Meta Marie Louise - Manuel Engel aka Henry Strongbox, fender rhodes and synths and Kevin Chesham, drums has been founded in 2010 and works as a vessel to advance improvised music. The group draws in pop and rock elements into their improvisations which lead to collaborations with different singers, instrumentalists and poets such as Ana Igluka (Nantes, FR), Hans Koch (Bienne, CH), Annie Aries (Bern, CH), David Binney (New York, US), Rea Dubach (Bienne, CH), Nativ (Bern, CH), Fork Burke (New York, US), Soweto Kinch (Birmingham, UK), Marc Stucki (Bern, CH), Napoleon Maddox (Cincinnati, US), Big Zis (Zürich, CH) among others.
Meta Marie Louise conjures a vast and unpredictable universe, one that feels both organic and otherworldly, as if it sprouted from a forgotten garden at the edge of a dream. What begins as delicate texture can suddenly fracture into walls of harsh noise, raw and electrified, crashing like a storm against glass. Yet just as quickly, the chaos dissolves into spacious ambient currents, drifting and weightless, inviting the listener to float in a haze of suspended time. Within this ever-shifting terrain, contrasts are not opposites but companions. Metallic clatter melts into velvet drones. Glitching frequencies spiral upward before folding into subterranean pulses.
As the journey deepens, rhythm begins to surface - subtle at first, like distant footsteps echoing in a cavern. Gradually it gathers force, locking into groove-driven psychedelic beats that pulse with hypnotic insistence. Basslines coil and uncoil like serpents of light, while melodies ripple overhead in kaleidoscopic arcs.
It invites the brave to lose themselves inside it - to wander, to be unsettled, to be soothed, and ultimately to be carried forward by its restless, radiant momentum.
Meta Marie Louise conjures a vast and unpredictable universe, one that feels both organic and otherworldly, as if it sprouted from a forgotten garden at the edge of a dream. What begins as delicate texture can suddenly fracture into walls of harsh noise, raw and electrified, crashing like a storm against glass. Yet just as quickly, the chaos dissolves into spacious ambient currents, drifting and weightless, inviting the listener to float in a haze of suspended time. Within this ever-shifting terrain, contrasts are not opposites but companions. Metallic clatter melts into velvet drones. Glitching frequencies spiral upward before folding into subterranean pulses.
As the journey deepens, rhythm begins to surface - subtle at first, like distant footsteps echoing in a cavern. Gradually it gathers force, locking into groove-driven psychedelic beats that pulse with hypnotic insistence. Basslines coil and uncoil like serpents of light, while melodies ripple overhead in kaleidoscopic arcs.
It invites the brave to lose themselves inside it - to wander, to be unsettled, to be soothed, and ultimately to be carried forward by its restless, radiant momentum.
META MARIE LOUISE LIVE AT ATOMIC CAFÉ
WITH REA
WITH HANS KOCH
WITH ANNIE ARIES
Videos by Patrick Principe
“Everything Meta Marie Louise plays exists only once. They have no songs and claim no particular genre. ‘Our music develops out of simplicity,’ says Engel. Starting from a single note, the music unfolds through the reactions of fellow musicians, the audience, and the moment itself.”
Rudolf Amstutz - Jazz 'N' More Magazine
Rudolf Amstutz - Jazz 'N' More Magazine