Lauterung (trans: Purification) is an unusual term for an album title, especially when you know that Kellen Tryon Mills, the person behind this music, is American.
Mills comes from Seattle, plays bass and synthesizer, composes and produces and has become known with the prog-rock band Alex's Hand, which has released four albums and two EPs in its ten-year career. Mills named his current project after his middle name Tryon, and what happens on Lauterung is difficult to put into words. Pop, rock, jazz, avant-garde - everything seems to be happening at the same time and many of the songs work with complex rhythm changes and outlandish lyrics, which are interpreted by three singers. Most of them are sung by Erik Leuthhauser and Ganna Gryvia, and the almost pop-style Wooden Chair is sung by Lela Frite. I had worked with Erik before and therefore also composed songs with his voice in mind, Mills explained his choice. He then recommended Ganna to me, because I needed a female voice for the other side of the album.
The wild mixture, played with sleepwalking ease by the sixteen musicians involved, encompasses a whole universe of musical influences.
Jacopo Bazzarri, among others, provides for the truly zappaesque moments on marimba and vibraphone, but there are also a lot of skilled wind instrument players such as the saxophonists Toms Rudzinski and Omri Abramov and the trombonist Scott Flynn. Of course, there is a reason why so many jazz musicians play on the album, Mills said, because they not only can play excellently from sheet music, but also improvise.
Guitarist Ruben Bernges has a hell of a job, because his guitar is omnipresent on Lauterung; he dominates an entire sound universe from aggressive metal riffs to excessive solos and all the way to delicate acoustic passages. I've known and appreciated Ruben for a long time, which is why he absolutely had to be part of this, Mills stated enthusiastically. He plays in prog rock and metal bands, but has also studied jazz. He can also understand the most complicated music and that makes him so valuable.
