ALL.THE.TERMS.WE.ARE (SLO/A/USA)
maja osojnik – vocals, live sampling, dj-cd player and other lo-fi electronics
audrey chen – vocals, cello
manfred engelmayr – e-guitar
matija schellander – double bass, modular synthesizer
manu mayr – e-bass
lukas könig – drums
christina bauer – sound engineering
This electro-acoustic album served as an outgoing source, idea, to recompose and arrange songs for a larger music unit and led to the formation ALL.THE.TERMS.WE.ARE, with which Maja celebrated a Premiere at the Opening of the Saalfelden Jazz Festival in 2015. In May 2016 the new line up of A.T.T.W.A was established and celebrated its first tour, that led the band to Jazz Festival Cerkno (Slovenia), Alte Gerberei (Muku Artacts Festival) in St.johann (Austria), Taktlos Festival (ZĂĽrich, Switzerland) and Porgy&Bess (Vienna, Austria). The musical Chemistry and an amazing Communication and Fun they had on the stage and on the road, made all the Band Members hungry to perform more often together and we are looking forward to playing in new Festivals, for the new audience.
extra words by me to All.The. Terms.We.Are:
We are words, phrases, concepts, names, labels, logos, definitions, characters, symbols, terms. We are fixed and limited times, we are deadlines, durations. The condition. We are tags, styles, brands. We are described to the last detail, whether we want it, need it or not. The world needs order and clarity. So we are cataloged and archived. One can thus find us more easily, but can one really get to know us, to understand and to recognise? A.T.T.W.A does not feel a need for a clear musical definition. She is to be free, all she wants to be, all she cares for and all she can and can not. She wants to communicate. She is just a story, a condition in Space and in Time. Until she disappears and passes the space to other, new stories.
live photos by rania moslam
The show at midnight featured Maja Osojnik, the Slovenian-born vocalist, composer, sampler and sextet leader. Wild and off the wall are terms that come to mind in describing All.The.Terms.We.Are – rock, progressive rock, noise, and cabaret fit much of the content. Each segment featured a spoken-word script, often echoed by cellist Audrey Chen, with such lines as “I had a dream that I was dead” and “I became a frozen lake so you could skate on me.” Osojnik eventually screams, “Tell me what the fuck you want me to be!” With all musicians eventually playing with maximum volume and intensity, it sounded like a shout against insanity, only to end in total silence. ATTWA @ FIMAV FESTIVAL, Victoriaville, Canada, by Irwin Block, https://avantmusicnews.com, 05/2017
La chanteuse et électroacousticienne Maja Osojnik offrait le dernier concert de la journée de samedi avec son sextuor qui incluait deux bassistes, une violoncelliste et chanteuse, un guitariste et un batteur. Le projet All.the.terms.we.are. de Osojnik est un projet de chansons expérimentales qui m’a rappelé par moments une version plus expérimentale de la pop glaciale de Zola Jesus. Les moments où le groupe a mis la pédale dans le tapis avec des sons électroniques plus harsh et une section rythmique bruyante étaient tout simplement exceptionnels. Il faut dire que la voix grave et sensuelle de Osojnik porte très bien les chansons du projet. Avec un peu plus de concerts derrière la cravate, ce groupe pourrait être assez redoutable. ATTWA @ FIMAV FESTIVAL, Victoriaville, Canada, by Alex Pelchat, https://voir.ca, 05/2017
Le FIMAV a bien rempli sa promesse d’une découverte assurée avec «All.The.Terms.We.Are» de Maja Osojnik et son band. À preuve, le public de minuit est demeuré attentif malgré la fatigue de cette journée-marathon à six spectacles. Le coeur du spectacle se retrouvait dans les morceaux à l’inspiration jazz assumée, où l’ambiance sombre et sensuelle des compositions était sublimée par des attaques techniques irréprochables. Difficile de détourner le regard de la violoncelliste Audrey Chen dont la performance vocale – cliquetis, bruits de succion et râles – était renversante de précision. Notons aussi le jeu minutieux et complexe de Lukas König à la batterie. Après avoir vu le projet de Osojnik dans cette formule étendue, avec en plus Manfred Engelmayr à la guitare électrique, Manu Mayer à la basse électrique, Matija Schellander à la contrebasse et au synthétiseur et Christina Bauer à la sonorisation, il est impressionnant de se rappeler que le matériel de base est le fruit du travail en solo de la compositrice. ATTWA @ FIMAV FESTIVAL, Victoriaville, Canada, by Sophie Dufour-Beausejour http://chyz.ca/cherie-jarrive, 05/2017
The second on stage was an extravagant Slovenian singer Maja Osojnik, multifaceted carved musical artist, who has perfected and upgraded her skills in Vienna, where she lives. We are speaking about an absolute eccentric, who gathered for the concert in Cerkno an extremely rich accompaniment on soundscapes, a sextet called All.The.Terms.We.Are. With this band Maja presented her new, 2016 released album titled “Let Them Grow”. The group strung through most of the performance dark sounds and phrases together, musical landscapes, that were based on the use of a lower voice tonality. Dot on the “i” was adding Maja’s low female voice, which reminded in parts without vocal excesses, fleetingly on Tanita Tikaram. Certainly the instruments by accompanying musicians inspired associations about a possible musical attraction for alternative rock music. These sources were radiated by musicians throughout their performance. Simple but quirky phrases directed in the longer repetition of motifs, they created an experience that takes you to the edge of the rational, towards “the mental-Extra”, beyond consciousness. Hypnotic. Instruments opened spaces to each other with an extreme contemplation, while the sextet delivered an amazing experience of a full-blooded concision and concentration of the participants, who throughout the story didn’t afford themselves a slitest mistake. Above all, this was reflected in their communication, waiting, monitoring, what the rest on the stage was doing. These are the moments, when you wait for the right time, right place to contribute with your sound, instrument and require in the execution maybe not any special technical knowledge, but full measure of the extraordinary precision and softness, if not even the precision mechanics. Therefore, a flexible responsiveness. In every moment of musical story. During the show a particular attention was assumed by violoncellist Audrey Chen, who in vocal dialogue with Maja, lured from herself the most unusual sounds, that can be produced by a human body. Already from this perspective the concert hit with great vigour and attraction. Vibration of the group; hypnotic, highly experimental, with the beginnings of the avant-garde, but in a spirit of serenity and tranquility, which are cut by sudden engagements of the fierceness, noise & grooves and vocal excesses. In strict artistic focus of musical uniqueness and one of a kind. An unusual musical body, which is hopefully soon to hear again on our grounds. All.The.Terms.We.Are at Jazz Festival Cerkno, Ales Podbreznik for Rockline.si, 05/2016, Slovenia
A surprise on a first day of the festival. All.The.Terms.We.Are at Jazz Festival Cerkno, Pogledi.si, 05/2016, Slovenia
The music of the Slovenian singer, multi-instrumentalist and performer Maja Osojnik is less tactful than the limitless. Having lived in Vienna for a long time, she has grown her projects in exchange with the local scene, involving rock musicians. In 2015 she formed a new sextet All.The.Terms.We.Are, with which she first time performed compositions “LET THEM GROW” (new solo album 2016) at the Festival Saalfelden. The acclaimed pieces are as daring as the striking arches between instrumental and electronic chamber music and set social-critical accents. New tones between poetry and protest. Rote fabrik, ZĂĽrich, CH
With her singing, melancholy narration and passionately accompanying Band All.The.Terms.We.Are., Maja Osojnik delighted the audience in Jazz Festival Cerkno All.The.Terms.We.Are at Jazz Festival Cerkno, Dnevnik, 05/2016, Slovenia
“Viennese” Maja Osojnik and her Band All.The.Terms.We.Are, which has turned up the bass registers, exposed, unmasked her self in personal but also aggressive songs. All.The.Terms.We.Are at Jazz Festival Cerkno, Dnevnik, 05/2016, Slovenia
All.The.Terms.We.Are premiered and written for the last Saalfelden Festival, and most of these songs are found on her album “Let Them Grow”. Musically, Osojnik here entwined many influences, from pop, over electro and vocal improvisation, to avangarde noise-rock and Drone. In the lighter areas where Maja’s vocal is dominant, her avant-garde pop songs reminiscent of authors such as David Sylvian. The materal itself is very colorful and draws the listener deep into the sound image, especially in the drone and no-wawe / industrial areas that are a bit like Swans. . All.The.Terms.We.Are at Jazz Festival Cerkno, www.jazzin.rs, 05/2016, Slovenia