By
Keith Prosk
Since discovering Berlin’s echtzeitmusik scene just a few years ago and
building a partiality to much of the music it produces, I’ve eagerly
awaited recordings from a few musicians that particularly peak my interest
yet release things sparsely. Flautist Sabine Vogel is one such musician. So
I was ecstatic to find these two releases from this year, both of which
provide excellent showcases for her musicianship.
Sabine Vogel, Michael Thieke, Kaffe Matthews, Audrey Chen, ld M Theft
Able - isolated . connected (self-released, 2020) ****
Musicians have reacted to the isolating conditions of a world in pandemic
through various means, from releasing sat-on archival recordings, to
wrapping up and releasing recent recordings more quickly than expected, to
recording and releasing new -usually solo- projects during the pandemic. isolated . connected falls in the latter group, but with a process
to simulate the communal improvisation that is vital to this music and so
difficult to achieve recently.
That process is a game of sonic telephone, where a musician records a solo,
sends it to another musician, that musician records a solo in communication
to the first, and the two solos are overdubbed for a duo. The second
musician then sends their solo to a third, who records a solo in
communication to that, their solos are overdubbed for a duo, and all three
musicians’ solos are overdubbed for a trio. This process builds to a
quintet on isolated . connected, resulting in five solos, four
duos, and a trio, quartet, and quintet for twelve tracks lasting a little
less than two hours.
The five musicians here are Vogel (bass flute, preparations), Michael
Thieke (clarinet), Kaffe Matthews (digital oscillators, samplers), Audrey
Chen (voice), and Id M Theft Able (voice). Beyond Splitter Orchester, Vogel
and Thieke have recorded together on SCHWIMMER’s 7x4x7, to which
this is a spiritual successor, and Rutger Zuydervelt’s Stay Tuned.
And Chen and Able have recorded together on On Teufelsberg. I
don’t believe any of the other musicians have previously recorded together,
but it’s worth mentioning that Matthews released the acclaimed Foreigner this year.
Vogel’s and Thieke’s solos come first, both accenting silence with mostly
clicks, breath, and spit, but whereas Vogel’s piece seems to focus on
breath velocity and volume, Thieke’s piece seems to focus on embouchure,
with parting lips, swallowing, and tongue and cheek movement closely
recorded. Their timbrally diverse duo is a highlight of the release, with
Thieke’s response almost creating small rhythms with Vogel’s pulses, but at
this time it sinks in that you’ll hear them five times each, which is a
positive because you can hear the process but might be too much repetition
in one sitting. Matthews’ response to Thieke stands in almost abrasively
stark contrast to the previous two solos, with sustained electric tones
undulating, throbbing, swelling, and occasionally glitching out. Her volume
control and pitch transitions match nicely with Thieke but, having not
heard Vogel’s solo, don’t mesh well and often drown out the best of the
acoustic duo in the trio track. Chen’s solo is an exposition of extended
vocal techniques, with breathing, stuttering, sucking, gurgling, yawning,
clicking, modulated vocalizing, and more, which overlay with Matthews’
track unexpectedly well, complimenting the pulse of her drones and glitched
clicks and cuts. Able’s solo is more extended vocal technique, but whereas
Chen seems more lungs and lips, Able seems more throat and cheek, and
whereas Chen might be considered somber, Able is definitely comedic. As a
result, their duo is another highlight of the release, displaying disparate
outcomes through similar approaches, almost like Vogel and Thieke’s duo.
The final quintet is impressively cohesive, despite the musicians not
necessarily communicating directly with most others, and characterized by
chance cycles of rhythm and resonance the close listener can piece
together. Matthews’ drones seem to get progressively lower in the mix with
the quartet and quintet, and, rather than drowning out the two acoustic
duos for the final piece, provides a springboard from which the other
musicians interact with each other.
There’s some cognitive pleasure that comes from hearing this process of
musical telephone, but there’s also a sense of hearing the same thing too
often, despite approaching it in a different context. And while the final
quintet might be my favorite track I’ve heard this year thus far,
especially because of the simultaneously similar and dissimilar approaches
in the wind and voice duos, there’s a sense that the digital oscillator
occupies so much space as to be distracting. Still, isolated . connected is an exemplar of the process-based,
near-scientific sonic exploration that characterizes the best of the Berlin
scene. Vogel states this is an ongoing project, so look forward to new
exciting directions from this very solid foundation.
isolated . connected
is a digital-only release.
Ignaz Schick & Sabine Vogel - Inner Mongolia (Zarek, 2020)
****
Ignaz Schick recently started his label, Zarek, as a means to release some
stellar archival recordings with musicians including Paul Lovens &
Clayton Thomas, Toshimaru Nakamura, and others. Inner Mongolia
documents his collaborations with Vogel from 2008 to 2011, with nine tracks
across 54 minutes. Drawing from a long period of what sounds like studio
environments, it allows for a grand variety of instrumentation, with Schick
on turntables, motor, objects, gongs, cymbals, bows, and electronics and
Vogel on flute, bass flute, piccolo flute, pedals, and samplers.
Schick and Vogel previously recorded a track for the
Echtzeitmusik Berlin
compilation, “Inner Mongolia,” from which this release takes its name and
which appears as the first track (under a different name). As expected from
these musicians with this amount of instrumentation, the music is a diverse
ecosystem of sonic color. And, as is often the case when this kind of music
is more freely played, the sound can assume cinematic or picturesque
qualities. The twinkling chimes, bells, and gongs become the stars over the
windy, foggy bay of whistling flute static with a sonorous foghorn
overlayed on “Hohot.” A kind of sucking and harsh air notes with tape
static, pop, and warp feels like a desiccated, decayed apocalyptic
landscape on “Baotou.” Or a flute buzzing like a fly, creaking like
grasshopper legs, or fluttering like moth wings creates a world of insects
“Hulun Buir.” The amount of sounds here is simply impressive, with purring
motors, vocal multiphonics, string-like strained sustain, flute like
didgeridoo, and a rubbery ping-pong bounce recalling Autechre being just
some of them.
Compared to similar recordings, there’s a bit more movement, volume, and
action here. It’s still not exactly sing along music, but you can listen to
it in the car without the ambient whirr drowning it out. And the
communication through textures, pulses, volume, and density are so aptly
reactive and complimentary as to seem unimprovised at times. Here’s to
hoping the collaboration is ongoing.
Inner Mongolia
is a digital-only release.
