The Musicians
Kriz Flew (trumpet & electronics)
Kriz needs no introduction as a hornplayer, musical director, sound engineer and even vocalist. Once heard you won’t forget his smooth, soft and fragile sound on trumpet and flugelhorn, beside that he is one of the rare tuba players in the country. As studio musician he has played on almost 50 records, in musicals and soundtracks for movies and tv. As a sound engineer in his recording studio «Klangfaktur» he is known for innovative and tasty sounddesign.
More information http://www.klangfaktur.ch
Julien Boss (rhodes, synth, electronics)
This young keybord player from Lausanne will make himself a name. He is already a producer and arranger for hiphop, pop and musical shows tearing down all stilistic borders. Besides being an excellent keyboard player and sound programmer, he teaches at «Haute ecole musicale de Lausanne, HEMU» and runs his duo «Boss Ensemble» crossing borders between jazz and classical music.
More information https://www.julienboss.ch
Jean-Pierre Schaller (electric bass)
Still young, still experimenting, still full of energy! Being one of the most distinctive bass players in Switzerland and one oft he most underrated ones in Europe, JP Schaller laid down the groove for «The Clients» and «Funky Brotherhood». Together with Brugger he was «No No Diet Bang» in the 90ties. As a sideman he played with cats like Eddie Daniels, Bob Mintzer, Fred Wesley, Randy Brecker, Mathieu Michel or Russell Ferrante. Jean-Pierre Schaller teaches also at the «HEMU».
More information www.jpschaller.ch
Johan Wermeille (drums)
Johan joined the band in spring 2023. After a master degree with distinction at Lucerne Jazz University, he became drum teacher and management assistant at the Bernese Jura Music School (EMJB). Besides that he rocked the big stages with Caroline Alves, 60 Miles or KKAAN.
Today he plays – besides Wolkenpark – with Olivier Magarotto, Markus Moser, as sub with Veronica Fusaro and many others.
More information www.johanwermeille.ch
Featured artist (TBA): Julio Mwansa Nkowane, a.k.a ROOTWORDS (rap & spoken word)
Born in Connecticut USA he has been professionally active in the music scene in both Geneva Switzerland and France since 2012. A writer-poet in constant reflection on the human condition and contemporary state of affairs, he has forged a solid reputation in the studio and on stage while proposing an eclectic style of Hip Hop. From the Paléo Festival, to Montreux Jazz, to Selvamonos in Pérou, to Bushfire in Swaziland Africa, to Rototom Sunsplash in Spain; Rootwords continues to expand and explore new musical horizons through artistic collaborations, or with his live band «The Block Notes».
URL to printable quick overview as pdf
The Project
Early years
Wolkenpark began as a duo project by trumpet player Kriz Flew and sound designer/composer Mehdi Khansari back in the 1990s. Both grew up in a suburb of Zurich and began making music together by jamming and producing in Kriz’s bedroom. Mehdi used an ironing board as a keyboard stand for his Roland Alpha Juno 2, while Kriz recorded MIDI on his Atari 1040 computer. Trumpet cuts had to be recorded live, and the master was captured on a Casio DAT recorder, as 4-track tape recorders were unaffordable at that time. Despite these limitations, they achieved some success and won prizes in local competitions.
After leaving their parents’ homes, Mehdi pursued a career as a film composer in London, while Kriz stayed in Switzerland to study at the Swiss Jazz School in Berne. He also built up a recording studio (http://www.klangfaktur.ch) and gained a reputation as a studio and session musician, working with musicals and numerous bands of all styles.
The duo
Several decades later in 2009, Mehdi had returned from London back to Zurich, their ways crossed again. Still having the same musical heroes, they decided to follow their own vision of an electronic, danceable, live emerging music which in this combination was never made and heard before.
In the beginning they struggled with hardware problems, laptops and interfaces had terrible latencies. But the constant search for better workflows and massive improvements of the soft- and hardware industry finally let them do what became Wolkenpark’s trademark: live improvised electronic music with a jazzy flavor and an impressive musical space.
As «Wolkenpark» they won the «Nightclub-City Original Song Contest» at Indaba with «Frappantine» and their Track «Cheerful Waiting Room» was elected for the Christie’s Lounge at the exhibition Art Basel in Miami and «Sparkling Water» got a 3rd price at «HOFA Production & Song Contest 2018» (listen to the tracks on this website).
Since Mehdi retired as live perfomer in 2018, they continue as jamming studio project.
The trio
In summer 2018 Kriz was invited to do some live gigs and took the opportunity to expand Wolkenpark to a trio featuring the extraordinary Jean-Pierre Schaller on electric bass and Andy Brugger on drums. Since 2016 they worked together with Andys electric jazz combo «Tanga Zoo». In Spring 2019 Wolkenpark played live on tour for the first time as a trio, visiting several cities in Switzerland. A second tour to Russia in spring 2020 had to be canceled because of the outbreak of the Corona pandemy.
The quartet
In June 2020 the trio had a session with exceptional pianist and keyboard player Julien Boss from Lausanne, which was so fruitful, that the band decided to continue as a quartet. After several rehearsal sessions they started recording material for their first release as a quartet in January 2021.
During 2022 several singles were released and on 12. 12. 2022 the first album «Wizard Wisdom» appeared on CD (and digital distribution) featuring two tracks with special guest Rootwords on rap and spoken word.
A new drummer
Due to different views regarding the future development of the band, Andy Brugger left Wolkenpark in spring 2023.
With Johan Wermeille Wolkenpark found a new drummer who immediately fit into the concept of the band.
In June 2023 the band spent again some days in the studio recording new material of which a first selection was finally released on 6./7. April 2024 as EP «Vagues (EP)». The sound became stronger, driving and more accessable without loosing experimental soundscapes and heavy brass stacks. The release of the full album with the same name «Vagues» (french for «Waves») is planned for September 2024.
Former members
Andy Brugger (drums)
Andy was Wolkenparks drummer from 2019 till he left the band in spring 2023. He ist one oft he most skilled drummers in funk, fusion and electric jazz in Middle Europe. After writing European electric jazz history in the eighties with «Donkey Kongs Multi Scream» he did his own thing «No No Diet Bang» together with Jean-Pierre Schaller. He teached from 1999-2022 as professor for drums and rhythm studies at «Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, ZHdK».
More information www.andybrugger.ch
Mehdi Khansari (keys, effects & octatrack)
Mehdi was co-founder of Wolkenpark and band member till he left the duo project in 2018. With his compositions and intense soundscapes he defined the early Wolkenpark sound. He’s also responsible for our band name «Wolkenpark».
Listen to the duo sound live and in studio…