Boris Baltschun | electric pump organ / electronics
Koen Nutters | upright bass
Morten J. Olsen | vibraphone / tape delay
Michael Thieke | clarinet
1. Molecular motion (A side) 12:59
2. Pillars (B side) 12:23
Composed by The Pitch
Recorded by Morton J Olsen in Berlin, 2017
Mastered by Boris Baltschun
Design and artwork by Opora
Edition of 120 copies | CS | granny18
about:
The Pitch is an improvising ensemble of four Berlin-based creative musicians founded in 2009.
With acoustic instruments and minimal live-electronics they collectively compose structures which generate hypnotic melodic movement and deep acoustic textures. Bowed and struck vibraphone tones resonate with bowed bass harmonics, doubled by clarinet and reinforced by organ and sine tones. An intensely focused performance creates an atmosphere where the listeners perception is slowed down to make the smallest sonic details move from background to foreground. The group continually expands into new terrain of musical material and playing styles inspired by fundamental states of matter (and variations thereof) – frozen surfaces,
gaseous states, plasmatic fibrils, liquid patterns and molecular motion.
links:
Listen on Bandcamp: s/t [κασέτα]
Label: Granny Records
reviews:
ambientblog
I’m afraid I cannot tell you much more about The Pitch than you can’t find out yourself (which may be the case in most of the ‘recommendations’ on this blog: they are merely suggestions about where to look for some new surprises). I only found out about this quartet (Boris Baltschun, Koen Nutters, Michael Thieke, Morten J. Olsen) myself recently, when the stunning Frozen Orchestra album (with the Splitter Orchestra) and this charming cassette (= κασετα) dropped in my mailbox. The cassette version is limited to 120 copies, but there is a digital download version too.
S/T [κασετα] presents two 12 minute tracks. From the sound of the first track you might have the impression that this sound is mainly created with electronic means, but it’s not. Or only partly: the instruments are an electric pump organ, upright bass, vibraphone, clarinet, and additional computer and cassette delay. Molecular Motions starts as a drone, but gradually the composition gets more complex, especially in the second half of the Pillars B-side: “Bowed and struck vibraphone tones resonate with bowed bass harmonics, doubled by clarinet and reinforced by organ and sine tones.”
In the way this composition evolves, I started to hear (or perhaps imagine) a striking similarity with De Tijd, a composition by Louis Andriessen from 1982 – especially in the second half of Pillars.
I’m sure this is a coincidence: De Tijd is not particularly widely known and furthermore it is 36 years old. But it’s fun to check out anyhow, so here’s a Spotify link to it here so you can compare yourself. This is an impressive performance by the Schönberg Ensemble and Netherlands Chamber Choir directed by Reinbert de Leeuw. Best played loud, by the way!
The similarity of these two may be in my mind only (tell me if I’m wrong), but still… it’s fun to compare the Pitch quartet piece Pillars with the full orchestra+choir composition of Andriessen’s De Tijd.
I like to imagine that this 1982 version could have been a full orchestral re-arrangement of the second half of Pillars.
But – enough about that. Even without this similarity, S/T [κασετα] is interesting enough in its own right. With their particular electro-acoustic setup The Pitch manages to create “an atmosphere where the listeners perception is slowed down to make the smallest sonic details move from background to foreground.”
Bandcamp Daily
The Pitch are a Berlin-based chamber quartet who blend pump organ, clarinet, upright bass, and vibraphone with almost subliminal electronics. Their self-titled cassette, on Greece’s Granny Records, consists of two sides of long, suspenseful drones teased out of those four acoustic instruments. As the drones endure and tighten, the separate sound sources become nearly indistinguishable from one another, creating an indescribable, alien hum that’s more powerful than the sum of its parts.
Simon Chandler