Z-Country Paradise
Z-Country Paradise (Slim Edition)

Jelena Kuljic voice, Frank Gratkowski saxophone, Kalle Kalima guitar, Oliver Potratz bass, Christian Marien drums

Die progressivste Berliner Band im Grenzbereich von Jazz-Rock-Poetry.

Z-Country Paradise – who are these people?
- The man behind the madness – Frank Gratkowski. His weapons of choice – sax and clarinet, honed to a cutting edge by the music of Evan Parker, Anthony Braxton, and Steve Lacy, and now slashing his way through Europe’s New Music scene.
- Serbian Jelena Kuljić, actress-singer singer-actress extraordinaire, partook in the pathos of Wozzeck and Lulu. Jelena chose the poems – their dark hallucinatory beauty, subtle foreboding, and caustic humor fodder for the quintet’s creative appetites.
- Finnish guitarist Kalle Kalima – intrigues with Tomasz Stanko, Marc Ducret, Linda Sharrock – the perfect accomplice.
- Bassist Oliver Potratz – already a partner with Kalle Kalima – Kalle’s band Klima Kalima received the New German Jazz Award. Plays in, out, whatever it takes.
- Drummer Christian Marien, his roots in rock, now extends into the deepest recesses of the flourishing Berlin improvisational scene. Keeps the band’s foundation rock-solid.