Damir Out Loud strikes new sparks from the encounter of improvised music, imaginative compositions and Slavic influences. The quintett around Serbian-German trumpeter Damir Bacikin develops wide, dynamic arcs of tension, oscillating from clear melodies to quarter-tone hints and powerful counterpoints to individual abstractions. In addition, Bacikin, Gerhard Gschlößl, Julius Heise and Oliver Potratz are great, tonally aware soloists, while Tobias Backhaus holds the interactions together or pointedly spikes them in fast moments. With his new album, Damir Bacikin presents a profound and charismatic artistic statement that reflects his personal history and enormous musical range. In early 2018, Bacikin reformed his band, engaged three internationally recognized protagonists of the Berlin scene, who have been working in the field of tension of modern creative jazz for years. Gschlößl, Potratz and Backhaus are perfect partners for Bacikin's boundless music thanks to their characteristic playing and open-minded attitude. On Earworm and live, the quartet impresses with individual sound and form, elegant tones and unexpected sounds created with extended playing techniques. In year 2021 Julius Heise is rejoining the band with whoom they record the third album in early 2022 "It is only in the dark, that shadows do not exist".
DAMIR BACIKIN
• trumpet
A two time winner of the Serbian national competition for trumpet, he moved to Berlin in 2005 where he studied under Professor William Forman at the Hans Eisler Institute. Since then, he has gone on to win numerous scholarships as a player and recently received „Der Deutsche Schallplatten Kritik“ for an album featuring his compositions and arrangements with the Babylon Orchestra, Berlin. In the last five years, Damir has developed his teaching and now holds positions at Kleinmachnow Music school and Potsdam University.
In 2021 Damir has been awarded a work scholarship from the Berlin Senate of Cultural Affairs to finish his composition for Solo trumpet based on modern playing techniques to be performed by both Students and professionals alike.
GERHARD GSCHLÖßL
• trombone
Gerhard Gschlößl grew up in Germany, studied trombone and composition in Würzburg and has lived in Berlin since 2004. The trombone & sousaphone player belongs to a new scene, which has been successfully freed from the traditional labels of jazz and moved in a wide field of improvised music. Ulrich Steinmetzger about Gerhard Gschlößl: Very agile, muscular and close to the current base, the trombonist has developed his personal style. Nothing here is cosmetically polished or coated ambitious. His music is credible because it comes with corners and edges, because it does not hide the dirt that is part of life. This is neither strict mainstream nor pure avant-garde. You can hear the whence and suspect a where.
JULIUS HEISE
• vibraphone
After visiting a music oriented gymnasium, Julius studied jazz vibraphone with David Friedman and drums with Mario Würzebesser at the jazz institute, Berlin. He played in various projects as vibraphonist, drummer, percussionist and pianist. As a composer he wrote music for jazz ensembles, classical percussion, silent movies and theater / puppet play for institutions like the Berliner ensemble and Konzerthaus Berlin. Since 2019 Julius is docent for jazz vibraphone at the jazz institute Berlin.
OLIVER POTRATZ
• double bass
Was born in 1973 in Hamburg/Germany. He began his career as a violinist and electric bass player. At the age of 20 he started playing double bass, and just one year after he was successful at the audition for the famous Berlin Conservatory. There he studied classical double bass playing with Michael Barry Wolf and graduated with the highest grade. During his classical studies he also started studying Jazz at the Berlin conservatory with Dave Friedman, Jerry Granelli and Siggi Busch. He completed his formation with a summa cum laude masters degree in composition with John Hollenbeck and Greg Cohen.
Since then, he played as a sideman and bandleader in over 60 countries on various international jazz festivals all over the globe, had classical solo concerts with rennomated german orchestras, is playing contemporary classical music, composed works for radio and television and for central asien orchestras in Usbekistan and Afghanistan.
TOBIAS BACKHAUS
• drums
Tobias Backhaus (*1984 in Darmstadt) is without doubt one of the most in-demand German jazz musicians of his generation. He studied under the guidance of master drummers John Riley, Joey Baron, Keith Copeland and John Hollenbeck and holds a Bachelor’s degree in jazz performance from the University of the Arts in Berlin. In the German capital, he quickly made a name for himself as a versatile and exciting musical accompanist, and has been a vital part of the contemporary European jazz scene for well over the past decade.