Benedikt Wieland is a Swiss / German bass experimentalist, improviser, and composer currently based in Berlin. His mission is to research, explore, and implement approaches to playing the electric bass that subverts and expand on the traditional methodologies and sound aesthetics. He’s also the band leader of Kaos Protokoll, a Swiss progressive jazz outfit, and the owner of the boutique record label Prolog Records.
His latest track is titled Places, and was created as a tribute to his current neighbourhood Neukölln, in Berlin. It’s the latest part of an ongoing series of explorations and experiments with bass-centric music, which he began working on back in 2022, and also features the string arrangements of violinist Tobias Preisig.
My neighbourhood is full of contrasts. It can feel inviting and warm, but also cold-hearted and impervious. Misery and joy are woven together here. The summer explodes with color, but the winters are stark and grey. Sometimes you don’t want to face what’s out there, on days like that it can be hard to even leave the house. Other times, the pulsing life outside is just irresistible. On any given summer day, the Tempelhofer Feld, which is this old airport that is no longer in use, if full of people dancing, skating, and just hanging out.
Benedikt Wieland
It’s an engaging track, with stuttering, glitching sounds providing a nervousness over a brooding, minimal string arrangement, with bass slides underpinning the atmosphere. It gives way later to a bigger arrangement driven forwards by drum grooves that add to a fuller, more complex vibe…
Places is available now on Prolog Records.
