Discography

Elliott Sharp: Guitars
Melvin Gibbs: Bass
Lucas Niggli: Drums

During the two-weeks festival by Intakt Records at John Zorn's club The Stone in New York's East Village, Sharp-Gibbs-Niggli performed for the first time. Three musicians with diverse backgrounds and biographies, but a very clear common goal: instant composing with hypertension, where Elliott Sharp’s blues, Melvin Gibb’s funk and Lucas Niggli’s drive found perfectly together to celebrate an unique music with no borders, lots of colours and massiv energy. On the very day after the three musicians went for to a brooklyn-studio and recorded the CD "Crossing the Waters". Excursions in the adventurous tonal landscapes based on blues, rock and free music.

Dominik Blum, Hammond C3 Organ
Marino Pliakas, Ebass
Lucas Niggli, Drums

all compositions © michael wertmüller (Ex-Alboth!, Full Blast etc.]
Mixed by Gareth Jones (Depeche Mode, Wire, Erasure etc.)

"Supposedly the big step’s been taken, the novel sphere captured and developed. The future of music is now! - as it has been for almost twenty years.
Steamboat Switzerland is part of an Avant-Garde movement that, despite having aged, has remained unattainable. This particularly bears upon the musical music, the energy, virtuosity and precision, with which Dominik Blum, Marino Pliakas and Lucas Niggli go about their work. And there is of course the mastermind behind this non-pareil, erratic Rock Avant-garde, that is currently being ennobled by the establishment as the exotic alternative: Composer Michael Wertmüller.
Recently, they have been joined by someone who puts the finishing touches to this music: Gareth Jones. Wertmüller’s compositions – having been recorded live by Steamboat Switzerland in a mere two days - were given added tangibility and a grip on reality by the British studio-producer, and left his hands infused with vigour and not least some thrilling details. This is something to be savoured to appreciate the full meaning of this collaboration: Depeche Mode, Einstürzende Neubauten, Wire, Erasure, These New Puritans, Steamboat Switzerland. This is where Jones put his hand to, issuing this new musical ground with partly familiar thresholds. On «Zeitschrei» I hear Shellac, but also Emerson, Lake and Palmer and MC5.
It may be that things have come full circle and Adolf Wölfli, to whom this band owes their name, is proved right: «’Twas the Steamboat Switzerland, with over a thousand passengers on board. Our efforts were requited with never-ending hoorays and cheers, flag throwing on the part of the passengers, the Sänger=Chor Concordia of Zürich, presented us with the beautiful Lied.»
 The beautiful ‘Lied’: Yes, dear friends, this is where beauty is parleyed and rarely has it ever sounded quite so dark, so charged and iridescent."
(Christian Pauli, 28. April 2013)

Steamboat Switzerland Extended:
Dominik Blum, Hammond organ
Marino Pliakas, bass
Lucas Niggli, drumset
PLUS
Raphael Camenisch und Phillip Stäudlin, saxophones
Donna und Ernesto Molinari, clarinets
Nenad Markovic und Matthias Spillmann, trumpets
Dirk Amrein und  Patrick Crossland, trombones
Willy Strehler, sound ingeneer

Finally the trio Steamboat Switzerland Extended, enlarged to a bigband is audible on CD!
The band has committed the Bernese composer, activist and editor Marc Kilchenmann do create an entire concert evening. He added eight wind instruments to the trio. At four shows in february 2012 there were the first performances of two works by himself (egregoros 1 und 2), a graphic score by the swiss avantgardist Hermann Meier (1906-2002), and the genious organum Sederunt Principes from 1199 by Magister Perotin. The entire concert of Chur (Switzerland)  at february 5 has found its way on this CD.

Paul Plimley piano
Barry Guy   bass
Lucas Niggli  drums

The album contains distillations of their "live"-performances – pieces with a sharp focus often developed out of quiet sequences. "There is a remarkable sensitivity, which truly shines in the slow numbers", writes Marc Chénard in the liner notes. "On the flip side of the coin, they can push and shove with the best of them, and there are more than a handful of those moments, too. Most importantly, though, this spirited team shows us how true freedom lay not only at the outer limits but also within them."

Lucas Niggli  Drums, Percussion
Peter Conradin Zumthor, Percussion

With unbridled energy and artistic merit, Lucas Niggli and Peter Conradin Zumthor created a sound experience in the thermal bath that is profoundly affecting. They skilfully interpret the commissioned works that were composed specially for the Therme Vals and the Drum Duo Niggli Zumthor by Barry Guy and Fritz Hauser and complement the work with their own compositions of utter expres- siveness. The result is a moving and inebriating sound experience, first performed in September 2011 and recorded live in the Therme Vals.

Anne La Berge: Flutes, Electronics
Nils Wogram: Trombone, Melodica
Philipp Schaufelberger: Guitar
Barry Guy: Bass
Lucas Niggli: Drums, Percussion

Lucas Nggli has rebuild BIG ZOOM. Two experienced improvisators of great reputation, the English bassist Barry Guy and the American flutist Anne La Berge joined the regulars Philipp Schaufelberger (electric guitar) and Nils Wogram (trombone). “I wanted to have distinct characters”, Niggli justified his choice. After extremely working on sheet music with the Arte Quartett Niggli pushed back to freedom, embracing a concept that gives more room to improvisation and tonality of the E-music avant-garde without disposing of the eloquence and refinement of the virtuoso jazz playing Schaufelberger and Wogram are so experienced in.
With his highly versed crew Niggli took off for another expedition that opens the most surprising outlooks. His thirst for adventure remains unquenched.

Rolando Lamussene - Djembe, Voice, Mbira, Percussion
Kesivan Naidoo - Drums , Percussion
Peter Conradin Zumthor - Drums Percussion
Lucas Niggli - Drums , Percussion , Composition

The Fellowship of the Drums is a unique road-movie, which follows the Lucas Niggli Drum Quartet Beat Bag Bohemia acros Africa and Europe.
The four drummers set out to explore new sounds and to give drumming a new direction. As the journey progresses the fellowship
is tested by different social and cultural views. In the end they remain bonded by their fabulous music.
At a drumpace rhythm the film shares this unique phenomenon with viewers and so captures their hearts.

Camera: Nathalie Haarhoff, Martin Fuchs
Music: Lucas Niggli Drum Quartet. Compositons: Lucas Niggli
Produced by Martin Fuchs, The Washing Line 2011
Original version: English, Portuguese, Swiss-German
Subtitles for English, German, Swiss-German. DVD PAL.16:9. 57Minutes. Colour

Luciano Biondini accordeon

Michel Godard tuba, serpent, ebass

Lucas Niggli

When Luciano Biondini, Michel Godard und Lucas Niggli play music together the borders between Early and New Music, between imaginary folk and jazz inspired improvisation blur. One can picture the virtual meeting point at the border triangle between Italy, France and Switzerland. That would be – and the image of the heights is not altogether out of place – on the peak of Mont Dolent, close to the Mont Blanc. But still this game fences off any territorial and stylistic definition. Alpine as well as Mediterranean, delicately woven yet permeated with strong melodies driven by frequently complex rhythms that are strong and sensitive at the same time, the three create great arches – across the times, the emotional states of mind, regions and continents. Learning by heart and
inventing go hand in hand, they tie together to one common breathing, they interlink to music of great airiness, turning their gathering into a feast vibrating with delight. (Bert Noglik, Liner Notes)

Lorenz Raab (A, trp)
Michel Godard (F, tuba)
Eirik Hegdal ( N, sax)
Lucas Niggli, drums

Viennese trumpet player Lorenz Raab continues to surprise as an artist with imaginative concepts and  an open outlook towards the future. In his unorthodox  band-projects ":xy band" and "BLEU" he proves this in remarkable continuity. His new quartet "expanded" is  a completely new formation of musical partners from all corners of Europe.
And what a line-up! All of them are extraordinary instrumentalists and well-known representatives of the improvised music scene in their home-countries and far beyond their borders.

Felix Profos, Komposition, Keyboard
Vera Kappeler, Klavier, Harmonium, Toy Piano
Raphael Camenisch, Saxophon
Sebastian Pottmeier, Saxophon
Christian Weber, Kontrabass
John Eckhardt, Kontrabass
Lucas Niggli, Schlagzeug

Dominik Blum - Hammond Organ, Analogue Electronics, Synths, Vocals

Marino Pliakas - E-Bass

Lucas Niggli - Drums, Percussion

The German Radio SWR and Steamboat Switzerland commissioned the composition " Get Out Of My Room " by Swiss composer Felix Profos for the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2006, which is NOW finally available on a great recording. The 4 modules by Profos are surrounded by very intense improvs by Steamboat Switzerland.

Lucas Niggli      Drums, Percussion, Gongs
Peter Conradin Zumthor   Drums, Percussion, Gongs

Felix Profos       Compositions. Producer
Willy Strehler    Sound Engineer, Producer

Alfred Zimmerlin in the Linernotes:....Music that is abrasive and hard. Unwavering. Primal. Robotic. The two percussion assemblies don't give off the standard sound of drums and cymbals; metallic sounds - in one sense "impure" - have been prepared instead. Their sound grates even though it is muffled. The sounds of the drums and bells don't ring out and it's difficult to establish their pitch, but every composition is a transparent conglomeration of precisely chosen and balanced sounds. .....They've managed to achieve more than a "snapshot" of a live performance, precisely because, with extreme sensitivity to the kinetic and cathartic character of the compositions, they have created a musical space that allows the disc to be experienced as a complete entity. The speakers send out a work composed of sound, time and space moving in equal measure the listener's mind, heart and body.

Barry Guy: Director, Bass
Evan Parker: Reeds
Mats Gustafsson: Reeds
Trevor Watts: Reeds
Simon Picard: Reeds
Pete McPhail: Reeds
Conrad Bauer: Trombone
Johannes Bauer: Trombone
Alan Tomlinson: Trombone
Henry Lowther: Trumpet
Herb Robertson: Trumpet
Rich Laughlin: Trumpet
Per Åke Holmlander: Tuba
Phil Wachsmann: Violin
Barre Phillips: Bass
Paul Lytton: Percussion
Lucas Niggli: Percussion
Howard Riley: Piano

"A great anthem. Barry Guy's "Harmos" resembles a musical manifesto – a work which sets structure and freedom in a dialectic field of tension and commits itself to one of the fundamental characteristics of music: melody. A celebration, a ceremony.”
Bert Noglik, Liner notes

Barry Guy:director, bass, Irène Schweizer: piano, Evan Parker: reeds, Mats Gustafsson: reeds, Trevor Watts: reeds, Simon Picard: reeds, Pete McPhail: reeds, Conrad Bauer: tmb, Johannes Bauer: tmb, Alan Tomlinson: tmb, Henry Lowther: tpt, Herb Robertson: tpt, Rich Laughlin: tpt, Per Åke Holmlander, tuba, Phil Wachsmann: violin, Barre Philips: bass, Paul Lytton: percussion, Lucas Niggli: percussion

"After her riveting prelude-like solo, Schweizer applied her pan-stylistic approach to Guy’s challenging, playerempowering score. Though Guy retained the form’s traditional utility as a soloist’s showcase on “Radio Rondo,” he expanded the scope of the rondo’s back and forth to feature Schweizer in several subgroupings – a pummeling quintet passage with Guy, bassist Barre Phillips, and drummers Paul Lytton and Lucas Niggli – as well as encounters with the full force of the 17-piece contingent. In the later, Guy cued single-note stabs, flurried textures and a host of other events from parts of the orchestra, spiking the power of the notaded materials. For all of the piece’s intensity, Guy slipped beautiful passages – like the plaintive melody stated by tenor saxophonist Simon Picard – into the piece. A magisterial theme set up the piece’s final tutti blast.”
Downbeat, September 2008
More Infos on INTAKT records.

Recorded at Loft Cologne, December 9, 2007 and mixed at Ton-Art Studio, February 27, 2008 by Christian Heck. Mastered February 10, 2009 at Studio Klangdach by Willy Strehler. Cover art: Gerda Steiner/Jörg Lenzlinger. Cover design: Jonas Schoder. Fotos: Alberto Placido. Liner notes: Steff Rohrbach. Intakt CD 164  EAN_7640120191641 

Rolando Lamussene Djembe, Mbira, Voice, Percussion
Kesivan Naidoo Drums, Percussion, Gongs
Peter Conradin Zumthor Drums, Percussion, Gongs
Lucas Niggli Drums, Percussion, Gongs

Nils Wogram - trombone, melodica, voice; Philip Schaufelberger - guitar; Lucas Niggli - drums, percussion; Beat Hofstetter - soprano- and tenorsax; Sascha Armbruster - alto-, soprano- and tenorsax; Andrea Formenti - tenor- and sopranosax; Beat Kappeler - bariton- and sopranosax.
Performing with virtuosity, an intriguing variety of sounds, a blend of composed structures and improvisation, all of this happens by combining two outstanding jazz-formations: Lucas Niggli Zoom and the Basler saxophone quartet ARTE Quartett are going on a Crash Cruise.

Performing with virtuosity, an intriguing variety of sounds, a blend of composed structures and improvisation, all of this happens by combining two outstanding jazz-formations: Lucas Niggli Zoom and the Basler saxophone quartet ARTE Quartett are going on a Crash Cruise.
A musical Joint-Venture directed by drummer Lucas Niggli.
Lucas Niggli is known for his ability to pair compositions, improvisations and different styles with his own musical ideas – and so creating complex and multifaceted music, but always keeping within his own recognisable style. The repertoire of ARTE Quartett, a formation which was founded in 1995, reaches from Arvo Pärt, Phil Glass and Steve Reich to Fred Frith and Pierre Favre. The quartet consists of four classically trained saxophone players: Beat Hofstetter, Sascha Armbruster, Andrea Formenti and Beat Kappeler. Their commitment lies with ‘Neue Musik’ and boundary-breaking stylistic cooperations and they mainly perform compositions, which were specially designed and arranged for Arte Quartett. And now they are working with Lucas Niggli and his trio.
«The sound of it moves me,» writes Tim Berne in the Liner notes of the CD Crash Cruise:

"To me, the best music -- the best art, period -- evokes or, rather, provokes ideas, not idioms. The goal is to transcend mere style -- style just being the clothes, not the man inside. This isn't easy to do, though; in fact, it's hard enough to be rare. That's why "Crash Cruise" is such a vital document. Lucas Niggli's ZOOM and the ARTE Quartett have created an artifact that is provocative and expressive, a constant flow of highly developed ideas that not only grab you but pull you in. The composition, structure and improvisation blend in a way that's seamless; there are complex written sections and radical improvisations, but the virtuosity of the players enables them to move organically from one to the other and back again, leaving the listener with the impression of something living and real.
Lucas Niggli is a composer of invention and emotion. Listen to his slow-rolling "Reflex," chamber music of depth where the counterpoint moves like dark clouds across a darker sky. He's also a drummer with his own shape-shifting sound (time becoming color in "Tornica"). And in this joint venture with his ZOOM trio and the ARTE Quartett, Lucas obviously pushed the players to their limits in the best sense, both with his material and in the wide ensemble dynamic. Philipp Schaufelberg plays guitar like a composer, every note placed to communicate -- listen to his snaking, satisfying lines in "Saft" and "Stau." Nils Wogram just kills everywhere here, sounding more than ever like a trombone player with a new view of how to make his instrument speak; he can play lyrically, too, as with his long solo on "Basa Buzz." I've worked with the ARTE of Basel on three commissions, each a pleasure, and they played on my record "The Sevens." The group is impeccable here, performing with beautiful textures (just listen to the keening, chant-like Evan Parker homage, "One for Evan") and the sort of virtuosity that makes the most challenging composition seem natural.

Throughout "Crash Cruise," the ideas, colors and energy teem, while the groove is loose. The record reflects an attitude that is serious and playful at the same time, like all the best art does. As a composer/improviser myself, I appreciate the amount of creative commitment that goes into writing, performing and recording music like this. The sound of it moves me.

Tim Berne
Brooklyn, July 2007

Dominik Blum - Bösendorfer Imperial, Electronics
Marino Pliakas - Accoustic Guitar, Electronics
Lucas Niggli - Drums Percusionspan.

"Steamboat Switzerland show how avantgarde and hardcore CAN fit together. The said «hardest working band in the noisebiz» synthesize contemporary music, hardcore, 'prog' and noisy improv in awe inspiring live performances."

Zone 2 is the fifth CD of the power trio Steamboat Switzerland and the fourth that the Swiss musicians have released on GROB (2001: Budapest, GROB 315; ac/dB [Hayden], GROB 316; 2005: Wertmüller, GROB 655). Steamboat Switzerland – Dominik Blum, organ; Marino Pliakas, e-bass; Lucas Niggli, drums – are a rousing live band who have developed an absolutely individual way of playing and expressing themselves out of their examination of sludge metal, post-serialism and free jazz. Their records, however, differ greatly from their live repertoire, already classic (the band has given many hundred concerts in the ten years it has existed). Their studio albums are recorded live, and sometimes come together from concert recordings, but they follow a strict design that the band has either not tried out, or done so only temporarily. And just as the albums do not even try to mirror the live situation, neither do the live performances contain the program of the current CD. Zone 2 isn’t an exception: it is simply the first recording which is primarily played on acoustic instruments; the amplification is not foregrounded. Marion Pliakas changes to the acoustic guitar, Lucas Niggli plays a reduced drum set and Dominik Blum can be heard on piano. The music – one continuous piece – is improvised.

Dominik Blum - Hammond Organ
Marino Pliakas - e-Bass
Lucas Niggli - Drums
Guest: lieder vocals on 2/4/8/9/10/11

It’s been three years since Steamboat Switzerland created a sensation with the release of the CDs Budapest (GROB 315) and ac/dB [Hayden] (GROB 316). Since then the bad has played over 100 concerts and expanded it repertoire considerably. The Hammond organ post-progrock and post-death metal trio of the Swiss men Dominik Blum (organ), Marion Pliakas (electronic bass) and Lucas Niggli (drums) has included numerous compositions of other composers in its program, has worked out an acoustic set (with piano instead of organ, and an amplified acoustic guitar instead of the electronic bass), has played two-fisted rock sets, curated festivals, and has merged into larger ensembles. A new, long overdue Steamboat CD could have meant anything: a rock CD, an acoustic set, work with a larger ensemble.