Muche: Trombone Alone

"Trombone Alone" comprises five solo works by the Cologne-based composer and trombonist Matthias Muche, winner of the 2021 WDR Jazz Prize, which reflect a central concern of his artistic practice. Encounters and collaborations with Ray Anderson, George Lewis, Vinko Globokar, and Anthony Moore have significantly shaped his work. Sound emerges as a physical act. The trombone becomes a spatial and physical instrument. Presence in space is formed from breath, resistance, and resonance. Through acoustic and electroacoustic expansions – altered air paths, objects placed within the instrument, and loudspeakers – the sound is fed back into the body of the trombone and transformed into a sound sculpture. All works also exist in extended ensemble versions with the Ensemble Bonecrusher, a formation consisting of twelve trombones and percussion, some of which were already released in 2021. Nevertheless, the solo form remains the core of these compositions: the concentrated original in which body, instrument, and space interact. Matthias Muche is a composer and trombonist based in Cologne. From a practice in which sound emerges as a physical act, he shapes compositional structures that explore the relationship between space, duration, and presence. He studied jazz at the Amsterdam University of the Arts as well as at Codarts Rotterdam and continued his training in New Chamber Music at the Cologne University of Music and Dance. He subsequently completed postgraduate studies at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM), where his engagement with sound as a spatial and conceptual practice deepened. His solo work forms the core of his artistic activity. From this concentrated practice, larger ensemble constellations emerge.