POLWECHSEL 2

 

 

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Bill Meyer

Polwechsel's music is not about tunes but textures; it resonates with the grainy abrasion of bows against strings, the bristling static of electronics, the faint dampness of air sucked through a saxophone reed.

Over the past three or four decades these sounds have become common currency in free improvised music and the spontaneously layered piece "Falb" proves that Polwechsel are well versed in such methods. But Michael Moser and Werner Dafeldecker also compose with these materials. Their pieces move deliberately from one sound field to the next, mapping and shaping each with a surveyor's precision and a sculptor's sense of form. They pay special attention to the points where electronic and acoustic sonorities overlap. Butcher's breathy rasps and Stangl's rumbling electric guitar feedback blend with Moser and Dafeldecker's bowed low strings and the crackles and drones that issue from the latter man's little black boxes.

The four tracks on this CD all inhabit a very narrow dynamic range, pieces develop gradually through accumulation rather than contrast. They reward intense listening, especially on headphones, which reveals the music's subtle details.

 

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Peter Niklas Wilson

Die Firma Hat Hut führt sie in ihrer hat [now] ART-Reihe, die der neuen komponierten Musik vorbehalten ist, neben Feldman, Cage, Scelsi. Drei der vier Stücke auf der zweiten CD des Polwechsel-Quartetts sind als Kompositionen Einzelner ausgewiesen. Und doch ist dies Musik, die für meine Ohren von der Sensibilität vier erfahrener Improvisatoren lebt, Improvisatoren freilich, die sich in dieser Sensibilität für den Moment, für Nuancen und Innenbewegungen des Klangs jenseits des Notierbaren durch globalere oder genauere Absprachen und Vorgaben nicht behindert fühlen (was beim Klangforum Wien-Mitglied Michael Moser vielleicht weniger überraschend ist als beim britischen Saxophonisten John Butcher, der Radu Malfattis Platz bei Polwechsel eingenommen hat).
Sicher: dies ist Musik von Improvisatoren, in die unverkennbar die Erfahrungen des Feldman-, des Scelsi- und Lachenmann-Hörens eingegangen ist (beim Endlos- Tripel-Glissando von Michael Mosers Tatoo mag man sich an Alvin Lucier erinnert fühlen).
Musik, die Peter-Brötzmann- oder Cecil- Taylor-Begeisterte vermutlich ratlos zurücklassen wird. Musik von Improvisatoren, die erkannt haben, dass in der Zurücknahme, im Detail ebensoviel Kraft liegt, wie im dramatischen Espressivo. Und die, bei aller Genauigkeit des Hantierens mit subtilsten Geräusch- und Klang-Nuancen, nicht ins weihevolle Zelebrieren lebloser Pianissimo-Klanginseln verfallen, wie es in der Neuen Musik heute oft genug geschieht.

 

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There is a branch of new music called Noise.

I don’t propose to pursue a connection which is really more a term of convenience. I mention it only as a superficial and possibly even harmful suggestion at categorization. I wish there were an term to describe an impasse of the fingertips corresponding to tongue-tied. Be that as it may, I think I can make a few illustrative statements without fear of harming the delicate balance in these two releases between indeterminacy, strategy, and hair-fine precision. First, one does not attempt to operate at this extreme distance from convention with other than masterful, like-minded players; second, Polwechsel 2 is the more austere and challenging program. In both Polwechsel and Polwechsel 2, Werner Dafeldecker plays the larger part, not as performer but rather as composer of Nord, Ost and Sudwest (Polwechsel), Hyogo and Toaster (Polwechsel 2). Given the ensemble’s supremely abstract character, one notes with interest that Michael Moser’s NNO-Fernaumoos (Polwechsel) and Tatoo [sic] (Polwechsel 2) seem the more musically coherent compositions, with the latter’s nervous enegies in keeping with tattoo’s definition: raising an alarm by means of a rapid drumbeat, etc. I do not intend for a suggestion of coherence to imply superiority. However "incomprehensible" the particular moment or event, the thing that most impresses about Polwechsel as an ensemble is the sense it conveys of knowing exactly what it’s doing and where it’s headed. If Dafeldecker’s five compositions play relative to Moser’s two closer to noise (there, I said it!), rest assured, it’s no accident. Falb of Polwechsel 2 is a group project. To return to what I’ve been saying about Uehlinger’s judgment and mission, this is the kind of thing any assemblage of overweening weenies feel they can pull off. All one needs do is grunt, scratch and squeak. I think not. To understand what Polwechsel accomplishes (in either combination of players), one has to hear these discs. Not, however, for hum-along types.

 

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