Andreas Schaerer - The Big Wig album review: Jack of all jazz trades

To call Andreas Schaerer a singer is an understatement. The Swiss vocalist and bandleader is a musical magician, a vocal conjuror happy to deploy any sound his mouth can make, from steam punk lyrics to mimics of other instruments to a repertoire of clicks, shrieks and whistles.

Schaerer and his group, Hildegard Lernt Fligen (Hildegard Learns to Fly), wowed Dublin audiences in 2015 when they appeared at the 12 Points festival in a show that was as theatrical as it was technically daring. For this CD/DVD, he adds the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, turning his vaudevillian sideshow into a grand spectacle.

The fact that he is also writing and orchestrating all the material is just showing off, but with Schaerer, that’s kind of the point.

[ andreasschaerer.com ]