Ubuntu Music Signs Swiss Artist Fabienne Ambuehl for Album Release

October 6, 2024 Martin Hummel

Fabienne Ambuehl / Thrive

Release Date: 17th January 2025

CD & Digital Formats / UBU0166

Fabienne Ambuehl (Photographer: Kirill Kuletski)

Ubuntu Music is delighted to announce the signing of Swiss vocalist/pianist/composer Fabienne Ambuehl for the release of her next project, Thrive, on 17th January 2025.

Fabienne shares her thoughts about her latest venture: “One summer during the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, I got to know Yuri Goloubev (bassist) and Asaf Sirkis (percussionist), as we were all playing in the band of Swiss guitarist Marco Cortesi. The piano trio had been the instrumentation of my choice since my final recitals at Hochschule Lucerne Switzerland. The new line-up with Yuri on bass and Asaf on drums toured and recorded ‘Glitterwoods’, which was released on Traumton Records Berlin in 2015 and highly rated by the jazz press. Playing trio feels right for my slightly dense compositional language, which projects clearly through the transparency of this format.

“After having moved to London, which was as a huge change for me, I formed a new band. With Matt Ridley on bass and Jon Scott on drums, I am thrilled to have two of my favourite musicians on the UK scene in my band. I am really looking forward to playing the music live in the UK, after mainly having performed with them in Switzerland, so far.”

Jon Scott, Fabienne Ambuehl, Matt Ridley (Photographer: Greg De Wode)

Fabienne continues, concerning the new album: “’Thrive’ is the result of introspection, questions of belonging, moving country just before lockdown was announced, and sometimes not knowing what place to call home. Many songs are inspired by nature, which I believe is a healing power. ‘New Ones’ features Ant Law on guitar, whose strong solo captures the thought of the song perfectly: alien life arriving on earth and supplanting humanity. ‘Thrive’, the title track, with words by D.H. Lawrence, describes ‘a small bird who will drop frozen dead from a bough, without ever having felt sorry for itself.’ Tom Ollendorff’s expressive guitar sound is such a luminous addition to the trio as, for example, on ‘Immaculate Rain’, where I am singing about feeling renewed after venturing into pouring rain.

“One of the great lessons I learned while writing this album, is to multitask less, in general. ‘Thrive’ is an invitation to be more present within the little moments in life, undistracted. Although the music is rooted in jazz, influenced by folk, and plays with the lyrical aspects of Romantic music, I hope that it can speak for itself.”

Fabienne Ambuehl, Matt Ridley, Jon Scott (Photographer: Rolf Fassbind)

Fabienne goes on to describe her new relationship with Ubuntu Music: “I am really excited to be releasing ‘Thrive’ as my debut with Ubuntu Music. Many musicians whom I admire are on its roster. Martin’s unique work, passion for, and dedication to (jazz) music is contagious and a true asset for us musicians and the UK jazz scene. I feel privileged and proud to become a part of this musical family and would like to thank the Ubuntu team for the outstanding support in the process, and their faith in my music.”

Martin Hummel, Director of Ubuntu Music, concludes: “It’s a pleasure for us to be working with Fabienne on ‘Thrive’, her upcomoing project. The compositions, along with the performances behind each, are exceptional and a joy for the ears to absorb. Her superb trio – Matt Ridley (bass) and Jon Scott (drums) – along with guttarists Ant Law and Tom Ollendorff, are all previous Ubuntu recording musicians which makes this a particularly special release. We are so happy to have them in the Ubuntu Family.”

For further information, please contact:

Fabienne Ambuehl/Artist: info@fabienneambuehl.com

Rupert Burley/Dynamic Agency (International PR): rupert@dynamicagency.co.uk

Martina Weinmar/MaWeMarketing (Europe): mweinmar@email.de

Martin Hummel/Ubuntu Music (Worldwide): martin@ubuntumanagementgroup.com

FABIENNE AMBUEHL BIOGRAPHY:

Fabienne Ambuehl is a Swiss pianist, singer and composer, living in London. With her trio she released her debut album, Glitterwoods (Traumton Berlin), which was well-received in the European jazz press. Thrive, her upcoming release, features Jon Scott on drums, Matt Ridley on bass, with Tom Ollendorff and also Ant Law on guitar.

As well as performing with her trio and solo, in the recent past Fabienne has performed with the Noga Ritter band and worked and toured in Senegal for a musical residency, supported by Arts Council England. With Neele & the Soundvoyage she released an EP and the album Visions (QFTF Berlin 2018) and toured Switzerland and Germany. As a singer and soloist of the Jazz Choir Freiburg, Fabienne toured Germany and Austria. In July 2017 she was their soloist at the Eurovision Song Contest for choirs in Riga, Latvia.

Fabienne completed her masters degree at Lucerne School of Music. She studied with Hans Feigenwinter and Chris Wiesendanger alongside vocal studies with Bruno Amstad and Lauren Newton. Fabienne continued her studies with Jean Paul Brodbeck, Christoph Stiefel, Asaf Sirkis and Gwilym Simcock.

Fabienne won a scholarship from Friedl Wald Stiftung and studied at the Complete Vocal institute in Copenhagen. She is the winner of a Förderpreis of the Kanton Zug and with Harmonie Greber was selected for Suisse Diagonales Jazz.

Ubuntu Music Signs Guitarist Ant Law & Vocalist Brigitte Beraha for Debut Album Release

April 29, 2024 Martin Hummel

Ant Law & Brigitte Beraha / Ensconced

Release Date: 16th August 2024

CD, Digital & Vinyl Formats / UBU0169

Brigitte Beraha & Ant Law (Photographer: Rob Blackham)

Ubuntu Music is delighted to announce the signing of the duo, guitarist Ant Law and vocalist Brigitte Beraha, for the release of Ensconced, their debut album on Ubuntu Music.

Ant and Brigitte explain: “‘Ensconced’ has a cozy, autumnal feeling. It is focused on the sound of Brigitte’s voice and Ant playing steel-string acoustic guitar. On recent projects Brigitte has experimented with electronics and effects - but here we hear her directly, sat around the campfire…”

Ant Law & Brigitte Beraha (Photographer: Rob Blackham)

They continue, describing their music: “We invite you in with the sweet ‘A Kiss To Build A Dream On’, followed by five new original songs and one reinterpretation of an earlier composition, ‘Harvest’, in which Brigitte sings wordlessly. The album gathers velocity as it progresses and there are guest appearances from Kit Downes, Petros Klampanis, Matt Calvert, Million Square and more. It closes with Bernstein’s ‘Some Other Time’ - once again performed as a duo, just as the album opened.”

Ant shares his view on their new relationship with Ubuntu Music: “I’ve worked successfully with Ubuntu on a number of releases as a sideman in recent years. Their catalogue has grown significantly with more and more established artists coming on board. I’m very pleased to join their roster and hope that the success continues!”

Martin Hummel, Director of Ubuntu Music, concludes: “We’ve had the pleasure of working with Ant on a number of projects, including most recently with the outstanding Trio HLK album. And we first began working with Brigitte with the Solstice release in 2021. So, it seems as if destiny was calling for ‘Ensconced’ to join our Family. It’s a beautiful album that demonstrates their talent and their musical diversity. We’re happy to be a part of it.”

For further information, please contact:

Ant Law (Artist): AntLawGuitar@gmail.com

Martin Hummel/Ubuntu Music (Worldwide): martin@ubuntumanagementgroup.com

BIOGRAPHIES

ANT LAW

British guitarist Ant lives in London and is “a game changer” according to The Guardian. His 5th album ‘Same Moon in the Same World’ (Outside in Music) was released on 4th November 2022.

Same Moon is a collaboration between Ant and the brilliant saxophonist & composer Alex Hitchcock. Recorded in 2020/2021 across multiple continents, bridging the gap between London, Amsterdam and New York, it brings together a stellar cast of guest musicians performing new compositions: vibraphonist Joel Ross, bassists Linda May Han Oh, Ben Williams and Jasper Høiby, and drummers Jeff Ballard, Kendrick Scott, Sun-Mi Hong and Eric Harland.

The Same Moon quartet toured in Europe in December 2022: Ant, Alex Hitchcock (saxophone), Conor Chaplin (bass) and Jeff Ballard (drums) who appears on the album. In February & March 2023 Ant and Alex are toured with Jasper Høiby (bass) and Sun-Mi Hong (drums), both of whom also feature on the album. Tour booking is underway for this lineup throughout 2024.

The pandemic hit in the middle of The Sleeper Wakes European tour. London was locked-down and Ant began collaborating on a series of remote recordings with a range of artists across the globe. This evolved into weekly livestreams in which he broadcast the collaborative music videos and interviewed the guests. It is entitled “QZ” - which stands for Quarantine Zone. These streams were ongoing on the last Thursday of every month on YouTube, facebook & Twitch - but now that live performances are back they have stopped.

In 2013 his debut 'Entanglement' (33Jazz) was released, followed by 'Zero Sum World' (Whirlwind Recordings) in 2015 and then 'Life I Know' (Edition Records) in 2018. This release was described as “career-defining”. It achieved 5 star reviews, made numerous “best of 2018" lists, received airplay in the UK, Europe, Australia, and was added to numerous editorial playlists on Spotify. 2020 saw the release of Ant’s 4th album - the critically acclaimed ‘The Sleeper Wakes’ (Edition).

In addition to leading his own projects, Ant plays in Tim Garland's band with Jason Rebello & Asaf Sirkis, featuring on albums 'Songs To The North Sky', 'Return To The Fire' & 'ONE' which was shortlisted for a Grammy and won the Jazzwise Best Album award.

Ant is also the “L” in Trio HLK who record/tour with Dame Evelyn Glennie. He has worked with other notables Cory Henry, Thomas Gould and is featured in “Total Guitar", “Guitar Techniques" & “Guitarist” magazines. In the latter he was included in a list of “10 Astounding Virtuosos”, and the May 2021 issue of Guitar Techniques features a 2-page spread on Ant, and a 9/10 review of The Sleeper Wakes.

2016 saw the emergence of the Art Of Rhythm Trio featuring Matt Ridley (bass) and Asaf Sirkis (drums & konnakol). In April/May they played a 20-date tour all over the UK, supported by the Arts Council. They had played together in a different ensembles but the tour allowed them to consolidate their musical relationships and develop the trio dynamic. Most notable perhaps is the inclusion of Indian classical elements (check out this video) such as konnakol, the South-Indian spoken percussion, amidst all the jazz. This video features the rarely sighted Art Of Rhythm expanded into quintet formation.

Ant was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he lived until the age of 16. From a young age he was exposed to early blues and rock 'n' roll, as well as Arabic music. He began playing classical piano and guitar around the age of 8. Throughout his teens he gravitated towards the guitar. A history teacher gave him a video of Stevie Ray Vaughan playing live at the El Mocambo, which was a huge influence, along with videos of Guns 'n' Roses, Queen, and later on Joe Satriani and Steve Vai.

Law studied Physics on a scholarship at Edinburgh University. In the summer before his final year there he completed a summer semester at Berklee College Of Music, Boston. This he says was crucial because he heard gospel music and gospel drummers for the first time, and lots of Latin American music. As he continued with the Physics degree he became obsessed with jazz and played his first jazz gigs. By this point he had discovered and started using Perfect 4ths tuning for the guitar. In a case of convergent evolution, other players (like Stanley Jordan, Tom Quayle) had also discovered and were using this same tuning. Allan Holdsworth has said that if he could start again, he would tune this way. Ant wrote a book introducing the tuning entitled “3rd Millenium Guitar" which is published by Mel Bay.

Since 2010 Ant has concentrated on make a living playing guitar, eventually moving to London and immersing himself in the scene there and touring internationally. He has also lived in NYC for a season where he studied with his heroes Ari Hoenig, Ben Monder, Adam Rogers, Lage Lund, Johannes Weidenmueller, Tim Miller and others.

Website: https://www.AntLaw.co.uk/

BRIGITTE BERAHA

Born in Milan to a Turkish father and Turkish-British mother, Beraha grew up on the Côte d’Azur in France where her first music memories are of sitting and listening to her dad play piano and sing. This musical, multinational and multilingual upbringing combined to inspire and shape one of the most creative vocalists and composers on the UK scene.

Embracing a wide variety of music influences and genres, from jazz and Latin to classical and, more recently, electronic, Beraha’s sound is free and fluid with an emphasis on exploration and expression. Fearlessly testing the limits of the voice as instrument, her sound is distinguished by the unexpected, with free improvisation and evocative wordless singing at its core.

This agility, adventurous spirit and limitless imagination all mark her out as a truly exciting and versatile artist with a huge range of experience and creative scope.

She has worked with a wide range of musicians and recorded a number of critically acclaimed albums. Her first solo work By the Cobbled Path (2021) has seen her unending curiosity explore electronic sounds and effects further still, to compliment and accentuate the dream-like quality of her compositions. This album marks the next stage of Beraha’s ever-exciting journey as composer, vocalist and lyricist. Her 5th album as a leader ‘Blink’ (2022), the follow up to Lucid Dreamers (2020) where she is joined by top-class London musicians George Crowley, Alcyona Mick & Tim Giles, was released on 20th May 2022 with a 13-date UK/ European tour supported by Arts Council England, the band’s first touring opportunity since forming in 2020. They are now embarking on another run of dates and plan to record their third album for a release in late 2023.

Previous albums, Prelude to a Kiss (FMR, 2005) and Flying Dreams (F-Ire, 2008), equally reveal the constant movement and development of Beraha as an artist. The former, a combination of jazz standards and originals, attests to her love for jazz and latin standards while also setting the tone for her trademark contemporary and ethereal sound, enhanced by the saxophone of Ingrid Laubrock. The second is a more personal collection of original compositions, influenced by Anglo-European and Latin jazz as well as Brigitte’s own cosmopolitan upbringing.

Website: https://www.BrigitteBeraha.com/

REVIEW: Matt Ridley 'The Antidote'

August 2, 2021 Martin Hummel

London Jazz News’ Graham Spry sings the praises of Ridley’s debut on Ubuntu Music.

For the full review, please click on the image, above.

Ubuntu Music Signs Gifted Bassist Matt Ridley for Album Release

March 22, 2021 Martin Hummel

The Antidote

23rd July 2021

UBU0068 / CD & Digital & Formats

Matt Ridley (Photography by Monika S Jakubowska)

Ubuntu Music is delighted to announce the signing of the highly gifted bassist, Matt Ridley, for the release of his upcoming album, The Antidote, on 23rd July 2021.

Matt began his musical journey on piano, aged six. By his mid-teens, he gravitated towards bass guitar, and was gigging professionally at 19 years old. In 2001, he enrolled at Trinity College of Music, and it was there that he began learning the double bass. Matt performed his final recital entirely on this instrument and, upon graduating with a Bmus honours degree in Jazz Studies, he was awarded the Trinity College of Music 'Friends in New York' award. Matt has also made a comprehensive study of classical music under the tutelage of LSO bassist Jani Pensola and, in 2017, Matt won a Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music diploma in classical double bass.

A true devotee of his instrument, discernible influences on Matt's playing span the last 60+ years of jazz history to include Ray Brown, Ron Carter, Scott Lafaro, Miroslav Vitous, as well as more modern players such as Christian McBride and Larry Grenadier. As well as being exceptionally studied, Matt’s outlook is also forward looking and individual. His own music represents a unique melange of contemporary jazz, classical music and world music.

Based in London, Matt has performed internationally and at many of the UK’s most prestigious venues such as the Purcell Room, Cadogan Hall, Ronnie Scott’s, King’s Place, the Barbican and the O2 Arena.

As a band leader, Matt released his debut album, Thymos, on Whirlwind Recordings in 2013, featuring the talents of award-winning pianist John Turville, drummer George Hart, and guest appearances from saxophonist Jason Yarde, oud maestro Attab Haddad and percussionist Vasilis Sirikis. Matt’s follow-up album, Mettā, was released in February 2016. Jason Yarde having joined the original trio as a permanent member, the entire quartet recording was completed in one day, a testament to the empathy and communication between the musicians.

Matt is an in-demand sideman, known equally for his work with younger musicians on the contemporary jazz scene, and with older, more established names. He has worked extensively with guitarist Ant Law in his quintet and 'Art of Rhythm' trio with drummer Asaf Sirkis, and with Darius Brubeck (son of Dave Brubeck) in a quartet featuring Dave O’Higgins on saxophone. Matt was bass player in Michael Garrick's many ensembles, and continued his 'MJQ Celebration' band featuring Jim Hart, Barry Green and Steve Brown after his death in 2011. In a more ad hoc capacity, Matt has performed at home and abroad with the best of the UK jazz scene, and with artists from the US, Europe and Africa.

Matt’s upcoming release, 'The Antidote', is a new and exciting quintet album, bristling with young talent. Their eponymous album was recorded in October 2019, (yes, the name 'The Antidote' precedes the current Coronavirus crisis) where 12 tracks were shaped over a three-day period.

Matt describes his inspiration for the music: "I spent a long time reflecting on musical culture in the UK, and my own identity and relationship with all of the different music that I have encountered over 15+ years of being a professional bassist. When it came down to it, I concluded that what the English do really well, is ROCK, FOLK, and CLASSICAL music. I realised that, deep down, I've always wanted to ROCK OUT, to be wild and free, to fly unhindered and answerable to no-one. So I set out creating my own music, that would combine 'thinking man's' Rock music (Radiohead/Beatles...without the posturing and banal dumbing-down which is inevitable in more commercial pop music), with Jazz improvisation (without falling foul of pretentious self-indulgence), simple, memorable, Folky melodies, and the detail, sensitivity, and emotional depth of Classical music."

The result is 'The Antidote', remarkable for its depth, integrity, and refreshing insistence on strong melodic and thematic material.

Matt continues: “I am tremendously excited to finally be releasing this latest chapter of my music. To do so, I formed my dream band, made up of truly amazing musicians who really understand what I'm trying to achieve. Alex Hitchcock is a rising star saxophonist who brings great energy with his soloing but also really plays with his heart. Ant Law has been a close musical ally for years. In addition to extremely burning solos, he brings a huge palette of sounds and symphonic textures. Tom Hewson, similarly burning, brings great imaginative flair and, unusually for a jazz pianist, really understands and loves the rockier elements of the music. Marc Michel provides all levels of accompaniment, ranging from combative hi-octane interaction, real commitment to groove, and sensitive brush work at the other end of the spectrum.”

Concerning his new-found home at Ubuntu Music, Matt elaborates: “I am extremely proud and excited to be joining the Ubuntu Family. A cursory glance at the release catalogue reveals a truly wonderful cross-section of jazz today, from straight-ahead contemporary swing, through vocal-led projects, to more avant-garde and experimental. I am honoured that 'The Antidote' will be part of this admirable oeuvre. Martin Hummel has been a great support through the entire process. He really is a 'facilitator' and not a 'dictator'. I believe the future of the label is very bright with him at the helm.”

Martin Hummel, Director of Ubuntu Music, shares his thoughts: “I’ve admired Matt and his music for some time, and drew even closer to Matt through our relationship with Darius Brubeck. Matt is a genuine, zero-pretence artist who knows his stuff and engages with his audience through his accessible-yet-challenging compositions. He slips through multiple genres of music with ease, while underpinning it all with a solid jazz foundation. ‘The Antidote’ is grounded in unwavering integrity, with Matt at his finest. We’re thrilled to have him in the Ubuntu Music family.”

For further information, please contact:

Martin Hummel (Ubuntu Music) martin@ubuntumanagementgroup.com

Emma Perry (UK Publicity) emmasarahperry@gmail.com