Subtil ausbalancierte strömende Klangflächen. Nie verharren sie statisch, stets sind sie in Entwicklung begriffen. Die ImprovisatorInnen aus Hessen wie der Kontrabassist Ulrich Phillipp und die Blockflötistin Eiko Yamada pflegen über viele Jahre schon Kontakte zur französischen Szene: Der Klarinettist Xavier Charles und der Gitarrist Nicolas Desmarchelier sind in Wiesbaden und Umgebung keine Unbekannten. Musikalisch galt die Zusammenarbeit der hessischen MusikerInnen eher Frankreich denn Berlin – mit Ausnahmen: Der Geiger Burkhard Schlothauer stammt aus Berlin, Phillipp spielt zusammen mit ihm im Ensembel „zeitkratzer“.
Soviel zur stilistischen Herkunft der Klangschichtungen, der Arbeit der ImprovisatorInnen mit abstrakten Klängen, der weitestgehenden Abwesenheit von rhythmischer Gestaltung in diesem Konzertmitschnitt aus der Bergkirche in Wiesbaden im Jahr 2007. Mit gezielten, zuweilen auch harschen Einwürfen in die feinen, fließenden Texturen triggern immer einzelne Musiker nicht-plaktiv direkt, sondern in zeitlichem Abstand Verdichtungen oder kurze, sehr präzise und klar formulierte Interaktionen und rasche, pointillistische Wechsel an. Hinzu kommen Schweller, deren dynamische Varianz mit klangfarblichem Changieren einhergeht, Flirren, geräuschbasierte Tonhöhen als vage Reminiszenzen an Tonverbindungen.
Nina Polascheg
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik
Classic, but certainly not classical chamber music, this seven-part suite is all of a part, depending on the microtonal blending of three strings and two woodwinds. Recital-friendly, the playing during these improvisational intermezzos is still spiky enough to jar complacent concertgoers and capricious enough to be appreciated by active seekers of the new.
All of the players are old hands at negotiating a musical path that not only captures the whole tones, but also the dissonant pulses that would otherwise fall between the cracks. For instance Wiesbaden-based bassist Ulrich Phillipp, flautist Eiko Yamada from Heidelberg, plus guitarist Nicolas Desmarchelier from Brittany and clarinetist Xavier Charles from Lorraine are all part of the Köln-based Ensemble X, while Phillipp and violinist Burkhard Schlothauer are also members of the avant-classical mini-orchestra Zeitkratzer.
Recorded live at a concert in Wiesbaden by Ulrich Böttcher, who contributes his electronics to ensembles in that city and with Ensemble X, the collective program is atmospheric without being ambient and subtle without being static. Polyphonic and polyrhythmic, the parallel string and horns structures are sympathetically contrasted so they evolve – individually or in groups – without having to rely on harmonic interaction.
Throughout scrubbed and sanded string timbres make common cause with sharply angled flute peeps and lightly pressurized rolled tongue actions from the clarinetist. Continuously evolving in andante or allegro pulses, pauses and accelerations also mark measurers for recurrent splayed and strident guitar strokes, pedal-point-pitched bowing from the bassist and violin runs that are distanced, sometimes monotone and habitually sul ponticello. Overall the result is that of flattened microtonalism; skewed chamber inventions that skirt chiaroscuro without becoming monochrome.
Flashes of color arise from contrapuntal respites in the linear narrative. Charles, for example, overblows up into false-registers or growls striated timbres from his clarinet; the peeping split tones from Yamada’s flute sometimes squeak to aviary augmentations; Desmarchelier recoils twangs and licks from his classical guitar; and Phillipp’s bass strokes can be clunky and woody or resonate with thumping finality to end a sequence or make a point.
With its unusual – for so-called classical music – instrumental grouping, the quintet is self contained as an atypical and singular chamber ensemble. This CD can be appreciated by anyone with an open mind to cerebral and provocative small group sounds.
Ken Waxman
jazzword
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