FROM HEAD TO TOE After the huge success of their third album "Same Pictures - New Exhibition" (a recomposition of the famous "Pictures Of An Exhibition" by Modest Musorgsky) one of Switzerland's most steady bands Mats-Up passes through their first reorientation in their tenth year of existence. Let's join Matthias Spillmann on his way to new horizons. The expressive trumpet player shrank his former septet into a quintet with partly new personnel. From the old crew the powerful and straightforward lownote specialist Patrice Moret and, oscillating between elegance and unleashing, Dominic Egli on the drums are still part of the group, next to the leader. Joining on reeds and piano, Reto Suhner and Colin Vallon, two conscious yet freely playing musicians, both with a very sensitive treatment of soundnuances. Spillmann composed new pieces for this high calibre quintet that combine the radiance of hymnic melodies with the fiery impact of African rhythms. These iridescent compositions aim for an osmotic exchange of ideas between the alert musicians. In other words: All the musicians participate spontaneously in a work in progress. Leader Spillmann gives some outlines but leaves the colours to the collective intuition. This "Metaphysical Dance Music" doesn't stop at the waistline - it makes your legs move and in the meanwhile stimulates the grey cells in your upper head. It takes us from head to toe.