Jelena Popržan Quartett

Ensemble play full of unexpected twists and turns

There is no catching her, Serbian-Austrian viola player, singer, sound artist and bandleader Jelena Popržan. Besides her successful solo work and the rock band Madame Baheux, she has formed a quartet with the unusual line-up of double bass, cello, viola, voice and clarinet/alt saxophone. The sound palette that makes that combination possible is exploited to the full. One moment you think you are dealing with a classical string quartet, until Christoph Pepe Auer lets rip his sax or draws plaintive lines with his clarinet. But it can also happen that Popržan suddenly throws up a throat. With plucking, strumming and pizzicato playing, the foursome then conjures a jittery groove out of the top hat, tilting the sound more towards rock or jazz. Not only do the boundaries between styles blur, even within the group the roles are not fixed. For instance, Lina Neuner with her double bass regularly takes the lead as a soloist and Popržan, on the other hand, is often subservient to the lickety-split ensemble playing.