Elisabeth Lohninger - Reviews

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Concerto Magazin, Austria - The Only Way Out Is Up
All About Jazz, USA on "The Only Way Out Is Up""
Jazzpolice.com, USA
Jazz Improv on "The Only Way Out Is Up"
All About Jazz, USA on "Beneath Your Surface"
Jazz Improv Magazine, USA
ejazznews.com, USA
Jazz News Magazine/Jazz Quad, Belarus
Concerto Magazin, Austria
musikoutlook.de, Germany
Der Standard, Austria
Town & Village, New York
Dresdener Neueste Nachrichten - live performance
Concerto Magazin, Austria - The Only Way Out Is Up
*****
Born in Austria and living in New York City, Elisabeth Lohninger ensnares the ear with her warm and expressive alto voice and wonderful arrangements that are imbibed with an American vibe. It is difficult to describe the highlights of this recording, since the entire CD is in fact one big highlight. However, one should lend one's ear to the saxophone, played by Donny McCaslin. He is a guest artist on three tracks, and his playing alone makes buying this CD already worthwhile. Elisabeth Lohninger's voice is fascinating from the first moment on, creating an atmosphere, in which one can simply feel comfortable and secure. The whole spectrum of her vocal art manifests itself most emphatically in "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most", where she switches from scat singing to exact intonation and back to scat. Her first-rate band must not stay unmentioned here: Walter Fischbacher on keyboards, Chris Tarry on bass and Hari Ganglberger create a soundscape over which Elisabeth Lohninger's voice is soaring.
Original review in German:
Die in Österreich geborene und in New York lebende Elisabeth Lohninger fasziniert mit ihrer warmen und ausdrucksstarken Altstimme und herrlichen, amerikanisch angehauchten Arrengements das Ohr. Es ist schwer, hier die Highlights zu beschreiben, besteht doch die komplette CD aus einem einzigen Highlight! Trotz allem sollte man sein geneigtes Ohr dem Saxofon, geblasen von Donnz McCaslin, widmen. Er agiert als Gast auf 3 Tracks, und allein sein Spiel macht den Erwerb der CD sinnvoll! Elisabeth Lohningers Stimme fasziniert vom ersten Moment an, schafft eine Atmosphäre, in der man/frau sich ganz einfach wohl und geborgen fühlt. Das komplette Spektrum ihrer vokalen Kunst offenbart sich am nachdrücklichsten in "Spring Can Reallt Hang You Up the Most", hier wechselt sie vom Scatgesang zur punktgenauen Intonation und wieder zurück zum Scat. Nicht unerwähnt dürfen auch die erstklassigen Begleitmusiker bleiben: Walter Fischbacher an den Keyboards, Chris Tarry am Bass und Hari Ganglberger stennen den Soundteppich zur Verfügung, über dem die Stimme von Elisabeth Lohninger schwebt.
Jazz Improv, USA, Winter 2005
ELISABETH LOHNINGER
Beneath Your Surface
By Bill Donaldson
Jazz may have originated in New Orleans as the mixture of numerous musical cultures catalyzed into a new expression that spread not only to the rest of the country, but eventually to the rest of the world to offer infinite possibilities for improvisation and affecting tales of the human experience. But now, it appears that New York City has become the melting pot for many things musical. Just as now-New Yorker Avishai Cohen has cultivated a market for the Sephardic musical influence he heard as a child in Israel, so has Richard Bona imbued numerous recordings with the colors suggested by his homeland of Cameroon. Just as Claudia Acuna has brought some of the stories from her Chilean homeland to the attention of listeners from her base in New York, so has Austrian-born Elisabeth Lohninger become an authentic interpreter there of some European vocal traditions seen through jazz-colored glasses.
With a haunting alto of suggestiveness and controlled force, Lohninger has chosen a song list for her latest CD, Beneath Your Surface, to combine intimations of sensuality with poetic observation, artistic sensibility with the compression of meaning within the songs. And the jazz influence makes itself known not through insistent swing - although some songs like "Last Exit" do swing - but through a harmonic vocabulary that elucidates the inherent profundity of apparently simple songs, otherwise unnoticed, with newly applied changes or unexpected rhythms. For example, "Lost In You" on the surface is an admission of unfettered love described in short declarative statements like "This time I see/Beyond the things/Distracting me./This song is yours./This joy is mine./We are one/You and I." But pianist Walter Fischbacher provides a strong presence in a minor-key vamp lightly played without adornment, Lohninger sings the words in broad, leaping intervals ending on ninths, and the omission of the final expected eighth beat in the 7/4 meter adds a degree of tension continuing throughout the track. On Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now," the only song on the album not written by Lohninger, she lightens the approach and slows it down, as if in contemplation, as Fischbacher and bassist Steve Doyle back her up with mere whole tones, for the most part, giving her lots of space to develop the build-up to the song's final conclusion: "I really don't know love at all."
But then, Lohninger delivers songs in French and German, suddenly reminding the listener of her background, particularly as a result of the ease of her diction when she sings, say, "Pour-Quoi Pour-Quoi Pas." Reminiscent of some of Patricia Barber's singing in a narrow range from her most recent album recorded in France, Lohninger remains consistent with her stories of the unending variations within situations of love, instead of Barber's allusions to Greek myths or jarring use of metaphor. Even in German, Lohninger sings, albeit with a style that is unorthodox in the jazz idiom, and commands with all the romantic sternness that she can muster, "Frag Mich Nicht, Ob Ich Dich Liebe" (or "do not ask me if I love you"). The oddity of the piece is that it's consistent with the drama inherent in some German songs, from the tango-like mysteriousness of the chorus to the contrasting flowery tenderness of the bridge. Eventually, as expected, "Frag Mich Nicht..."concludes with a rousing climactic statement, as if the last act in a play, as Lohninger pulls out all the stops with a swelling crescendo and martial insistence. Interestingly, the trio backing her takes the material from what appears to be a song written in traditional form and modifies it into a more relaxed jazz adaptation. "Ich Hab Vielleicht Noch Nie Geliebt" ("perhaps I had no love"), once again, relies upon the trio's pulsating rhythm to animate the piece while Lohninger sings the melody in long tones, jarring at first with the second note seeming to be dissonantly off pitch but then offsetting the corresponding eighth note of the song for a logical parallel interval.

The consistent element of Lohninger's CD is the directness of strong emotion conveyed through song, from the power of reminiscence in "I Remember" to the appeal of the senses in "Home". With subtlety and grace, Elisabeth Lohninger has developed her own persona as a singer, unlike that of any other, and deserves a wider audience beyond those New York clubs, such as the 55 Bar and SOB's, where she appears.
ejazznews.com
CD Review/Elisabeth Lohninger/”Beneath Your Surface”

No cliche ridden heavy amateur vocal recitation here!! Elisabeth sings the song!!! It's hard to define Lohninger's artistry except to say: Her voice is unusual, hypnotic, & strangely attractive. And talk about your inherent infusion of solid viable musical inspiration??.. She gets this from her consummate sidemen, who create the wonderful platform upon which Elisabeth is able to ply her vocal wares. Succinctly stated: This CD project is a killer!

George W. Carroll/The Musicians Ombudsman
Jazz News Magazine, online subsidiary of Jazz Quad, Belarus
Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet :: Beneath Your Surface

I first saw Elisabeth Lohninger and her band perform live at the 55 Bar in New York, where she's a regular, and her presence onstage was stunning, as was her lyrical depth and musical gut. Now she finally has released her first album as a leader, with the terrific band she has been performing with for a while now. This album was way overdue, especially coming from an artist of Ms. Lohninger's caliber and vision. Seven out of the ten tracks on "Beneath Your Surface" are penned by her, the rest is comprised of 2 German songs and a cover Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now". Ms. Lohninger is a very prolific writer, pushing the boundaries of the genre without ever losing the integrity of the song. There is some cool odd meter rhythm going on, next to a haunting ballad and a straight-forward high-speed piano groove tune. Walter Fischbacher on piano is supplying virtuosity and subliminal harmony, especially on the piano driven title track. Steve Doyle on bass is a competent and swinging player, and his solo on "Both Sides Now" distinguishes him as a melodic improviser. Hari Ganglberger on drums is an exciting if unusual choice for a jazz vocal record, his nervous energy drives the uptempo part of the CD.
Elisabeth Lohninger possesses the rare gift of a distinguished, soulful vocal sound, sightly breathy and highly individual. On the sexy opener "Pour-quoi, pour-quoi pas" she lightly talks her way through a groovy tune about the frustrations of dating, brings out her blues chops in "Last Exit Before Toll" and entices the listener with a tone of sweetness and longing in "I Remember". The ranginess of her voice becomes apparent on her cover of "Both Sides Now", and she finally surprises the listener with sparseness, innocence and soul on her closer, the lullaby "Sleep Slowly".
"Beneath Your Surface" definitely does Elisabeth Lohninger and her band justice and should finally put her on the map of great up and coming songstresses and writers in jazz.

Michael Schuman
Concerto Magazin, Austria
Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet - Beneath Your Surface

Was passiert mit einer österreichischen Sängerin, die, gesegnet mit einer ausdrucksstarken Stimme und dem nötigen Handwerk (ordentlich zu swingen), in New York Fuß fasst? Sie hat verschiedene musikalische Genres ausgelotet und zahlreiche Auftritte in verschiedenen Clubs absolviert (auch mit Popsongs in Venues wie der Knitting Factory oder dem SOBs). Nun ist sie, nach eigenen Aussagen, zum Jazz zurückgekehrt und hat ein fulminantes Album mit ihrer Band eingespielt. Anstatt die x-ten Versionen des American Songbook auf- und ab zu spielen, hat sie eine Mischung aus Eigenkompositionen und zwei deutschen Songs auf ihrer neuen CD vereint. Abgerundet wird das bunte Repertoire mit einer wunderbar stimmungsvollen Version des Joni-Mitchell-Songs "Both Sides Now". Als Mitmusiker agieren die zwei Ex-Österreicher Walter Fischbacher am Klavier und Hari Ganglberger am Schlagzeug sowie der Bassist Steve Doyle. Auf weitere Highlights aus dem Big-Apple darf gehofft werden.

Wolfgang Weitlaner
Town & Village, New York
Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet - Beneath Your Surface

There are not many jazz singers who sing primarily their own compositions. On her new CD, "Beneath Your Surface", Elisabeth Lohninger (who was born in Austria and has been living in New York for the last ten years)performs in English, French, and German and manages to swing or cast a spell in all of them.
One song on the album that she didn't write is Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" and this is done in Lohninger's own sensitive arrangement. Incidentally, her English is flawlessly enunciated without a trace of an accent. "Frag mich nicht, ob ich dich lieve" ("Don't Ask Me Whether I Love You") is done as a longue-in-cheek tango. Her own originals are intelligent and musically complex. "I Remember" is a ballad about the transience of love, while "Lost in You" is a jazz waltz and "Sleep Slowly" is sort of a romantic lullaby.
"Home" has driving rhythms as does the title track. Lohninger's band (Walter Fischbacher on piano, Steve Doyle on bass, and Hari Ganglberger on drums) is up to the demands of her music and the CD is filled with fine solos, though none outdo Lohninger's own multi-octave voice. This is a singer who is a true original, building up a distinctive body of work and performing her songs with sensitivity and abandon."

Barry Bassis