Alexander Beierbach – tenor & soprano saxophone
Nicolas Schulze – piano, fender rhodes piano

The duo TWIRLS features Berlin based saxophonist Alexander Beierbach and pianist Nicolas Schulze from Potsdam. In free and intimate dialogues, the two instrumentalists explore a landscape of sounds and textures, nourished by various musical backgrounds. After meeting in different musical settings over the years, their playing as an improvising duo started in 2018. Since then they established their personal way to interweave a multitude of layers of density and space. In May 2022, the duo recorded their debut Album at Emil-Berliner-Studio Berlin, which was released on Tiger Moon Records in June 2023.

Alexander Beierbach is active in groups such as BROM (with bass player Jan Roder and drummer Christian Marien), in his quintet Absolutely Sweet Marie (dealing with the music of Bob Dylan) or one of the famous Berlin Big Bands, the Hannes Zerbe Jazz Orchestra. https://alexanderbeierbach.de

Nicolas Schulze works with the duo The Great Boredom (with drummer Daniel Kartmann) and with Breath, Tongue, Melody (with Magdalena Weber- voice, Richard Koch- trumpet and Matti Thölert- drums). He composes music for dance theater and is the organizer and curator of the JazzLab concert series and the Jazzoffensive jazz festival. http://www.nicolasschulze.de

Jazzpodium 06/23 by Michael Bossong about Tides & Shadows
About TWIRLS Duo: „The playing attitude of the two is very concentrated, thoughtful, intent on listening to the sounds that emerge. There is no room for inauthentic speaking here.“
About TWIRLS Quartet: „A stylistically confident, well-structured and perfectly aural collective improvisation. Uncompromising, consistent and without gimmick.“

Grand Guitars 4/23 by Hans-Dieter Grünefeld about Tides & Shadows
„(…) Both the TWIRLS Duo and the TWIRLS Quartet do not allow themselves to be confused by unruly sound currents, but always have a mental compass at hand to guide their excursions.“

Jazzthing 06/23 by Martin Laurentius about Tides & Shadows
About TWIRLS Duo: „(…) they have found a form of collective improvisation with which they more than do justice to the duo’s name. In playful flow, they give free rein to their phrases and lines, eloquently telling their stories and often emotionalising their music through non-traditional playing techniques.“

JazzMania 10/23 by Eric Therer about Tides & Shadows
„In English, the word „twirl“ translates as „twist“. Whatever meaning prevails here, it is the airy dimension surrounding the term that looms in the mind’s eye upon hearing the first notes of this music.“

Bad Alchemy 119/23 by Rigobert Dittmann about Tides & Shadows
„The Twirls Quartet loudly paints (…) hymns to the night and to the groove of the Oceans of Sound.“

Jazz Nedeljom 06/23 about Tides & Shadows
„(…) an extremely pleasant album, which despite its cerebrality has a soul and communicates with the listener in a very direct way, offering pleasant themes and warm colours. (…) Tides & Shadows is a real treat for those listeners who find themselves on the border between avant-garde jazz, modern composition and free improvisation. Complex and spontaneous, intellectual and warm, never unsure of where it’s going and always aware of where it’s coming from, this is an album that is particularly enjoyable on the most basic aesthetic level (…)“.

Jazzthetik 06/23 by Hans-Jürgen Schaal about Tides & Shadows
About TWIRLS Duo: „(…) Their duo pieces offer captivating climaxes, free tonal lyricism, cluster-like sound balloons or crossings of noise with romance.“
About TWIRLS Quartet: „TWIRLS Quartet actually succeed in evoking drastic darkness or anthemic light. And they do it without any themes, metrics or harmonies at all.“

JazzWord 27/09 Ken Waxman about Tides & Shadows https://www.jazzword.com
„Preserving two archetypes of their long-standing partnership Tides & Shadows confirms all the musicians’ comprehensive and sympathetic skills. It also demonstrates that profound playing doesn’t have to be overwrought to make an impression.“