Kurt Rosenwinkel Bandit65 – Searching the Continuum is out now!

October 11​, 2019 through Berlin-based independent music label Heartcore Records. Comprised of Kurt Rosenwinkel and Tim Motzer on guitar & electronics and Gintas Janusonis on drums, percussion, & electronics, the band embarks on deep sonic exploration replete with moments of pure and inspired improvisation.

Since its inception in 2014, Bandit65 has toured the USA, Europe and Japan; the trio’s latest record i​s an amalgam of musical highlights culled from these three years of intense live performance. The album showcases the trio at its most enlightened, sophisticated and adventurous state, with each master-player using the full spectrum of his sonic palette to effortlessly blend into a seamless stream of musical consciousness.

Buy the album here: https://heartcore-records.com/product/kurt-rosenwinkelng-the-continuum/

Embracing each concert as a unique moment unto itself, Rosenwinkel, Janusonis and Motzer opt to forego premeditated performance practice. For Bandit65, every show starts as a blank slate from which compositions arise and develop with free and spontaneous flow. The seven tracks on ​Searching the Continuum are journeys that unfold and spiral to otherworldly heights, evoking deep emotional resonances and abstract-yet-palpable moods. Rosenwinkel, Janusonis, and Motzer exhibit a rare and uncanny interconnectedness as Bandit 65. In releasing Searching the Continuum these maestros have given the world an album of ethereal beauty, sonic vistas that are truly a wonder to behold.

Heartcore Records Founder and CEO Kurt Rosenwinkel first heard Janusonis and Motzer play together in 2008. “​That’s when I had the idea to play with them,” he fondly remembers. “​Finally, we had a jam session in Philadelphia and Bandit65 was born. We discovered that the music was creating itself as the three of us improvised and it seemed like it was coming out fully formed. So that’s what we always do, we just listen, and explore, improvising together and find deep worlds of music.”

Bandit65 – Kurt Rosenwinkel/Tim Motzer/Gintas Janusonis/January 6th/Ruba Club/Ars Nova Workshop presents.

Please join us for a performance by the electrifying trio Bandit65, featuring the otherworldly guitar tandem of Kurt Rosenwinkel and Tim Motzer, rounded out by drummer Gintas Janusonis on January 6th, 2020 at the Ruba Club/Philly.

tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kurt-rosenwinkels-bandit65-tickets-84764678435

Bandit65 is a mesmerizing post-jazz sonic trio of breathtaking virtuosity, great power, boundless breadth, and astounding beauty. The trio explores the intersection of guitars, rhythms, electronics, soundscapes, experimentalism, psych-rock, free improvisation, and telepathic interplay. On a wide-open canvas, Bandit65 searches and pushes the envelope live and discovers captivating, mind-blowing multidimensional landscapes of sound in their improvisations.

Beside being two of the most inventive and adventurous guitar wizards in modern music, Rosenwinkel and Motzer both boast deep Philadelphia roots: Rosenwinkel is a native who was a member of the miraculous CAPA class that also included Christian McBride, Joey DeFrancesco, and members of The Roots; and Motzer has long called the city home, using it as a base for his expansive sonic explorations and all-encompassing collaborations.

“The closely worked textures and supple rhythms that infused this intriguing gig were conjured on the fly from two guitars, a drum kit and a battery of pedals and effects,” The London Financial Times wrote about a 2018 gig. “Each piece opened with a wash of electronica and evolved into a body-shaking groove, cued by a just-invented riff or a repeated beat. But though even the core of this multi-layered gig was left to chance, it had the clean lines and sense of order of pre-composed music.”

Rosenwinkel needs no introduction in jazz circles: one of the most influential musicians of his generation, he is a defining master, trailblazer, and preeminent international jazz guitarist-composer with a career spanning almost 25 years. With over 70 albums of credits, Motzer continues to traverse manifold territories in music and has developed a distinct textural guitar voice utilizing looping, bowing, electronics, and prepared techniques. Janusonis is a NYC-based, Grammy-nominated, internationally acclaimed drummer, composer, and producer who, over a 20+-year career, has worked with a diverse range of world-class artists, groups, and producers, including Angelique Kidjo, Branford Marsalis, Lee Scratch Perry, RZA, Wu-Tang Clan, Bill Laswell, David Murray, Bilal, and many more.

MONDAY, JANUARY 6
8:00PM

$20 General Admission

Ruba Club
416 Green Street
Philadelphia, PA

Bandit65 in England 2019

Bandit65 travels to England this weekend for a mini tour with concerts in London at the legendary Ronnie Scotts on September 23rd and 24th (also Kurt will give a masterclass at Ronnie’s in the afternoon of the 24th), Newcastle at Sage Gateshead on the 28th, and Manchester on the 29th at Band on the Wall.

“Every Bandit 65 concert is an epic adventure, an experience in which the audience bears witness to and participates in the creative momentum, telepathic interplay, and virtuosity of these three visionary artists.”

Kurt Rosenwinkel – guitar, voice, electronics
Tim Motzer – electro-acoustic guitar synth, electronics
Gintas Janusonis – drums, percussion, electronics

PS: Our new album will drop early next month. More details soon. Hope to see you at one of these shows!

Bandit65 at Ronnie Scott’s, London Financial Times Review

London Financial Times Review

Kurt Rosenwinkel and Bandit 65, Ronnie Scott’s, London — power chords and body-shaking grooves Two guitarists and a drummer conjured compelling jazz improvisations
Mike Hobart JANUARY 18, 2018

The closely worked textures and supple rhythms that infused this intriguing gig were conjured on the fly from two guitars, a drum kit and a battery of pedals and effects. Each piece opened with a wash of electronica and evolved into a body-shaking groove, cued by a just-invented riff or a repeated beat. But though even the core of this multi-layered gig was left to chance, it had the clean lines and sense of order of pre-composed music.

The band released their first recording in 2014 and have been together ever since. At this gig — a stopover between Japan and France — the musicians projected a road-tested rapport that suited their moniker Bandit 65, the name of a trusty guitar amp.

The evening opened with guitarists Kurt Rosenwinkel and Tim Motzer juxtaposing whiny melodies over wheezy synthesised sounds. Drummer Gintas Janusonis added a hiss of cymbals and pistol-shot triggers; textures thickened, lines came at speed and then the first groove arrived, a steady Latin funk with Rosenwinkel in full cry over Motzer’s strummed bass. As the piece evolved, power chords crunched, there was a wail of rocking blues accompanied by the thump of mallets, and a swish of brushes supporting the picked outlines of a country ballad.

The second improvisation opened with a synthesised chuckle, oscillated into a mist of white noise and settled into grainy urban funk. The third began with a thrum of atonal chords and lyrical pan-pipe effects; it faded over head-nodding hip-hop and twisted and turned in between.

Rosenwinkel and Motzer were so in tune with each other’s strums, lines and sonic effects that at times it was hard to tell them apart. But for the most part, roles were clearly defined, though frequently swapped, and Motzer’s nylon-stringed acoustic was a warm contrast to Rosenwinkel’s jazzier, more metallic lines. The abstract beginnings had purpose, and with Janusonis setting the pulse and providing propulsive support, the grooves had bite.

The second set proceeded as the first. Each of the three pieces hovered in time, then firmed into a house-shaking rhythm. But with soundscapes varying and grooves referencing different roots, each improvisation was distinct. The band built the evening to a tense, rhythm-infused high, faded over sparse electronic beeps and then Rosenwinkel spoke. “That’s our time,” he said. All too soon, the performance was done. ★★★★☆
The London Financial Times, Mike Hobart, January 18, 2018

https://www.ft.com/content/e5b67948-fae0-11e7-9bfc-052cbba03425

Read about our January 2018 Japan/Europe Tour!

We just finished an extraordinary whirlwind tour…

January 11-21 2018,  flying through multiple time zones and playing to capacity audiences in Japan, UK, and Europe.  It’s difficult to put into words all of the amazing experiences that we shared. It was a quite an exhausting tour in terms of travel,  but so exhilarating to play for all the wonderful audiences. There was magic and the pure joy of being together again. We played many epic Bandit65 concerts! Here’s a short diary of our journey, click on the link below to begin!

https://mailchi.mp/a7a4c3a7f778/bandit-65-tour-true-story

January 2018 Bandit65 Tour heading to Japan and Europe

BANDIT65 featuring Kurt Rosenwinkel, Tim Motzer, and Gintas Janusonis.

We’ve been in the studio putting together what will become our new album with music culled from our 2016-2017 world tours. We are absolutely thrilled that it will be mixed in London by Paul Stacey. In the meantime, for our upcoming Japan/Europe tour in January, we are preparing a special download from Nefertiti in Gothenburg, Sweden, a magical concert including encores (76 min), that will be available at all shows upcoming. Exciting stuff! We look forward to seeing you at one of our concerts! Be sure to say hello!

BANDIT65
KURT ROSENWINKEL, TIM MOTZER, GINTAS JANUSONIS

BANDIT65 JAPAN/EUROPE TOUR 2018
11 COTTON CLUB, TOKYO, JP
12 COTTON CLUB, TOKYO, JP
13 COTTON CLUB, TOKYO, JP
15 RONNIE SCOTT’S, LONDON, UK
16 CHEVAL BLANC, SCHLITIGHEIM, FR
18 JAZZ ACTION, VALENCE, FR
19 FLAGEY, BRUSSELS JAZZ FESTIVAL, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
21 LAEISZHALLE, HAMBURG, GERMANY