GBK

GBK are an Austrian free jazz trio that isn't afraid of being groovy. The band was founded in 2007 after a first meeting the year before, being thrown together in an improvised music session. They performed many years under the name of KGB before changing their name recently due to Russian war against Ukraine. All three musicians are happy to swap roles in their trio, therefore abstract experimental sounds have the same place in their repertoire as groove and melody. Drummer Didi Kern works both in jazz and in alternative rock music. His best known band is Bul Bul, and he also played a long time in Industrial performance outfit Fuckhead.He recently released an album on Klanggalerie with Elisabeth Harnik and Jaap Block. Susanna Gartmayer is a bass clarinet player, but also composer and graphic designer. She started her career in the early 2000s in an art rock band. She is a permanent member of The Vegetable Orchestra, a group that performs exclusively on vegetables, as the name suggests. Recently she released an album on Klanggalerie with Christof Kurzmann. Thomas Berghammer studied the trumpet in Linz and Graz and resides in Vienna. He has performed in all kinds of genres, playing amongst others with Wolfgang Mitterer, Oskar Aichinger, Georg Graewe, Ken Vandermark, Mats Gustafson and Mars Williams.The three members of KGB also run a weekly improvisers' session in Vienna.