Thomas Kessler (composer, jazz musician)

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Thomas Kessler (* 1962 in Viersen) is a German composer, music producer, musician and architect.

Biography[edit]

After studying classical piano, jazz harmony and composition techniques, he founded his own Thomas Kessler Group in 1986. This group played in the style of European electric jazz.^[1]

In 1991, he produced the studio recordings for the album 'April' by German guitarists Ulli Bögershausen and Reinhold Westerheide.^[2]

From 1995 to 2001, Kessler performed with the Berlin-based world music group Dissidenten at European festivals in Glastonbury, Montreux, Roskilde, Budapest, Rome and Barcelona.^[3]

Influenced by world music, Kessler recorded his first solo album, "on earth", in 1995. Three years later, "ego" marked his entry into electronica (music), ambient and trip-hop. In 2000, he worked on sound collages for the documentary opera "The Memory of the Waters", a co-production of Dissidenten with American composer Gordon Sherwood (New York Symphonics), Charlie Mariano and the Danubian Orchestra and Choir (Bratislava).^[4] That same year, he backed New York saxophonist Clive Stevens (Manfred Mann, Billy Cobham) as co-writer on his Millennium Jams.^[5]

Sessions in the Trance Club of Stefan Krachten (Unknown Cases (band), Trance Groove (band)) followed, among others with Mel Collins (King Crimson), Rosko Gee (Traffic (band), Can (band)) and Helmut Zerlett.^[6]

In 2002, Kessler collaborated with Wolfgang Flür, former drummer of the band Kraftwerk, on his Yamo project. His third solo album "egolution", a remastered version of the 1998 album "ego", was released in spring 2005, first in Japan and later worldwide. ^[7]

In 2007 he contributed to Nighthawks' album '4'.^[8] He played as a guest at some concerts of Drums Off Chaos (band), featuring Jaki Liebezeit and Manos Tsangaris, including the "Drums Summit" at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn.^[9]

In 2008, he began working on a concept dedicated to the phenomenon of synaesthesia and the simultaneous perception of space, colour, light and sound as a holistic sensory experience, inspired by the colour system Les Claviers de Couleur of the French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier. Titled "Le Son des Couleurs", he created sound compositions for ten colour tones from Le Corbusier's second collection. Since 2012, Kessler has been developing intuitively composed, multimedia stage performances based on this concept for special venues together with saxophonist Bernd Winterschladen.

From 2010-2014, he was the keyboarder and co-producer for Stefan Krachtens follow-up project GOLDMAN (with Mel Collins, Jürgen Dahmen, Helian Schulte, Helmut Zerlett, Konstantin Wienstroer). He produced the band's last public live recordings, which were released as the vinyl album "GOLDMAN live at the Blue Shell" in 2015.^[10]

As a producer, he supervised South Korean guitar virtuoso Sungha Jung's first two releases, 'Perfect Blue' (2010) and 'Irony' (2011), in collaboration with Ulli Bögershausen.^[11][12]

In 2014 he produced Ulli Bögershausen's solo album 'Spring Summer and Fall - Tunes from a Lifetime'.

Under the brand name TK audiotreatments, Thomas Kessler has been running a specialised mastering studio for acoustic, world, ambient and jazz music in Düsseldorf since 2008.

Since 2020, Kessler has returned to composing and recording contemporary solo piano music. The album "Piano Lullabies" was released in 2021, followed by "Close to Silence" (2022), "Fragile", and "Infinite Sky" (both 2023).^{[13][14][15][16]}

Discography[edit]

• 1990 – Thomas Kessler Group: Thomas Kessler Group
• 1991 – Bögershausen / Westerheide: April
• 1992 – Thomas Kessler Group: Untitled
• 1995 – solo: on earth
• 1997 – Dissidenten: Instinctive Traveler
• 1998 – solo: ego
• 2000 – Clive Stevens: Millennium Jams
• 2001 – Dissidenten: 2001 – A Worldbeat Odyssey
• 2005 – solo: egolution
• 2007 – solo: the liquid EP (digital release)
• 2009 – Trance Groove: Playing with the Chelsea Girls
• 2012 – solo: Piano Diaries
• 2013 – Goldman: On the Outside / Looking In
• 2014 – Goldman: The Truth of Ghost Dog
• 2015 – Goldman: Live at the Blue Shell
• 2018 – Thomas Kessler / Bernd Winterschladen: Le Son des Couleurs
• 2021 – solo: Piano Lullabies
• 2022 – solo: Close to Silence
• 2023 – solo: Fragile
• 2023 - solo: Infinite Sky

His compositions are also published under the name Thomas Kessler-Teveen.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

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