infotext:
The persistent power of the quiet
The quartet Otomo Yoshihide Axel Dörner Sachiko M Martin Brandlmayr at the Donaueschinger Musiktage
The Zen masters would surely enjoy it. The rhythms, repeated over and over again with great serenity, are reminiscent of the clicking noises caused by the bamboo canes in Japanese Zen monasteries, which are constantly being filled with water and tipping downwards in the same stoic rhythm.
But the sine tones sounding alternately at 50 Hertz and 18.000 Hertz, as it were a ringing reflex of the persistent rhythm, should also impress Zen monks. Because they force you to concentrate, to immerse yourself in the music. The moments of silence that permeate the first track of the Otomo Yoshihide Quartet's double SACD, which lasts more than half an hour, are just a logical continuation of this recording, which is characterized by extreme economy and maximum precision.
The newly formed Otomo Yoshihide Quartet was already able to impress at its first concert in 2005 in Donaueschingen. Even the specialists in contemporary music were amazed at the formal consistency with which these four improvisation artists went about their work.
Otomo Yoshihide, the Tokyo-based musical jack-of-all-trades, who as a member of the group »Ground Zero« had a formative influence on both avant-noise rock and experimental reductionism, put together a group of like-minded people for the performance at the Donaueschinger Musiktage: In addition to his longtime musical partner Sachiko M from the »Filament« duo, whose irritatingly naked sine tones come from a small sampler whose test tones are sent through an oscillator, two protagonists from the European improvisation scene, trumpeter Axel Dörner and drummer Martin Brandlmayr, play in Otomos Quartet.
Both musicians are well-known from the scene of aesthetic reductionism – Brandlmayr hardly ever picks up the drumsticks to instead transform his drum kit into a complex percussion instrument with his hands or brush; Dörner hardly ever blows a conventional trumpet tone, instead letting his instrument mutate into a delicately sounding trachea, which he also changes microtonally thanks to a built-in slide.
But like Otomo, both instrumentalists can also be heard in completely different contexts for some time now: Brandlmayr as a member of the trio "Radian", which recently lets electronically transformed echoes of rock music sound, Dörner in the group "Die Enttäuenterung", which performs the complete works of Thelonious Monk recorded. In the recordings, Otomo himself plays an electrically amplified, semi-acoustic guitar and two turntables, which he doesn't use like a conventional DJ, however, because he doesn't play records, but mostly generates his sounds directly on the pickups.
It was their versatility and openness that allowed these four musicians to merge into an unusual unit during rehearsals before their performance in Donaueschingen. Which is why the release also includes the two most unusual studio takes (on SACD 1) in addition to the concert program. The Otomo Yoshihide Quartet impressively undermines the cliché of reductionism. Although the dynamics of the improvisations are often extremely reduced, the spectrum of sounds is constantly expanded through the experimental playing styles of the four musicians.
Similar to Helmut Lachenmann, this quartet demonstrates that meaningful and at the same time sensual music can be made with noise. The fact that she also has something uncomfortable and rebellious about her, as a voice critical of the times, relieves her of aesthetic irrelevance. Because in a time of booming »events«, resistance draws its greatest strength from the quiet.
Reinhard Kager
program:
Donaueschingen Music Days 2005
SWR2 NOWJazz
Quartet
Otomo Yoshihide Axel Dörner
Sachiko M. Martin Brandlmayr
allurements of the ellipsoid
SA CD 1 48:18
[01] allurement 1 36:58
[02] allurement 2 11:13
SA CD 2 47:36
[03] allurement 3 21:12
[04] allurement 4 26:18
All compositions by
Quartet
Otomo Yoshihide Axel Dörner Sachiko M Martin Brandlmayr
Otomo Yoshihide: turntable, electronics & guitar
Axel Dörner: trumpet
Sachiko M: sinewaves
Martin Brandlmayr: drums
Press:
06.10.2011
The minimalist improvisation of Otomo Yoshihide's Quartet, assembled for the 2005 Donaueschinger Music Festival, delivers a thoroughly abstract sound that could never be described as obtuse.
This coming together of heavyweight improvisers yielded two discs—one, a studio session and the other, a live performance—recorded over three days. Those familiar with the genius of Yoshihide's music can follow his career from the noisy rock of his band Ground Zero to his swinging free jazz recordings for small and large ensemble. His previous releases include two 2010 tributes: one, to Albert Ayler, Bells; the other, to Ornette Coleman, Lonely Woman (both on Doubt). His longtime collaborator, since wave artist Sachiko M, makes up the duo that is Filament, an improvising band that often invites guest collaborators. Such is the case here, with the Yoshihide/M duo expanded to include Martin Brandlmayr, whose drumming in the post-rock band Radian has a parallel to Tortoise and Chicago Underground Trio. Rounding out the quartet is reductionist trumpeter Axel Dörner, a player equally suited for post-post-bop, as heard in his Thelonious Monk tribute band Die Enttäustung, or as a minimalist player in Phosphor.
Here, the band maintains a quiet, almost meditative sound. Recorded in both 5.1 surround SACD sound and simple two-channel stereo, the quartet relies on silent passages, with nary a noisy surprise of babble, especially on the studio recording of the first disc. The players seem content to listen and contribute (sometimes hesitating) gestures. Dörner's breathy fluttering floats over an undercurrent of M's high frequency pitches and whistles. Likewise, Yoshihide is apt to deliver electronic hum as if it were a breath being expelled.
The studio recording appears as an ancient forest of 800 year-old redwood trees, with the implication that the trees' conversations are not to be hurried, while CD2, the live disc's “Allurement 3” and “Allurement 4” are (just a wee bit) noisier, the players interact more with overlapping sounds. Brandlmayr continues to eschew his drumsticks for hand taps and pats, while the collective conversation lifts. Dörner's breathy shudders bounce off the pings and pops of electronics, as the scratchy pops of a vinyl LP repeat in some sort of science fiction B-movie soundtrack.
In both the studio and the live performance discs, time—or the sense of musical time—is almost nonexistent. These four improvising players are participating in a classical dialogue of the empirical-versus-metaphysical nature of sound and music creation.
Marc Corroto