Description
Musical soulmates organist Daniel Stickan and saxophonist Uwe Steinmetz follow their German Grammy-nominated album 'Where Roots Grow' with 'Deeper Standards', in which they continue their 14-year artistic journey by exploring the language and songs of their grandparents, who spoke and sang in Plattdeutsch (Low Saxon), an ancient West Germanic dialect.
This historic language, which inspired many poets and folk singers, serves also as a living heritage, an identity-shaping culture of a 1500-year-old connection between Nordic countries, including England and Scotland.
For this homage to their childhood roots, both artists felt inspired by a sense of stillness, simplicity and quietness. They chose historic instruments that stimulate an especially intimate interplay and creative expression from their inner limitations: a German harmonium meets an alto saxophone from 1881 by Adolphe Sax, and the first electronic wind instrument, the Lyricon I.
Steinmetz and Stickan present on 'Deeper Standards' instrumental versions of folk songs about the lives and hopes of farmers, sailors, craftsmen, and the distinct landscape between woodland and marshland, bogland and the open sea. For them, these new interpretations unveil a treasure chest of timeless, sincere and deeper truths about everyday life, particularly meaningful in our increasingly fragmented and globalised world.