Lexer, Sebastian

Dazwischen

Label: Matchless Country: UK

"I have known Sebastian Lexer for the best part of ten years. I first met him when, after leaving his native Germany, he came to study music at London's Goldsmiths' College (where he first came into contact with John Tilbury). He, along with some of his contemporaries, decided to join the weekly improvisation workshop that I had begun to convene. Since then we have become good friends and colleagues. I have seen how he works in respect to his chosen instrument, his thoughtful collaborations with others and how he negotiates with the newer technologies that are making an impact upon our musical world. It is this latter aspect that is the most obvious concern of Sebastian's first solo CD. And the texts which make up the booklet that accompanies this CD deal with the consequences of Lexer's exchange with computer and piano. John Tilbury considers some of the conventional musical antecedents that have informed Sebastian's musical thinking, his approach, the consequent arising effects and implications. Ian Stonehouse reviews some of the more technical considerations. Both writers, who also know Lexer well, naturally carry assumptions about Sebastian which inform their narratives but which may be hidden from the reader. So, I take this opportunity to advise readers and potential listeners to this album, a little about Lexer the artist and Lexer the man.

In becoming part of the improvisation workshop, Sebastian began to embrace and expand upon a line of musical enquiry that arose in the musical philosophy of AMM. However, he also began to appreciate that a musical community is much more than a collection of clever and ambitious individuals. With little 'official' resources devoted to this kind of musical life he acknowledged that it was necessary, as well as potentially more rewarding, to invest in the society of improvised musicians. To this end - as well as being a valuable colleague in ensembles like 9!¹, in which Lexer features to good effect and (in my opinion) elegance - he has always been generous with his time and services to others. As a musician, as a recording engineer, as a supporter and as an organiser. To wit: his ongoing Interlace Series at Goldsmiths' College. This began in 2002 and continues to this day.²

Music for Lexer is something which reveals and expands his (and our) humanity. I have lost count of the moments that I have found his music intrinsically moving as well as supportive of others. He takes the sounds and the aspirations of this fleeting genre of music and makes them beautiful. For me he embodies the model musician. This CD may be Sebastian Lexer's first as a soloist but no one should infer that this is in any way a beginning. This music has the mark of a mature reflection upon the materials and the issues at hand. I am confident that Sebastian will imprint upon the ensuing development of a music, and social movement, of which he is an emergent creative part."-Eddie Prevost-May 2009

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