 Teleportation is probably one of the most fascinating skills that the crew of the starship Enterprise – or “Star Trek,” as the younger ones say – was able to achieve: Mr. Spock, Captain Kirk and “Pill” McCoy were able to dissolve their bodies into molecules and reassemble them on other planets. The four guys from Tele-Port can't do that, but at least they take their listeners on their second album “Please Disperse” to places where no one has ever been before. This is due to the winning sound that drummer Jeff Herr, saxophonist Zhenya Strigalev, bassist Pol Belardi and keyboarder Jérôme Klein conjure together: Rapid fusion power mixed with hypnotic minimalism, free improvisation and fine groove monsters – a truly exciting and unique mix of styles. “Please Disperse” was recorded in September last year in Dudelange, Luxembourg, because Belardi, Herr and Klein are from Luxembourg; the London saxophonist Zhenya Strigalev completes the Tele-Port lineup. But the origin of the participants is actually completely different, because Tele-Port received its inspiration from European traditions as well as American jazz and Eastern influences. “Zhenya's saxophone style is very demanding, and he has a very individual sound with a wide range,” drummer Jeff Herr said. “He's a very crazy guy and he plays accordingly. Jérôme enriches the music with just the right sound effects; he always knows immediately which note to play. And Pol is an accomplished electric bassist who has also played as a multi-instrumentalist. That's why he has an understanding for me as a drummer. Both Pol and Jérôme also play drums, so we actually have three drummers in the band.” Zhenya Strigalev is something like the eye of the hurricane in the band. The four got to know each other through Herr's manager Patrice Hourbette, who discovered the Russian musician in London, where Strigalev has been living for two decades. “Our manager introduced us to Zhenya, and we immediately hit it off,” Jeff Herr recalled. “We are a band of co-leaders, almost all of us compose. That's why we wanted a real band name, and Tele-Port was an idea of Zhenya. We want to put our listeners in a different place and in a different mood, so we liked the metaphor as the band name.” Tele-Port's nameless debut album was also released by Double Moon in early 2020, and the band has been on the road a lot from the start. “We were very fortunate that we were able to give concerts in France and Germany even during lockdown periods,” Jeff Herr said. “As soon as the regulations were loosened a little, we were ready to go. Our second album was created very quickly, because we knew exactly what we wanted." Zhenya Strigalev , Pol Belardi and Jeff Herr each contributed three songs for "Please Disperse". Jérôme Klein was still busy with his own band shortly before the recordings, for which he composes the music. Otherwise, one or the other piece of his would have ended up on the new Tele-Port CD. “We rehearsed for a few days at the Opderschmelz Cultural Center and explored the possibilities of where the musical journey should go,” Jeff Herr stated. "We didn't have to discuss music at all; it just happened. We quickly agreed on what we wanted to do: groove-oriented and modern music, an expressive and energetic jazz.” So we got into the teleportation tubes and shouted boldly, “Beam me up, Scotty!“ The journey can begin.
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