Peter Brötzmann-Marino Pliakas-Michael Wertmüller

"Pliakas and Wertmuller were equally assertive at filling every last bit of space in the thick canvas of sound and matched Brötzmann's fire with accompaniment worthy of an Ozzfest booking." -JazzTimes

Peter Brötzmann (tenor saxophone, tarogato, a-clarinet) studied at the Art Academy of Wuppertal before beginning his music career in German swing and be-bop bands. Subsequent pivatol associations in the early 1960s with the Fluxus movement (including Nam June Paik), bassist Peter Kowald, and Americans-in-Paris Don Cherry and Steve Lacy encouraged Brötzmann's (b.1941) unorthodox approach, often described as "sonic terror." A founder of European Free Jazz movement, his work includes collaborations and recordings with Last Exit (with Bill Laswell, Sonny Sharrock and Ronald Shannon Jackson), Evan Parker, Misha Mengelberg, and Borah Bergman. Recent projects include Die Like a Dog (with William Parker, Hamid Drake and Toshinori Kondo), his homage to Albert Ayler, and a Chicago-based Octet/Tentet featuring Ken Vandermark.

Wertmueller and Broetzmann toured for years as a duo and in various contexts, such as Broetzmann's Chicago Tentett. Together they have recorded with bassist William Parker. Wertmueller and Pliakas perform together on various occasions with Caspar Broetzmann, Stephan Wittwer, John Cale, Jaki Liebezeit, Holger Csukay, K.K. Null, Olaf Rupp, Marian Gold and others; and in cooperation with Pliakas' avant trio STEAMBOAT.