Brothers & Others

“There is no other music where one has so many possibilities to express oneself. This is pure freedom on stage. Whatever freedom is, we have it on stage.”

A film about the Bauer brothers: Conny Bauer, who celebrated his 80th birthday in June 2023, is one of the co-founders of free jazz in (East) Germany and is a world-renowned and exceptionally talented trombone player, as well as his brother Johannes, who died in May of 2016 at the age of 62. The third brother, Matthias Bauer, has made a name for himself internationally as a contrabassist in the world of improvised music. Alongside other formations, they began playing together in 2006 along with Conny Bauer’s son Louis Rastig in the Bauer 4 quartet. This constellation brought together four musicians with their different backgrounds and social situations and the family connection only seemed to be incidental. In this documentary film, the musicians talk about their family, their first encounters with music as, mostly, sons of a pastor, their careers and about learning from each other, the development of improvised music in (East) Germany and their musical ideas – but above all: they play music together. 

A documentary film by Winfried Bettmer & Hermann Peseckas
Germany/Austria 2023
HD video, colour, 60 min., German original version + original version with English subtitles

Production: Filmwerkstatt Münster & Hermann Peseckas, Salzburg

With:
“Bauer 4” Conny, Johannes, Matthias Bauer & Louis Rastig
as well as
Duo Sabir Mateen & Conny Bauer
Trio Johannes Bauer, Audrey Chen, Tony Buck
“Der Dritte Stand” with Matthias Müller, Matthias Bauer & Rudi Fischerlehner

Idea & production: Ingrid Grassl /Hermann Peseckas / Winfried Bettmer
Production management Ingrid Grassl
Montage concept/editing/colour matching: Julian Isfort
Sound mixing: Ralf Haarmann
Title graphic/poster: Vadim Ivanov

Rental and distribution: Filmwerkstatt Münster