Schwimmer
7x4x7
Creative Sources | 2004 | CD
Alessandro Bosetti | soprano sax
Michael Thieke | clarinet
Sabine Vogel | flute
Michael Griener | percussion
1. 06:32
2. 06:32
3. 06:48
4. 06:55
5. 07:05
6. 07:03
7. 07:05
Recorded 9/2/2003 by Ronny Trocker at studio P4, Berlin
Cover design Asi Föcker
Creative sources/lisbon 2004
links:
reviews:
Declaradamente, a nova geração de improvisadores não se preocupa só em acrescentar sons ao silêncio ou em desmistificar a associação do ruído com o volume sonoro. O quarteto formado por Michael Thieke (clarinetes soprano e alto), Alessandro Bosetti (saxofone soprano), Sabine Vogel (flautas em dó, piccolo e baixo) e Michael Griener (percussão) tem outra preocupação central, o espaço, ou melhor, a forma como se podem criar espaços ilusórios ou como os instrumentos (leia-se: os sons instrumentais) se fundem com o seu próprio espaço de difusão. «Schwimmer» é mesmo caracterizado como uma “organização de sons no espaço”, quando regra geral, na definição de música, se fala dessa mesma organização no tempo. Em texto de apresentação do projecto, Bosetti, que gosta de reivindicar a sua qualidade de “antropólogo dos sons”, lamenta que o interesse pela espacialização áudio surja apenas como um efeito final no trabalho composicional, interpretativo e/ou de improvisação, quando devia ser um dos elementos mais determinantes do próprio discurso musical. Daí, pois, o papel fundamental dos microfones e dos altifalantes nas execuções deste grupo, com cada instrumento a ser amplificado com os mais variados tipos de micros, e com as suas projecções sonoras estrategicamente distribuídas pelos locais de actuação. O registo deste disco não se ficou por aí: cada instrumentista gravou solos improvisados de sete minutos, que foram sobrepostos em cadeia até ao final.
Ou seja, não só se compôs na pós-produção o que foi antes improvisado, procedimento que já nada tem de novo, como se jogou com os vários espaços sonoros capturados, forjando na mistura, a partir deles, um outro espaço (meta-espaço?) totalmente fictício, o que já é outra coisa. A dimensão é conceptual, sem dúvida, como já vai sendo hábito nestes domínios, mas tem uma tradução prática que fala por si própria.
-Rui Eduardo Paes (JL)
Nemmeno una probabile fiacca, dovuta al caldo soffocante di questi giorni, è riuscita a frenare il Portogallo e la propria scena indipendente, tra le più attive musicalmente al momento in Europa. Discorso non solo concerne al jet set dei musicisti, ma anche allargato agli ambiti produttivi, con etichette sempre più emergenti nel panorama internazionale. La Creative Sources, poi, nel corso di un modesto lasso di tempo ha subito una notevole crescita (produttiva e qualitativa), acquisendo un sicuro posto di riguardo da parte degli aficionados delle musiche di ricerca.
[…] D’altro spessore si presenta il quartetto firmatario di “ 7X4X7”: un lavoro che a tutto tondo catapulta dentro gli attuali meandri del circuito sperimentale berlinese. A fianco di Sabine Vogel, Michael Griener e dell’attivo Michael Thieke vi troviamo anche la mano di un Alessandro Bosetti che, dopo i recenti sviluppi solistici raggiunti con “Zona”, rende ulteriore conferma del mood introspettivo e, sempre più, elettro-acustico riservato alla sua musica. Aloni del passato collettivo Phosphor si rincorrono per i diversi strati, quieti in partenza più nervosi e tirati alla fine, che delineano un continuo viaggio sonoro.
[…] Tre lavori che nascondono il sapore del ‘già detto’: questo il pensiero che balena alla mente, dopo essersi voltati ad osservare tonnellate di lavori simili accatastati sullo scaffale, ma importanti per l’etichetta, curata con passione da Ernesto Rodrigues. La possibilità di aprirsi, come in questo caso, a produzioni estranee al circuito iberico è di rilievo per un paese che, a differenza di molti, non vivendo di particolare benessere nutre una certa indifferenza nei confronti della propria comunità artistica.
-Sergio Eletto (Sands-Zine)
If you’re tired of the plastic surgeries of today’s idea of freedom, it could be a good idea listening to this quartet, formed by Michael Thieke (clarinets) Alessandro Bosetti (sax) Sabine Vogel (flutes) and Michael Griener (drums). Theirs is the sound of alienated volatile creatures in an enormous metal cage, looking for the door to a just imaginary escape. Since the very beginning, the musicians apply a cold stare to introspective dialectics, rubbing, blowing and tongue-popping their instruments‘ cavities until air is projected in a multitude of shapes and – sometimes – in almost painful icicles for the ear. Struck by the group’s engaging attitude, I can’t help but looking for imaginative comparisons, actually to no avail. The whole sound organization is remarkable; minuscule fragments and more violent emissions weight the same, accumulating anxiety and tension that don’t ask for help. Self constraint can yield more power than you could guess, if it’s channeled into the right conduits.
-Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes)
The portugese label Creative Sources started as an outlet for the musical activitites of Ernesto Rodrigues. But since the cd by No Furniture, a trio of Boris Baltschun (sampler), Axel Dörner (computer, trumpet) and Kai Fagaschinski (clarinet), the label gives also room to german improv projects. Listening to the cd of Schwimmer this is no surprise, because the improv music of these ensembles is comparable to the projects of Ernesto Rodrigues.
We hear the same sparse, meditative improv music, that gives room to each little sound, subtlety and silence.
Schwimmer is a quartet: Michael Thieke (clarinet, alto clarinet), Alessandro Bosetti (soprano saxophone), Sabine Vogel (flute, piccolo, bass flute), Michael Griener (drums). They recorded on a day in february 2003 in Studio P4 in Berlin.
The titles of the tracks on Schwimmer are pictographical presentations that contain some hidden logic. This shows a comparable love for abstraction. Because we cannot associate the music with the meaning of the titles, one could say that is focuses the listener more on the concreteness of sound.
The music is sometimes so intimate and modest that it disappears into silence. Schwimmer dwell in a micro-world of sound close to silence.
-Dolf Mulder (Vital)
Schwimmer is a fairly odd name for a quartet playing such sparse, diffuse music; its proper name seems misleading in a context as “egoless” as this. You never know: the title could be a sly revision of the old Monk classic 5xMonkx5 (whereas here we have seven tracks by four musicians; you get the point). The players are soprano saxophonist Alessandro Bosetti, clarinetist Michael Thieke, flautist Sabine Vogel, and percussionist Michael Griener. A lot of winds sessions explore heavily contrapuntal material, or complex notated music that one might encounter in, say, Scelsi, Xenakis, or Carter (September Winds is well known for the former, and Gebhard Ullmann’s Clarinet Trio for the latter). These players are interested in the music of breath and heartbeat, of steam and air, of slow geologic rhythms and earthen undulations. For those who have heard the triple-soprano summit Placés dans L’Air (where Bosetti teamed up with Bhob Rainey and Michel Doneda), this music has something of that recording’s near hush. But with Griener and the slightly more cantankerous Thieke on board – the percussionist achieves a kind of laminal space, like Burkhard Beins, while Thieke favors wet gurgles and rude splats – things don’t ever get too still.
There may be a lonesome tone that could almost come from Sachiko M or Toshi Nakamura, a glittering wave of pure harmonics that sounds electronically-produced. Yet these are balanced by passages where the four players generate sound as if from a single twittering machine. The contrast between the moments of bare audibility, Messiaen-like bird-calling, and the harsh, guttural sound of metal is often exquisite. The point of Schwimmer’s playing is not to generate “events” or “expressions”; in fact, it almost seems like the point is to see how the sounds are swallowed up, more than to see how they are produced in the first place (though with sounds as alien as these, the notion of production is pretty fascinating). Indeed, I keep returning to metaphors of casing, enclosure, and framing for this record. Maybe that’s because Griener is so adept at carving out giant sonic shapes with his percussion, or perhaps it’s simply a function of how adroitly this quartet explores limits (instrumental, formal, interactive). Regardless, there is a subdued power to this music that grows with each listen.
-Jason Bivins (Dusted magazine)
Schwimmer are a Berlin based quartet featuring clarinetist Michael Thieke, soprano saxophonist Alessandro Bosetti, flautist Sabine Vogel and percussionist Michael Griener, who, taking advantage of the multitracking facilities in Ronny Trocker’s P4 Studios, managed to record nearly the entire album by not playing together at all.
The odd collection of colour-coded symbols (microphones, headphones and scissors) adorning the booklet explains the horizontal nature of the process: Thieke recorded a seven minute solo, on top of which Bosetti improvised, followed by Vogel and finally Griener. For the second track, Thieke played along with this entire first quartet, followed by Bosetti, Vogel and Griener, after which the first quartet was erased, leaving the second.
And so on, until the seventh and last track, where all four improvised along with quartet six (duly erased). Hardly surprising then that this final piece is more concerned with sustained sonorities and harmonic colour. Elsewhere, however, the overall dynamic level remains low, the music bustles with activity, and has more in common with vintage English insect music than with what is normally described as Berlin lowercase. Griener’s tight, meticulous percussion flurries often recall John Stevens. They mesh perfectly with the stifled grunts, draughty flutters and wheezes of the wind players. To thicken the plot, the close miked instrumental tracks are mixed and panned to great effect, heightening the music’s quietly dramatic sense of timing.
Hardcore Reductionists of the Radu Malfatti persuasion will no doubt find it all too busy, and while the most effective moments occur when sustained high-pitched tones from the winds and some well-aimed thwacks and pings from Griener ventilate the structure, the album as a whole is refreshingly light and colourful.
-Dan Warburton (The Wire)
