At first the clearness stands out that unfolds this music: each of the players seem to have much space in the sound of this sextet, the themes are complex and plastically, the improvisations are singing.

Little by little you’ll notice that the free breathing spaces in Volker Heuken’s music were sorted by dramaturgic acuteness. Every piece weaves an own atmosphere with the use of delicately balanced moods. At the end of this programme it will be demonstrated that you have lived a great poetic process by the flowing sequence of these atmospheres. This is to a good part due to the weave of the compositions: elegantly and varied melodies, rhythmic textures between filigree flotation and passionate burning, Volker Heuken adds the single pieces to an overarching tale with his creative acuteness. Tone colours develop like charakters, grooves push on conflicts, again and again the music darts surprising sideways. Also, the fancy treatment of the ensemble contributes to the effect of richness. Volker Heuken divides his sextet again and again in different small ensembles. Duets, trios and quartets create their own world of sound, overlay and pervade themselves, offer themselves to the soloists, enter into dialog with them, challenge them for a fight.

Each musician gets this way into different roles and connections, may change in no time from master to slave, from a cuddly dancing partner to a tricky opponent. Finally, the Volker Heuken Sextett offers this mystic ingredient of deep accordance of the players, that leads to a special brilliance of the atmosphere of this music. It’s an in all its clearness hidden secret.

Yet with his debut CD “Portugal” the Volker Heuken Sextett has approved its finesse. The eloquent and carefully composed pieces complement one another to an atmospheric narration, to a poetic process. The band agrees upon the creation of spaces and moods in an extremely convincing way and implements the great dramaturgic arch of the Portugal suite with free breathing and a striking intensity.

Based on this groundwork Volker Heuken develops with his new programme an even more dense, more varied texture. The central themes of the pieces create the impulses, melodic-harmonic creatures get dissolved from their original ideas and found new sound colonies. The soloists and ensembles start expeditions into new atmospheres buzzed by small motif-satellites.

Biography

Volker Heuken, born in 1990 in Leverkusen, started to study drums at the music school in Leverkusen when he was 6 years old.

With 17 years he discovered the vibraphone and jazz music. He took lessons with David Friedman, Mathias Goebel and Mathias Haus. Workshops with Mathias Haus, Tony Lakatos, John Ruocco, Antonio Farao, Jim Snidero, Matt Penman, Eric Alexander completed his formation.

Since 2011 he studies Jazz-Mallets at the HfM (Hochschule für Musik) Nürnberg with Roland Neffe. Volker is a member of the prestigious Landesjugendjazzorchesters Bayern (a jazz orchestra for young talented musicians) as well as of the Metropolmusik Verein Nürnberg.

Volker Heuken was awarded at the Rother Gedächtnis contest 2014.

He played for different bands and bigbands, played concerts in many important German Jazzclubs like Jazzstudio Nürnberg, Leerer Beutel Regensburg, BIX Stuttgart, Unterfahrt München and others and was guest at Jazzfestivals like Jazztage Leverkusen, Jazztage Mainz, Jazzfest Bonn among others.

Together with Izabelle Effenberg he was art director of the german Vibraphone festival “Vibraphonissimo”. He also curated the concert series Brozzjazz together with Jan F. Brill.