THE INTERNATIONAL NOTHING: Less Action, Less Excitement, ...

[kylie fagischefsky]

Out now!



The International Nothing
Less Action, Less Excitement, Less Everything
Ftarri 219
(Release Date: May 31st, 2010)

personnel:
Kai Fagaschinski - clarinet, composition
Michael Thieke - clarinet, composition

The International Nothing is the priority No. 1 project of Kai Fagaschinski and Michael Thieke. The two Berlin based clarinetists started their collaboration back in 2000. The release of their 2nd album Less Action, Less Excitement, Less Everything collides with the duo‘s 10th anniversary.
Initially starting out as an improvising unit, in 2003 the duo shifted their focus towards the composition of pieces. Since then the basic ideas have remained: melting the two clarinets into one complex sound - which often sounds like more than two voices through the delicate use of multiphonics and difference tones - and creating pieces which go beyond scientific sound research and offer a subtle storytelling.
The first three (compositional) years have been well documented on their 2006 release mainstream. The new album Less Action ... collects five new compositions developed between 2006 and 2009. The obvious difference: there are no more guest appearances on the new album. After a five year stage absence Fagaschinski and Thieke played their first duo concert in Autumn 2007 and since this T.I.N. has been their most live-active project (concerts include Donaueschinger Musiktage [2007], Konfrontationen [Nickelsdorf 2008], Experimental Intermedia [New York 2009] and Maerzmusik [Berlin 2009], among others). This gave them confidence to stick to the sound of the two clarinets and create a dense and focused music. Through years of continuous work their technical and compositional skills have been cultivated. The new pieces show a deeper permeation into sonic detail and utilize more advanced forms.
It goes without saying that all pieces are recorded as they are played live: overdubbing and electronic manipulation are strictly forbidden for The International Nothing. Two b-flat clarinets, that‘s it.

Kai Fagaschinski combines abstraction and (a hidden) melodicism as if there never has been any contradiction. As an autodidact he developed a unique language on his instrument based on an elaborate use of multiphonics. He has performed his projects all over the northern half of the planet. His hard-working bands include Los Glissandinos (with Klaus Filip), a duo with Burkhard Stangl, the Dogmatics (with Chris Abrahams), and Here Comes The Sun (with Barbara Romen and Gunter Schneider). Another recent release of his was the well-received duo album Musik - Ein Porträt in Sehnsucht with Burkhard Stangl for Erstwhile Records.

Michael Thieke is involved in a number of projects which focus on diverse and contrasting facets of his musical interest from outer jazz areas, free jazz, composed material to more abstract fields of improvisation. He has played all over Europe, North America and Japan. His current projects are Unununium (with Luca Venitucci, Eric Schaefer, Derek Shirley, and extentionally with Martin Siewert, Christian Weber and Steve Heather), Hotelgäste (with Derek Shirley and Dave Bennett), Cowards Bend The Knee (live soundtrack project for Guy Maddin‘s same titled silent movie), and The Pitch  (with Boris Baltschun, Morten Olsen and Koen Nutters).

In addition Michael Thieke and Kai Fagaschinski are working together in the experimental song project The Magic I.D. with Margareth Kammerer and Christof Kurzmann. The collective has just recorded their 2nd album.

Ftarri is an offshot of the Improvised Music from Japan Label. Less Action ... is the 6th release of the Ftarri series and already the 2nd for the duo. The artwork of the album has been again provided by the Japanese illustrator tanabemse. The design can be seen as the dark brother of their debut album mainstream.

* Less Action, Less Excitement, Less Everything will also be released on vinyl - with the same artwork and same music - in September 2010. *
* The International Nothing‘s website http.//nichts.klingt.org shall be launched in Autumn 2010. *

For further information please visit the following websites:
http://kylie.klingt.org | http://www.michael-thieke.de | http://www.ftarri.com

contact: nichts@klingt.org

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Please leave your comments, criticism, praise, questions, etc.!!!

[Dan Warburton]

Great title! Make sure you send a copy to David Keenan forthwith!

[jon abbey]

yeah, the title rules. hoping to have these in stock in the next few days...

[billygomberg]

VERY
VERY
VERY
EXCITED
FOR
THIS

[kylie fagischefsky]

Their is a review in the new issue of The Wire magazine. It's funny, at first it comes along as quite slating, even slightly insulting, but on the second reading it's somehow positive. Anyway it left my thinking ...

Well if an album title is crap or not is probably a matter of taste. I'm glad at least some certain people on this board seem to appreciate it.

Heavier though, I think the author has a little misconception of what composition means or can mean. By his writing I (might probably mis-)assume that he understands composition as traditional notated music. Also it seems that he's rancking the score over the actual sounding music, even though he's criticizing this himself harshly. (Is he a paradox victim of his own unconscious conservatism?)

These assumptions are far away from how The International Nothing actually works. The pieces are worked out till the final details, but it's not about realizing a score and producing paper. Rather the pieces are developed by practice of trial and error till they end up in their final shape. Notes (but no traditional scores, which surely wouldn't make sense) are done as a help for the memory. This notes are serving the actual sounds, but not the opposite way around. So first is always the instrumentally fully realized idea and then the notes are following.

But why composing at all? The author seems to question this. Well, both members of T.I.N. are improvising a lot and with big pleasure in other projects. For the duo we are aiming results, which we think we cannot be achieved through improvisation. All involved musical materials can happen throughout an improvisation of course, but the closely and precisely connected voices with their detailed interferences (which is our focus here) and the specific developments and forms throughout the single pieces (which is our focus here) need the detailed pre-construction ... and I thought that should be pretty obvious at least after the 2nd listening.

Well observed by the author is the danger of "deading" sounds by composition. When a composition is finished it needs a lot of practice by the performers to develop a certain flow to give back life into the pieces, at least that is my experience ... and if that doesn't help the composition needs to be changed, as good intentions are no excuse for a music that doesn't work.
[Surely a problem with contemporary composed music, when ensembles only have a limited amount of time to rehearse a piece for a concert. The convenience of a composer/performer duo is that there is not so much misunderstanding between composer and performer and that we have lots of time to rehearse the pieces until the point we think we are able to perform (or record) the music in full blossom.]

Anyhow the essence of it all is not the method or process in which the music is produced; it's all about the actual sounding results. Well the author agrees on this in his final paragraph, but why then he's making such a big point out of it? ... and why am I making such a big point out of it? ... Well, how knows? Maybe you? ... Should musicians review the reviews of their music? ... May it be reviewed.

P.S.: By the way the author of the review Mr. Philip Clark is a musician himself. Check out his chilly Rhythm & Blues here: http://philipclark.com/

[mudd]

i have to say that's an unusually interesting review for the wire these days. i already have the cd in my to-listen pile, but now i'm more intrigued about hearing it.

m

[RFKorp]

I'd say that's a pretty positive review by the end - and well deserved, I've been really enjoying this disc. That is, aside from the dumb comment about your (hilarious) album title.

The whole preconceived attitude that composition can't do justice to this language of sounds - which then gets demolished by the music's example - says a lot more about the reviewer than the cd being reviewed.

[Jesse]

There is a pretty pervasive confusion about composed/improvised demarcations.
One expects a little more from people who write about this area.
These demarcations probably never obtained, they certainly are weak when regarding The International Nothing.