Swiss Review 3/2021

Swiss Review / June 2021 / No.3 30 A 22° halo is a ring of light that forms when direct sunlight is refracted inmillions of ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere. Swiss singer Lea Maria Fries has put this visual phenomenon intomusic on her debut album. Her band – also called 22° Halo – is a combo whose sound really does conjure up the light and purity suggested by the term. Fries hails fromLucerne. She completed a degree in jazz vocals at the Lucerne School of Music in 2014, then lived in Zurich and Berlin. Her current home is Paris, where she also performs in other formations besides 22° Halo – Gauthier Toux’s Trio being one of them. “Light at an angle” was recorded live two years ago in just two and a half days. However, Covid-19 meant that its release has been delayed until now. It was worth the wait. Fries has produced a delicate vocal jazz albumof great acoustic appeal. Her voice exudes urgency, maturity and depth –with a controlled fragility on the higher notes. Her sing- ing is gratifyingly free of affectations. French pianist Gauthier Toux and Swiss companions Lukas Traxel (double bass) and Valentin Liechti (drums) complement the front woman with creative re- straint. This is an album of gentle tones. The ten tracks have a fluent, in- timate and timeless quality. Yet themusic does somuchmore than go through themotions. The compositions are too sophisticated and the arrangements too refined for that. And occasionally the band lets fly at just the right moment – as in “T = G”, a piece that brings noisy post-rock tomind for amoment. Elsewhere, the sound ismore singer-songwriter pop than jazz. Subtle electronic pulses lend an experimental twist. These organic-sounding departures from the conventional are what elevate 22° Halo to a higher plane than that of your average jazz combo – and will attract a wider and younger audience. This work is a welcome light in dark times – with Lea Maria Fries a star who should illuminate the Swiss jazz firmament for many years to come. MARKO LEHT INEN Bernese theologian and author Kurt Marti died in 2017 at the ripe age of 96. He would have been 100 this year. Marti is mainly known in Switzerland for his poems, although he also wrote prose. He was an eloquent gen- tleman who served for many years as pastor at Nydegg Church in Berne’s old town. Alter- nating between standard German and Bernese dialect, his poetry was never clumsy but always laconic, playful and critical of the times. Time and again, his works showhimas an extremely keen observer. Few other au- thors can make so much sense with so few words. The recent 90-page publication “Han- nis Äpfel” (Hanni’s apples) provides a posthu- mous reprise, containing new poems that have not seen the light of day until now. “Hannis Äpfel” explores themes such as old age, loneliness, and wait- ing to die. The death of his wife Hanni had a particularly profound effect on Marti. Kurt and Hanni Marti-Morgenthaler were married for almost 60 years, the parents of four children. The book cover in- cludes a picture of the couple when they were young. It shows Marti holding his wife affectionately and proudly. Hanni passed away in 2007, ten years before her husband. The author would have preferred it the other way around – or even better: both of them dying at the same time, like Philemon and Baucis in Greek mythology. Widower Marti expressed his sorrow in poetic form: “Bei dirwar ich gerne ich./ Jetzt aber und ohne dich?/Wär’ ich am liebsten/auch ohne mich.” (I wasmyself when youwerewithme./But now, without you?/I would prefer not to be here.) This is an excerpt from “Hanni”, a poem that stretches over several pages. It is touching to read – a homage to a life- time of love full of memories, with brief anecdotes characterising an entire relationship. The author is self-critical enough to shine the spotlight on his own helplessness and resentment at his ageing wife needing long-term care. In the epilogue, poet Nora Gomringer refers to Marti’s “tender notes”, adding that they are a skilful, elegant recollection andmemo- rial of Hanni’s life. Marti incidentally reflected on human transience in a work that was published while he was still alive. Although resid- ing in a Berne care home by that time, his writing pulled no punches, betraying a certain resignation but showing the same articulacy evident in these, his final poems. “Hannis Äpfel” is a very personal work, albeit one that hits a commonnerve in our ageing society.Writer Guy Krneta has done us a service in publishing them – with the per- mission of the poet’s surviving family. SUSANNE WENGER From light to music Late poems on love and death Sounds Books 22° HALO: “Light At An Angle”. Prolog Records, 2021. www.leamariafries.com KURT MART I : “Hannis Äpfel”, Gedichte aus dem Nachlass. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen, 2021, 90 pages; CHF 18