Two electro acoustic compositions from Alessandro Bosetti from 2000 and 2002 and a recent text sound composition of Antje Vowinckel. It is very fine composed abstract music that starting from microscopic sound details develops organic and highly dynamic although very reduced structures. All the pieces make an extended use of silence, space and very small, carefully shaped, sound particles creating a feeling of natural “breath” and flow. Although this music shares some techniques with the “musique concrete” it goes much beyond in giving new musical life to sounds and suggesting new approaches in listening perception. For those who know Alessandro Bosetti for his activities as improvising saxophonist in the new minimal scene with Phosphor, Annette Krebs and others and for his text sound compositions won’t be difficult to recognize his very personal way in organizing sounds whatever he operate in electro acoustic music, improvisation or acoustic and radio arts contexts. Also hearing the piece of Antje Vowinckel, could be a surprise for those who know her as one of the more significative and granted author of new experimental radio plays in Germany.
ReViews: There's nothing understated about the title of bosetti's electroacoustic album on the Bowindo label, wich translates as Charlemagne, His Gaze Fixed On His Lake Constance, In Love With The Hidden Depths. He splits the CD with antje Vowinckel, a star experimental playwright on German radio. Bosetti sets out two substantials compositions, where real sounds cohabit edgily with abstact electronics. Airless sinewaves sit next to subtle thunder and the delicate tapping of steel pans. Again, it's restrained music, though less so than his duo with Krebs. The first title, "Sardinia And Japan Are Islands", indicates a little exotica might be in order, and indeed we glimpse tropical birds as a woman's voice lists islands. Hoarse whistling eventually coalesce into a static landscape, like a panpipe hung out in the wind. Vowinckel's piece introduces jarring shocks, hearty shouts and metallic thumps that build up to peaks. It's a kind of storytelling in sound, yet it follows a standard electroacoustic brief too closely, hurring from one climax of digitally tortured material to another for no discernible reason. And given the several Japanese voices in the mix, possibly "NIPPS" was not the ideal title? (Clive Bell, The Wire, November 2003). I am not sure why the two artists are combined on this disk, nor what the title means.
Alessandro Bosetti has the bulk of the disk. His 'Sardinia and Japan are islands' is a disjointed compendium – there are lots of short segments that run into each other – crackling then samples; tones and water drips, pops and crackles; soft pulses, high tones, flutters and crunches; soft rumble; pulse rattle/scrape moving around; high and low sines plus hiss drops to shimmer; voices, some in English listing islands, layered; tapping and shimmers. Building finally to a sine with taps that gets somewhat earsplitting and scrapey, wobbling then easing back. Disjointed but there is a flow and connection. His longer 'Kitchen piece' (22.5 minutes as against 18) is one of the growing number of culinary samples we have hears here (such as Sonic Catering last issue). As with Sardinia…' there is a particulate feel – the first two thirds works with little pieces, clattering, soft tones, scrapes, bowl-gongs, drains, frying and mechanical scuttering. In the final third this becomes an extended tonal play. War layered ones that roll along and subtly vary, with chimey rattles drifting between the fore and back ground before a pop-crack le final fade. Both works combine samples and manipulation creatively, and while not focussed or extended (other than the final parts in the kitchen) the details and flow are captivating.
'NIPPS' is 9.5 minute piece that is worth having in its own right, but sits strangely here – an unbalanced split disk. Antje Vowinckel opens it with an instrumental passage – scraped metal, twangs, messed piano and swirly tones chopped and build to a noise burst before easing to the second section. Here cycling, with some bloopytwangs and humm is a base for layered and chopped Dada-ish voice loops, almost a chant. A quieter passage as a cycle becomes a panning hiss, breaths, builds and drops to another exciting voice passage, chopped and building, burbling and rolling before the too soon fade. A dramatic piece that pushes a lot into its short time. (Jeremy Keens, Ampersand Etc.,October 2003) Having been inundated with requests for Best Of lists for 2003, I eventually got tired of the idea, though if anyone had asked me to name the new label of the year (as opposed to album) I would have nominated Bowindo without a moment's hesitation. Bowindo is, along with Giuseppe Ielasi's Fringes imprint that distributes it, arguably the best thing to come out of Italy since Luigi Nono. Each of the first four releases on the label is superbly recorded, beautifully packaged, and full to the brim with daring and accomplished new music.
Devotees of lowercase improvisation will no doubt already be familiar with the saxophone work of Alessandro Bosetti (now based in Berlin) through his appearances on notable albums of the genre on Potlatch and Grob. The intriguingly titled Charlemagne, la vue attachée sur son lac de Constance, amoureux de L'âbime [sic] caché, features two of his electroacoustic works, "Sardinia and Japan are Islands" and "Kitchen Piece", as well as a brief work, "NIPPS" by German experimental writer Antje Vowinckel. Bosetti's ear for detail is as acute as one would expect, though his two offerings may surprise listeners accustomed to the micro-inflections of his soprano sax or familiar with the austere electronics on his contribution to last year's Berlin Reeds on Absinth: there's a huge variety of sounds here, from (as you might expect from the title "Kitchen Music") domestic utensils to the spoken word ("Sardinia.." contains, at one point, a text about islands). Silence, though, plays an important structural role, and the nuances of Bosetti's mix are best appreciated in a quiet listening environment, or through headphones (quasi-obligatory these days in this apartment). Vowinckel's work - one might question whether its inclusion is necessary or not - is closer to traditional (whatever that means) models, but well crafted and interesting nonetheless. (Dan Warburton, Paris Transatlantic, January 2004) |
|
