STAX - Suboptimal (2022)

Hailing from Leipzig, Germany, 1993 born drummer Max Stadtfeld announces his sophomore album “Suboptimal” with his group “STAX”, to be released March 25 2022 on Cologne based label KLAENG. After his self-titled + highly acclaimed 2019 debut on legendary label ACT he returns with another contemporary jazz masterpiece full of yet unheard ideas, stylistic quotes and productional refinement- with zeitgeist, expressive will and progressive approach.

In addition to Stadtfeld´s significant compositional handwriting, it is above all the four musicians in the band whose interplay makes the quartet so unique. Processed saxophone cascades, spacious guitar overdubs, alternation of double and electric bass sounds and sometimes violently compressed drum beats. Surrendering to the suboptimal, to the supposedly raw + imperfect, the record emerges something that is self-contained and perfect in its own way.