cecil Taylor certainly influenced me. When I was a child, he also lived with us for a short time. For me, that was ‘normal‘ music. (Quehenberger in an interview with Mica)
During this time, the schoolboy Quehenberger went to England, where he experienced the harshness of the British subculture first-hand. Nevertheless, it was a good school for music, even if he doesn't want to glorify anything. Back in Vienna, he released his first albums on Editition Mego or Cheap Records and composed tracks that were also used by the well-known post-punk legend Mark Stewart (Loner). Kern also shows a musical socialization on a broad level, from punk, techno, jazz to avant-garde. The boundaries are fluid.
Kern on drums, Quehenberger on keys. Live in the MPS studio. Photo: © Jens Heid / MPS Studio 2024
In October 2023, the time had come, the two gentlemen were invited to the MPS studio and - oh joy - they were promptly accepted. The concert was split into two sets. Their sound develops a fabulous, crazy-psychedelic-technoid energy. What is that? A genre is hard to pin down. An intense tremor, then a pause and the machine thunders on, taking unexpected turns before hurtling into oncoming traffic. Free, brute, nervous. Quehenberger & Kern create a significant sound, an entity that shows that they have been making music together for many years. An extraordinary concert!
Kern & Quehenberger at the gallows, fox trap near Triberg/Black Forest. October 2023 Photo: © Töni Schifer/MPS-Studio
The following day, our guests were taken on a short excursion through the steaming valleys of the Black Forest to the somewhat obscure town of Furtwangen, where the best cheesecake in the world is served. The gallows at the Fuchsfalle, near Triberg, was also on the tourism program. After all, this area once belonged to Vorderösterreich.