Michael Kiedaisch & Eberhard Hahn
Terra Incognita is the debut album from the versatile Kiedaisch/Hahn duo. The inspiration and starting point was one of Michael Kiedaisch's pieces of drama music for marimba and flute. The enormous range of the two musicians allowed them increasingly to broaden their instrumental combinations.
Michael Kiedaisch plays primarily marimba and vibraphone, but also the accordion and percussion instruments. Eberhard Hahn makes use of various saxophones and flutes, but also plays the didgeridoo and other ethnic instruments. In this way, they create music which combines the rhythmical and improvisational possibilities of jazz with folklore elements (from Southeast Europe, South America and Australia) in a chamber music-like concept.
Michael Kiedaisch first learned to play piano and drums, later teaching himself to play the vibraphone at the age of 16. Initially, he worked as a drummer in various jazz bands. From 1983 to 1987, he studied music, primarily percussion. It was during his studies that he became increasingly interested in contemporary music, and his main instrumental focus began gradually to shift towards the vibraphone and marimba.
Between 1988 and 1993 Kiedaisch participated in various drama projects for independent theatre groups in Germany and Switzerland, both as a composer and performer. He composed dramatic music for Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Michael Ende's The Spoilsports, among others.
Since 1993, Michael Kiedaisch has been working freelance and has been engaged for concerts, tours, radio and CD productions with various ensembles such as Piano & Percussion, the Ludwigsburg Castle Festival Orchestra and the Stuttgart State Orchestra. He has also taken part in modern jazz projects with the likes of Karoline Höfler, Frank Kuruc, Uli Möck and others with their own groups.
Eberhard Hahn studied flute and saxophone. From 1985 to 1992 he worked as flautist and saxophonist in numerous musical and opera productions with Stuttgart-based theatre companies. He also worked as a session musician.
In 1991, he began his co-operation with Andreas Vollenweider, and toured with his group, "Andreas Vollenweider & Friends," in Europe, the USA and Canada and worked on several CDs. The collaboration with Vollenweider inspired Eberhard Hahn to expand his musical collection with the addition of numerous ethnic wind instruments. In his musical projects, such as the duo with Michael Kiedaisch, he developed his own personal style of improvisation and composition by blending his classical roots with jazz and folk influences.
— Courtesy Calabash Music