During their travels, the Insomnia Brass Band has evolved in dramatic fashion, channeling personal connections into deep musical trust and freedom.

They spend their days on trains – between Munich, Syke and Bezau; Sassnitz, Bielefeld and Liechtenstein; Leer, Passau and Vienna – eating chocolate, taking naps, reading books and talking about „Gott und die Welt“.

And they spend their nights rolling out a magic carpet of fat beats, organic riffs and heartbreaking melodies, flying out on surprising improvisational turns and bends, connected in sublime interplay and intuitive, high-level counterpoint, warmly welcoming whoever is present to be a part of their musical conversations.

For the Insomnia Brass Band loves to celebrate the night and the music together with their audience, no matter if the stage is big or small, if the location is a remote village or a famous city, if the crowd is 5 or 500.

The album „Road Works“ conveys the distilled energy of these two years in a carnival of rhythm and lockstep melodic sophistication, inviting audacious dancers from near and far.

Jazzthetik – January / February 2023 – Hans-Jürgen Schaal
On their second album, the Insomnia Brass Band again displays the dancing power of real brass bands, this aggressive energy and funkiness – despite the minimalist trio line-up. (…) In any case: great fun.

JAZZthing homegrown – October 2022 – Martin Laurentius
The 13 songs have internalized the stories and traditions of jazz, grooving incessantly and celebrating the moment when Schlichting, Lucks and Marien are deeply immersed in the flow of improvisation. Great!

JAZZthing Mauerpark – October 2022 – Wolf Kampmann
The lineup of saxophone, trombone and drums suggests the label jazz,but the band’s razor-sharp riffs and gripping grooves are more like cyberfunk. They’re belted out with as much gusto and force as passion for detail.

NYC JAZZ RECORD – January 2023
Honorable mention best new releases 2022

BR KLASSIK – January 10, 2023 – Roland Spiegel
This sound has contour! Wind sounds from the cellar advance into high regions of pleasure. (…) Their music consists entirely of original compositions and can pick up quite a bit of speed, played with crisp fullness (…) Playing full of relish, lots of winking and a listening pleasure that doesn’t diminish over thirteen pieces.

JazzZeitung – January 2023 – Michael Scheiner
The heavyweight trio then rolls out its sonic tapestry of checkered, danceable rhythms, delicate melodies and intricate webs of sound, on which they travel with the audience into a world of their own.(…) If the album alone gives so much pleasure…

Salt Peanuts – November 2022 – Jan Granlie
The three musicians are excellent instrumentalists, and they write music that has both feet firmly planted in the brass tradition, but with eyes and brains looking forward. (…)This is a fine album that convinces with good playing and arrangements that make it all sound much denser and fuller than one might think with only trombone, baritone saxophone and drums.

Salt Peanuts – November 2022 – Eyal Hareuveni
…joyful energy and freedom for improvisational and compositional adventures…. The trio’s 13 pieces tell short stories, mostly consisting of fat beats, uplifting and irresistible riffs, and engaging and humorous melodies (…) all flowing organically with sudden turns, high counterpoint, and dense conversational interplay. But Insomnia Brass Band impresses even more when they opt for lyrical, introspective, and sonic ballads (…) in which Lucks, Schlichting, and Marien individually and collectively explore their inventive and bold sonic vision.

Dusted Magazine – December 2022 – Jennifer Kelly
While this combination of jazz chops and nearly punk energy may define Insomnia Brass Band, the group is not afraid to color outside the lines.
…rollicking, rhythm-driven, jazz-funk minimalist marching band..

Long Play Blog – November 2022 – Robert Ratajczak
The style developed by the trio has proven to be the proverbial „bull’s eye.“ The raw, lively sound characteristic of larger ensembles contrasts with the intimate convention of a jazz trio. The richly arranged songs of this mini brass band are full of unexpected twists and spontaneous harmonic and melodic surprises. The band’s talent for improvisation is evident in almost every song, and their music is full of joy and humor, which can be heard in their many games with creating different sounds.
…a unique imagination and original sound vision that works brilliantly.

Westzeit Blog – December 2022 – Karsten Zimalla
…the interweaving of contemplative (or sharp) trombone sounds (Anke Lucks) with the distinctive baritone sax of Almut Schlichting and Christian Marien’s highly sensitive drum work wins my respect. Especially because the three of them achieve a fine balance of coarse-grained freedom and delicate harmonics, of outburst and melody. This is advanced improvisational art..

Melodiva – November 2022 – Mane Stelzer
What does a jazz trio sound like that only consists of trombone, baritone saxophone and drums? Pretty cool and danceable!

Bad Alchemy – September 2022 – Rigobert Dittmann
…sleepless nights with great entertainment.

Concerto – October/November 2022
And then the wild ride starts, sometimes it’s a whirlwind, then a syncopated unison blast or an elephant meeting. Great interaction between jazz and free improvisation.

FreiStil Magazin – November 2022
…groovy, playful and full of humour.

Jazz Halo Blog – October 2022 – Ferdinand Dupuis-Panther
…exciting sound journey…

RADIO (Selection)
Deutschlandfunk Kultur – 14.10.2022 – Carsten Beyer – 10min (Hörlink)
WDR 3 Jazz – 23.11.2022 – Manuela Krause – 60min (Hörlink)
BR Klassik Jazz und Weltmusik – 10.1.2023 – Roland Spiegel (Hörlink)
RBB Late Night Jazz – 21.1.2023 – Carsten Beyer – 60min (Hörlink)
ARD Radiofestival – 23.8.2022 – Beatrix Gillmann
Deutschlandfunk Kultur Tonart / Jazz – 25.10.2022 – Manuela Krause

Dusted Magazine – January 2021 – Jennifer Kelly
It is all so complicated and full of sensation — yet at the same time supremely danceable — that you might be surprised when you find out there are only three of them. Insomnia Brass Band sounds like a cubist painting of an oompah band, noses jutting off in every direction, cerebral and off-beat, yet somehow capturing an eccentric, unexpected groove.
The three musicians have an egalitarian air. Any one of them could solo at any given point. Anyone could keep the beat, not just the drummer but often sax or trombone, and anyone could mix it up a little, jaunting in from a diagonal with the same phrase sideways, so that it becomes a counterpoint rather than a main theme. (..)
Yet though the music is complex it also extremely accessible — it’s no accident that one of Dusted’s least jazz-focused writers got caught up in its insomniac groove. This band has got to be a monster live, and even on headphones Late Night Kitchen raises up a nonstop ruckus.

Jazzthetik – November / December 2020 – Hans-Jürgen Schaal
Jazz sometimes bores me – that`s why the Insomnia Brass Band excites me all the more. (…) a fun line-up, nothing is harmonically padded, nothing is prettified. The two wind players and the one drummer romp in earthy grooves, there is polyphonic improvisation, boppishly torn themes are blown, it swings and stomps as if unleashed, the saxophone plays buzzing riffs, the trombone makes funny vocal sounds – who would have thought that such a reduced line-up can produce such a variety of forms and rhythms! Hands-on, unaffected, it’s a lot of fun, you want to dance pogo to it. More of this please!

Jazzzeitung – January 2021 – Michael Scheiner
Brimming with sparkling energy, they simply blow and drum around their manageable size with a muscular, exuberant sound. At the same time they don’t miss pensive and tenderly rough sounds at all, as it is warmly expressed in „Rimdir“ with sighing mischievousness (…)
Late at night in the kitchen – there’s really something going on, the styles change like snatches of language from funk to New Orleans, to punky attitude to crunching blues…. During this time, at most the speaker boxes shake – but they shake in such a way that you long to finally experience this band live (again).

FAZ – October 2020 – Norbert Krampf (Concert review)
All three get down to business with verve and energy!

NDR Kultur – Album of the Week January 2021 – Michael Laages
The CD is good to listen to from backwards: „Alles OK?“ not only sounds like a motto, the last of the nine tracks is also a relaxed intro for everything else. The two instrumentalists understand each other as if they were asleep, or better: as if they were insomniacs. They have a lot of plans for the new year: if the small clubs and all the other battered jazz venues are allowed to reopen. (..) And so the „Insomnia Brass Band“, if everything goes a little better than before, could become one of the very special discoveries in the New Year.

BadAlchemy – September 2020 – Rigobert Dittman
Trombone and baritone instigate with big cheeks to dancing, buxom babes push their sugar daddies around amidst driving staccato, resistance is futile, Marien baby-dodding, tapping hm-tata beats and letting them melt for smooth swing. No? It’s enough to make a cat laugh, every “No” is countered by a melodious „Yes!“ on the horns that weighs heavier. In whose name? In the name of a loudly crowing, calypsomanic vitality in XXL.

Salt Peanuts – November 2020 – Eyal Hareuveni
The Insomnia Brass Band is a powerful trio, always in constant motion and always juggling with quicksilver harmonies, spontaneous accents, melodic conceits, and infectious grooves, delivered with unstoppable joy and with a sharp sense of humor that brings to mind the American quartet Sex Mob led by trumpeter Steven Bernstein.

Citizen Jazz – February 2021 – Matthieu Jouan
Un vrai petit plaisir à se mettre entre les oreilles.

JazzPodium – November 2020 – Stephan Richter
A trio of baritone saxophone, trombone and drums: you fear the cerebral and end up – even as a movement agnostic – happily swinging your dancing leg….
(The musicians) actually manage to get the maximum out of a minimal line-up and remind one of the great New Orleans brass bands. It is amazing with how much variety and speed they switch from accompanying to soloist function, sometimes making you forget how intelligent and precisely crafted the music is.

JazzThing – November 2020 – Januar 2021 – Martin Laurentius
The three Berliners Almut Schlichting (baritone saxophone), Anke Lucks (trombone) and Christian Marien (drums) have reduced the polyphony of the originals to three for their Insomnia Brass Band, in order to retain the greatest possible flexibility and to alternate ad hoc between history with its typical second-line grooves, for example, and the free-tonal lines of contemporary improvised music.
This leads to sharp contrasts (..) in the dramaturgy of the original pieces on „Late Night Kitchen“, but increases the tension immeasurably and results in a sprawling, energetic interplay of thematic motifs and rhythmic patterns with silvery, resounding intervals, crystalline themes and meandering solo choruses of the two brass and woodwind players.

Sonic – November / December 2020 – Ulrich Steinmetzger
The music of the Insomnia Brass Band is enigmatic, voluminous, raw and like a promise of something greater. It appeals to the legs and to the head, taking a few steps back as a miniature version in order to move forward. And above all, it leaves you wanting more.

Hifi&Records – January 2021 – Hans-Dieter Grünefeld
New Orleans polyphony (..) hardbop and free elements (..) Even a fierce two-beat dispute „Nein-Doch“ is possible. Nevertheless, there is agreement on the nostalgic unison motif to the „Gingerbread Resistance Song“ (…) optimal communication, dense interactions (…)

Jazzhalo Online Magazin – December 2020 – Ferdinand Dupuis-Panther
Come in to the „Beach Bar“ for breakfast – that is the musical invitation at the beginning of the album, which is dominated by a strong dialogue between the two wind players. The baritone saxophonist purrs in the depths of her instrument, forming a recurring bass line for the trombonist to spread moving waves of sound. Before „Beach Bar Before Breakfast“ segues seamlessly into „Lullaby“ a brilliant percussion solo can be heard (…).
„African Birdsong“ does without recorded bird calls and shines with a rhythm that is otherwise only known from street marching bands. Dull drum rolls – think of an African drumming workshop – accompany the purring saxophone voice, which doesn’t just linger in the low tones. And off it goes with tropical sound fever in the spirit of Fela Kuti. (…)

Concerto – November 2020
The two wind players interlock in melodious cooperation, the drummer sets accents, on a par, or moves the playing forward in a jazzy way. This is jazz of the freer kind, something worth listening to.

LongPlay Blog – November 2020 – Robert Ratajczak
The album „Late Night Kitchen“ is a collection of nine compositions, revealing a huge potential of the band.
Insomnia Brass Band generates sound usually associated with larger ensembles. At times it is hard to believe that we are listening to a jazz trio. Richly arranged songs of this mini brass band are full of unexpected turns and spontaneous harmonic-melodic surprises. The artists like to improvise, which can be seen in almost every piece, and their music is full of joy and sense of humour, which can be heard during numerous games involving generating various sounds.
(…) the formula discovered by the Insomnia Brass Band is an excellent convention without equal, successfully combining the traditional style of New Orleans brass bands with free jazz, funk and the spontaneity typical of rock music. .

Retrospect Concerts 2021:

09.04.2021 Uslar Literatur- und Kunstkreis
10.04.2021 Syke Jazz Folk Klassik
28.05.2021 München Unterfahrt
29.05.2021 Heidelberg Jazzclub
05.06.2021 Brelingen Kultur unterm Schauer
12.06.2021 Berlin Klangworte Jazzexzess
24.07.2021 Krefeld Jazzklub open air
25.07.2021 Schwäbisch Hall JazzArt Festival
26.07.2021 Reutlingen Pappelgarten
05.08.2021 Passau JazzFest
06.08.2021 Bezau Beatz Festival
08.08.2021 Klasdorf Umrangiert Festival
15.08.2021 Gerswalde Großer Garten Jazzexzess
19.08.2021 Chemnitz Weltecho
20.08.2021 Ilmenau Jazzclub
22.08.2021 Sassnitz Erntemondkonzert
10.09.2021 Bielefeld Bunker Ulmenwall
12.09.2021 Jena Distelschänke
19.09.2021 Münster Cuba Cultur
14.10.2021 Karlsruhe Jazzclub
15.10.2021 Eschen (Liechtenstein) Tangente
16.10.2021 Pfaffenhofen Künstlerwerkstatt
04.11.2021 Bamberg Jazzclub (& Alfred Vogel, Schlagzeug)
05.11.2021 Klagenfurt Innenhofkultur (& Max Plattner, Schlagzeug)
06.11.2021 Prien Jazz am Roseneck (& Alfred Vogel, Schlagzeug)
07.11.2021 Taubenbach Zoglau3 (& Alfred Vogel, Schlagzeug)
12.12.2021 Leer Jazz im Speicher
15.12.2021 Passau Café Museum
16.12.2021 Graz Stockwerkjazz

Retrospect Concerts 2020:
03.01.2020 Darmstadt Jazzinstitut
29.02.2020 Bremen MIB Festival
08.08.2020 Berlin Festival Jazz am Kaisersteg
13.09.2020 Peitz Jazzwerkstatt Festival
30.10.2020 Wiesbaden Achter
31.10.2020 Nordhausen Jazzclub

Retrospect Concerts 2019 & 2018:
30.03.2019 Uslar Literatur- und Kunstkreis
04.08.2019 Pohrsdorf Saxstall
27.08.2019 Berlin Klunkerkranich
01.11.2019 Nürnberg Jazzstudio
02.11.2019 Erfurt Jazzclub
15.11.2019 & Bass X3 Berlin Jazzkeller 69
19.10.2018 Husum Kunstverein
17.11.2018 Sassnitz Grundtvigthaus
24.11.2018 Eberswalde Guten Morgen (10.30h)
17.12.2018 Magdeburg Jazz in der Kammer