The dynamic range of percussive instruments isn't exactly as wide as the Grand Canyon, nor can essentially "unfiltered" tools such as drum-traps, cymbals, et al, ever be misconstrued as enormously vivid components of a musician's particular sound palette. However, such rules scarcely ever apply to improv, as so assiduously demonstrated by the team of Schliemann and Vorfeld, who do their damnedest to embolden their spunky collection of assorted percussion, found objects, and stringed instruments by (seemingly haphazardly) "hitting, bowing, scratching, and throwing" them across their well-mic'ed studio environs.
That the duo creates some fairly resonant vortexes of sound is testament more to the remit of their ideaistic prowess than to the objects they so unceremoniously mistreat. All told, this recording waxes through a wide index of metals; though hardly subtle, and not what one would define as staunchly "minimal," Schliemann and Vorfeld manage to keep the proceedings lively with a reasonably concise measure of sounds. The opening "Vorderkranz, grosser Keil" immediately thrusts the listener into the duo's teeming forest of thwacked sonics: cymbal strikes seem to reign down from the heavens like steamy rain, the whine of string on oxidized steel ushers in cinematic tensions, random noises scuttle, trickle, and scurry about the metallic undergrowth. While there are undoubtedly other terse moments further along, Schliemann and Vorfeld are hard-pressed to follow-up these galvanizing first nine minutes, proffering a busy, complex sortee into handstruck landscapes little glimpsed before.
Conversely, a piece such as "Drei — gerade aus, Bärbel", all fervent squeaks and rusty-surface manhandlings, doesn't titillate either the incumbent stereofield or the unwary listener, and serves merely to alienate across its nearly seven-minute duration. "Böse Fünf" also courts a type of percussive unpleasantness, unless your idea of ideal listening is hearing the aural equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard. It's obvious that Schliemann and Vorfeld are testing the limits of their admittedly limiting set-up, pushing both boundaries and dynamics are far as might be humanly possible. "Heavy" metal music this might be, a variant decidedly overt and brazenly experimental, but exceptions aside (as when the duo achieve some kind of noticeable rhythmic parity on "Schräge Sechs links"), these brittle sounds are more likely to seize than seethe.
Comments and Feedback:
|
