The score for your own journey

The Reef Formation

West Belt United Groove Club, Loop, Vienna, Austria 2017-05-25

The West Belt United Groove Club is an institution when it comes to jam sessions in Vienna. For the first time, a group performed a set to open the evening. As they did when playing the Phat Jam at the Dual, The Reef Formation coruscated also this evening.

It is the lightness in their music, which is one aspect that elates the people. And it is one reason that there is no space left in front of the stage of the Loop. As far as their place allows it, the people are dancing to the rhythms of the seven musicians. It is the groove and the funk in their sound that get the people moving. Anyway it is hard to describe or to tell a genre for this group. The funk is obvious, also the jazz, but it could also be a movie score. When listening to the tunes, the music manages to take you somewhere else. From the Loop, where the live action takes place, you can feel like walking through the New York of the 8o’s, or at other parts like driving a car through a desert. And then you get back to the Loop, happily smiling because of the wonderful journey.

This journey is caused by different influences and instruments, which come together. The wind instruments harmonize in a very fine way and mark the jazz elements in the tracks. Jakob Mayr does not even really have place to play his trombone because of the dancing people. The keys and guitar help to create the soundtrack feeling. The announcements are part of bassist Otto-Andreas Bruckner, who is surprised that half of Vorarlberg is in the audience. Many of them came because of drummer Michael Schatzmann (Treasureman). But no matter if they knew the band or not, the people celebrate The Reef Formation anyway.