Alex Buess: Parallaxe
A (Biomechanische Version 2), Maxwell's Demon / Tim Hodgkinson: Repulsion
/ Dror Feiler: Restitutio in Pristinum
Ensemble Phoenix Basel, Conductor: Jürg Hennberger
Available at: www.ensemble-phoenix.ch
ENTFESSELT (Unleashed)
Are you looking for the kind of music, which accompanied by a glass of good
Cabernet, might give your evening the well deserved ending? Than, look further,
you will not find it here! The Ensemble Phoenix Basel has, on this CD, combined
works which hardly allow for relaxation.
Programming starting point was the «Biomechanical Version» of
the “Parallaxe A”, written 2002 for Ensemble and tape by the Basel
composer Alex Buess. Its premiere took place at the “Musikmonat 2001”
(“Music month 2001”) and it was actually performed at the «Konzertfabrik
Z7» (concert factory Z7), a place where hard rock music is usually played
and where the amount of reached decibels can be observed on a screen wall.
The question, whether the officially allowed limit of decibels was reached,
or if it was just efficiently evaded can remain open.
The Z7 seemed a well suited place and Jürg Hennberger, who conducted
and still conducts the Ensemble Phoenix, was in his leather outfit well fitting,
as both place and outfit corresponded to the music, which imposed no unnecessary
restraints, where the dynamic and the sound’s intensity and density
were concerned. The composer, who is also a producer and sound engineer, used
his qualifications by the CD producing and so enabled the five channel surround
sound of this rugged music work, without it having to be too smoothed.
Listening to the music with earphones lets one recognise the perfect mastering
of the sound. However, if the volume is turned up high, danger exist of the
earphones flying away! The drums are massive, the wind instruments attack,
vibrations flatter at the highest pitch and multiple electronic form a picturesque
surface, which is mechanic and machine like, sounds like rock and techno,
but remains essentially experimental, composed, contemporary music
Motive particles, sound blocks and rhythm plots are screwed together, fitted
into each other and sometimes Morse-decoded until hardly recognisable. It
is unavoidable that Varèse’s orchestral music comes to mind,
yet a window is opened to power and to free jazz.
It is not surprising that Buess has worked, between others, also with Peter
Brötzmann, Toshinoro Kondo or with Bill Laswell. Laswell’s energetic
improvisation formation «Material» (f.e. the LP «Memory
Serves» of the early eighties) comes clearly to mind. Buess’s
musical curve is however composed, and it is thanks to the Ensemble Phoenix,
that the intensity remains throughout the twenty minutes, while taken into
the storm of the sound, one hardly notices the pan of the composer.
Even the, in this view more labile, written almost ten year before the “Parallaxe
A”, Buess’s work “Maxwell's Demon” for trumpet, trombone,
electric bass, three drums and live electronics, with which the CD ends, sounds,
recorded live at Gare du Nord, not fixed and restrained, but open and improvised.
Also… or even more..? The rather quiet, compared with Buess’s
dynamic, work of Tim Hodgkinson “Repulsion” for clarinet, electric
guitar, trombone and drums, has very filigree like organised ranges, made
possible by the rich experimental experience of the musician. The brittle
parts in between do not destroy, but give colour to the work. Hodgkinson’s
piece does not have the power and rawness of Buess’s music. It wins
with poetic depth, which is however hardly audible after the intensity and
force of the first twenty minutes. Repeated hearing is recommended.
Dror Feiler’s “Restitutio in Pristinum” for amplified violin,
electric guitar, sopranino saxophon, trombone and drums, seems on the contrary,
as a perfect in between. The original motive presentation and production is
opposed by energy loaded collective blocks. The work is ripe and balanced.
All three, Buess, Hodgkinson and Feiler compose, improvise and perform. These
parallel, yet different activities can be felt in their work and also in their
interpretations, where different musical spheres meet and where the freedom
for improvisation, the discipline of interpretation and the youthful “power
urge” are absolutely essential.
Matthias Kassel
© dissonanz /dissonance 2005