ihatemusic

Burkhard Stangl/Kai Fagaschinski - Musik - Ein Porträt in Sehnsucht



This, I imagine, is going to be on my top ten of the year. It captures an atmosphere that I haven't yet heard on an Erstwhile release. Melody and harmony are central focuses here, although it's not by any sense of the word traditional. Kai creates breathy hisses and airy, winding melodies shadowed in multiphonics and microtonal inflections. The harmonics sometimes act as the center focus, with the fundamental tone shifting and acting as the shadow to the high harmonic pushing its way out at the top. Burkhard's acoustic guitar shifts between angular, arpeggiated harmonics, beautiful but dissonant chordal accompaniment, to scrapes and scratches with the tones barely peeking their way out. The two shift to other instruments as well, such as piano, electronics, and vibraphone (used to wonderful effect on the final piece). Even in the more textural sections, tones are the central focus. The mood is by no means singular, with field recordings often surprising and acting as a bridge which is picked up upon musically in the next passage. These field recordings are never tacked on, and always seem essential to where the music goes. For example, the thunderous bridge between the end of the second piece brings us to the low throbbing tones of the beginning of the third; the car trip we take in the sixth piece ("Ausflug") brings us to the serene conclusion. Throughout, the line between composition and improvisation is blurred, especially in the aforementioned final piece, "Weißt Du noch unser Lied".

Morton Feldman's influence is clearly heard, especially on the aforementioned closer and the wonderful and hysterically titled "Sexy M.F.". While the latter track clearly uses some of Feldman's musical tricks, his mood is present throughout the disc. Usually when I see Feldman references, there just seems to be grab at the surface-level of his aesthetic; this succeeds in capturing something buried a bit deeper in his music, a crystalline musical calm that is present in even the dark, dissonant passages. Those who ever wondered about the Feldman influence in EAI should hear this disc, as it makes it particularly clear case for it.

All in all, one of the finest discs I've heard this year. Highly, highly recommended.

[edit: I should note, this isn't out until mid-October, but can be acquired as a lossless file with a preorder from erstwhile]

snailed wrote:It captures an atmosphere that I haven't yet heard on an Erstwhile release. Melody and harmony are central focuses here, although it's not by any sense of the word traditional

this is a dream duo. definitely going to look into that pre- order.
when you say the feldman influence is present in a wider sense than in most cases- how do you mean? are you talking about distinct citations or more so his 'methodology'?

corey_larkin wrote:

snailed wrote:It captures an atmosphere that I haven't yet heard on an Erstwhile release. Melody and harmony are central focuses here, although it's not by any sense of the word traditional

this is a dream duo. definitely going to look into that pre- order.
when you say the feldman influence is present in a wider sense than in most cases- how do you mean? are you talking about distinct citations or more so his 'methodology'?

I think the influence is in the methodology. Time as opposed to Timing (cfr. Between Categories; Give my regards to Eighth Street. Collected MF writings. pp 83-89).

I've too listened to this in advance. Think I had played it everyday, once or twice, since september 16.Wish I had the words for expressing my thoughts, but Graham and Richard knows I don't...

snailed wrote: "Sexy M.F."

yonhosago wrote:

corey_larkin wrote:

snailed wrote:It captures an atmosphere that I haven't yet heard on an Erstwhile release. Melody and harmony are central focuses here, although it's not by any sense of the word traditional

this is a dream duo. definitely going to look into that pre- order.
when you say the feldman influence is present in a wider sense than in most cases- how do you mean? are you talking about distinct citations or more so his 'methodology'?

I think the influence is in the methodology. Time as opposed to Timing (cfr. Between Categories; Give my regards to Eighth Street. Collected MF writings. pp 83-89).

I've too listened to this in advance. Think I had played it everyday, once or twice, since september 16.Wish I had the words for expressing my thoughts, but Graham and Richard knows I don't...

I suppose I'm talking about something a little less tangible. Time vs. timing I can see, but I think that's present in plenty of EAI records. It's also not anything specifically musical for the most part. The general "feel" is what I am getting at, which is not really something that I can accurate describe with typical music theory terminology. The only obvious Feldman-esque musical gestures occur in "Sexy M.F." (Feldman was sexy, wasn't he?) and I suppose the vibraphone on the final track. And yes, there is also generally a slow feel, with an emphasis on repetition with slight variation. But more important than that, regarding the feel, I'm reminded of someone who said listening to Feldman was like watching a crystal refracting light in different patterns and directions. That's sort of what I mean. It's not a musical thing so much as taking the essence of it, which is why I think it works; many others take Feldman's musical gestures or methodology and fail to capture the spirit of it. This feels like it was taken from an immersion in listening to his music rather than from analyzing the scores, his words, his techniques, or methodology. A case can be made that that was his methodology, if you think about it. Listening rather than thinking; intuition rather than systems.

I should say that the Feldman comparison is an oversimplification; there are plenty of different moods and textures the record goes through, and the one comparison doesn't completely cover it by any means. It's very much the work of Burkhard Stangl and Kai Fagaschinski, and Feldman only works as a reference point because there's not too much else to compare it to. I'm sure others will find further reference points, but it felt pretty fresh to me. I suppose I also felt a bit of a connection to Luciano Cilio's Die Schachtel record; not musically (no overwrought female voices on Musik: Ein Portrat...) but there's something similar there as well. Jon had mentioned to me the Jimmy Giuffre 1961 Fusion/Thesis record, and I think that's right on too. And those are all sort of a stretch; it doesn't sound like much else when it comes down to it.

Definitely one of my favourites this year. Gorgeous. Was wondering though why you chose to put it out on Erstwhile and not ErstPop, Jon (maybe you've answered this elsewhere, if so, apologies) - it's certainly as accessible - singable, even - as many of the tracks on the first two Pops.

Dan Warburton wrote:Definitely one of my favourites this year. Gorgeous. Was wondering though why you chose to put it out on Erstwhile and not ErstPop, Jon (maybe you've answered this elsewhere, if so, apologies) - it's certainly as accessible - singable, even - as many of the tracks on the first two Pops.

glad you're enjoying it!

it certainly pushes a bunch of Erstwhile borders, but I never considered moving it to ErstPop. I think EP releases probably need to have a sizable vocals component, and not Ami Yoshida-style ones. FWIW, Christof originally wanted neuschnee to be on Erstwhile proper, but to me the decisions on those three have all been pretty clear so far.

You should approach Ami and Christof about an album of Neil Diamond covers.. I'd be up for that

Dan Warburton wrote:You should approach Ami and Christof about an album of Neil Diamond covers.. I'd be up for that

The danger of Neil Diamond covers:

http://spitoutyourgum.blogspot.com/2009 ... ebody.html

Listen if you dare:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tm8EJaoFO8

i have to ask, is there any meaning / reference behind the artwork of the release? no offense, but i assume it wasn't done like this for asthetic reasons? some german schlager reference maybe?

WCrap wrote:i have to ask, is there any meaning / reference behind the artwork of the release? no offense, but i assume it wasn't done like this for asthetic reasons?

hehe, I love when people say that, a slightly nicer way of saying "I think your design is so hideous that you can't possibly mean it seriously, so is there some other reason for it?".

anyway, I think the design fits well with the music, and there is a relation to the Alexandra record that the title also refers to (you can see her picture in the hole in the middle of the CD), so maybe that answers your question?

nice review by Richard P. tonight:

http://www.thewatchfulear.com/?p=2523

..prefaced by the usual moans about British public transport!

Chimpsky...stop me...

Alastair wrote:Chimpsky...stop me...

Oi, Wilson! NOOOOOO.

Dan Warburton wrote:..prefaced by the usual moans about British public transport!

Meanwhile, a plucky little Central European capital attempts to stem the tide of Anglicization of German public transport: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5099349,00.html

negative potential wrote:

Dan Warburton wrote:..prefaced by the usual moans about British public transport!

Meanwhile, a plucky little Central European capital attempts to stem the tide of Anglicization of German public transport: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5099349,00.html

Privatisation doesn't have to mean a shit train service. The trains in Britain were shit before privatisation, but much of the Japanese rail network is privately owned and works very effectively.

Anyway, not to derail this thread, I think Musik - Ein Porträt in Sehnsucht is a brilliant album and one of my favourites from this year.

anybody know how fagaschinski gets those airy, fluttery sounds on track 2? assuming that's him on the clarinet.

well, actually this is a company secret, but ...



i bought a very fancy white version (similar to the one on the picture) at an old tool store in jersey city right in the neighbourhood of my beloved label boss mr. abbey.

also the heavy bass sounds (within the same section) are by the clarinet (compressed, directed air on medium cheap microphone). the sound reminded us of thunder storms, which let to the idea of fading in some real thunder storms (by field recordings) later to slowly morph the imaginative sounds into the concrete sounds.