The Squid's Ear Magazine


Muche / Zoubek / Tang: Excerpts From Anything (Creative Sources)

An acoustic trio using ea approaches in a set of distinct tracks using trombone, prepared piano and double bass, a fascinatingly diverse set of improvisations that alternately lull and jar the listener.
 

Price: $15.95


Quantity:

Out of Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 4.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Mathias Muche-trombone

Philip Zoubek-prepared piano

Achim Tang-doublebass


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 5609063401929

Label: Creative Sources
Catalog ID: CS192
Squidco Product Code: 15035

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2011
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Jewel Tray
Recorded in October 2010 by Stefan Deistler at Loft Cologne.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"[...] A new release on the Creative Sources label, excerpts from anything is the title of a disc by the trio of Matthias Muche, (trombone) Philip Zoubek (prepared piano) and Achim Tang (double bass). While at least two of these names ring a bell with me from somewhere, I don't think I have heard any music by any of the trio before [Zoubek appears on the Emanem, Clean Feed and previous Creative Sources labels; Muche is also on Clean Feed; Tang can be heard on Hatology, Creative Sources, and Clean Feed-philz]. It appears that they have a previous release together on Creative Sources, but as my collection of that label isn't complete (is anyones?!) I haven't heard their previous offering, though I intend to go and seek it out now. So when the CD went onto the player tonight I didn't know what to expect, and only had the list of instrumentation, and a particularly beautiful cover image to go by. What I heard was a pleasant surprise.

There are five tracks here, and each of them is different to the others in style and form, but they have been neatly stitched together so that while they remain as separate tracks on the disc there are no gaps between them and they flow seamlessly from one piece to the next. The careful editing here is one of a few elements to this CD that leads me to think that it is at least partly a composed work rather than a completely free improvisation, though certainly it would not have been possible to precisely score any of the material here. The music is exceptionally beautiful. The first piece suddenly blooms from an opening couple of seconds of silence into a series of glowing bold swells formed from (I would guess) eBows on the piano strings, extremely carefully bowed bass notes and some of the softest, attack-free trombone this side of Radu Malfatti. All three musicians play in a similar style, and the track becomes a honeyed mass of swooning tones and golden colours. The piece is ten minutes long, and maintains a similar form throughout, all very graceful, though just when you begin to wonder how long it might continue for without any significant change track two suddenly crashes in without warning.

This second piece couldn't be any more different. Right from the first explosion that frightens the life out of you when you first hear it, the CD shifts, no- lurches wildly from the slow tones to a barrage of loud, tiny percussive sounds from all three musicians. The sudden shift is clearly a composed decision, perhaps put together in post production but it manages to make me sit bolt upright each time I hear it. This track (the five pieces seem to be unnamed and the sleeve notes don't even acknowledge that track marks exist) couldn't be more different to the opening piece. It initially feels like a completely wild free-for-all but it soon becomes clear that the piece retains a sense of textural and colourful compositional integrity despite the fast moving wall of sounds. Everything stays in one tight range of earthy, crunchy dissonance, but gradually, and so slowly that at first you don't notice it, things gradually ease up and slowly break apart, so when the slow, thoroughly beautiful chiming piano strings, little airy trombone flutters and struck bass notes of the third track appear, completely with plenty of space between each sound, you don't notice the movement from one track to another. This piece is very beautiful, almost clockwork sounding in its almost mechanically sounding form. I suspect the musicians agreed to play in a certain way, at a certain pace, and while beyond this the decisions made in the moment were probably all improvised the feeling of some kind of composed advance planning is unmistakeable.

The fourth track is signalled when the percussive piano strikes dissolve away and whispery, hissing bowed wooden sounds and huskily breathed trombone emerge. The piano is rubbed and polished with a squeak and a hum, and the brass sounds resemble something between a distant aircraft taking off and the wind roaring through sparse corridors. Gradually the grey finish to the sounds is livened up with drops of shimmering colour as piano strings are vibrated again and the fifth track emerges from the dark like a streak of early morning light as curtains are pulled open. We are returned here to the sustained tones and bowed colours of the opening piece, but with each swell of sound rising in pitch quite extravagantly so as to give the music an uplifting, positive feel in contrast to the tragic beauty of the opening piece.

Excerpts from anything is a really lovely work. That is has come from all acoustic instruments played in at least a semi-improvisational style is remarkable. Great attention has been paid to how the final forty-seven minute work all hangs together though. This is no rough and tumble meeting of musicians but a very carefully considered and conceived work that is very nicely played, exceptionally well arranged and beautifully recorded. Its really great to pick up a CD about which I knew nothing in advance, let it play and find myself thoroughly enchanted with it, particularly on not so easy days like today. Gorgeous stuff not to be missed."-Richard Pinnell, The Watchful Ear


Get additional information at The Watchful Ear

Artist Biographies

"Philip Zoubek (* 1978 in Tulln an der Donau ) is an Austrian pianist of the New Improvisation Music. A striking feature is his highly energetic play, the limits of the pianos, which also include preparation techniques and actions inside the instrument.

Zoubek studied piano at the Conservatory of the City of Vienna from 1996 onwards. He founded the Ubik quartet and took lessons with Uli Scherer before he enrolled at the Musikhochschule Vienna. In 2002 he moved to Cologne, where he studied with Hans Lüdemann, Frank Gratkowski and Marc Ducret. He founded the multimedia project Cauldron, with whom he won the composition competition of the bunker Ulmenwall Bielefeld and the cultural promotion award of the city of Herford; a DVD Q-Spektrum was created in 2003. With the group Snaut with Richard Koch (tp), Eric Schaefer (dr) and Christian Rainer (voice), he toured through Germany and Switzerland and became a prizewinner of the avant-garde competition for Young culture at the Düsseldorfer Altstadtherbst. Since 2004 he belongs to Achim Tang's Trio Torn, which performed successfully in 2011 in a quartet version at the Moers Festival. He was a member of the James Choice Orchestra ( Live at Moers, 2005), Ensemble Creativ, Org, Camera Obscura and the trio Muche / Zoubek / Tang. As a composer Philip Zoubek appeared with his own formation Philz. He also worked with Paul Lytton, Carl Ludwig Hübsch, Ernst Glerum, Herb Robertson, Wilbert de Joode and Christian Thomé.

In 2008 he received the Horst and Gretl Will scholarship for Jazz / Improvised Music of the City of Cologne. Also in 2008 he founded the Trio Z3 with Benjamin Weidekamp and Christian Weber. The formation Z3 was born out of the idea of ​​the music of the Jimmy Giuffre -Trios of the 1960s."

-Wikipedia translated by Google (https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Zoubek&prev=search)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
"Achim Tang was born in Berlin in 1958.early musical experiences playing recorder, trumpet, guitar and bassguitardouble bass since 1984classical training in Basel (with Walter Imholz) and Berlin (with RandallNordstr¿m)after 1987 studies with Wayne Darling at the Hochschule fŸr Musik unddarstellende Kunst in Graz (Jazzdepartment). Graduated summa cumlaude.1993 until 2004 as a freelancing musician in Vienna/Austria.Collaborations with numerous musicians from various aesthetic backgrounds, invitations to many international festivals in Germany, France, USA, Korea, China, Scandinavia, Czech Republik, Poland and other countrys, many CD releases as a sideman, personal projects, compositions for dance, theater and film1998 bis 2001 part of the educational project "Klangnetze" in Vienna, led by professor Hans Schneider and the guitarist Burkhard Stangl.after 2004 in Cologne: intensification of the educational work. Different projects with children and teenagers based on own conceptions, awarded by the Sparda Stiftung and the local government of NRW. Yet continuous activities as a freelancing musician, founding member of the musicians cooperative ZAM e.V., collaboration with the new music network in cologne, interdiciplinary projects with national and international artists, incresing involvement in the issues of art and societyafter 2008 artistic director of the educational project "Grundschule mit Musikprofil Neue und Improvisierte Musik" for the Offene Jazzhausschule Cologne, conceptional and pedagogic cooperation with the educational program of the international moers festival, intense cooperation with the Hochschule fŸr Musik und Tanz and the university of cologne (teaching assignments)in 2011 living in Moers as the 4th "Improviser In Residence" of the moers festival-Achim Tang Website (http://www.achimtang.com/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Track 01 10:13

2. Track 02 7:59

3. Track 03 15:02

4. Track 04 7:09

5. Track 05 7:15

Related Categories of Interest:


Creative Sources
Improvised Music
European Improv, Free Jazz & Related
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Free Improvisation
Trio Recordings
Instruments with Preparations
Instant Rewards

Search for other titles on the label:
Creative Sources.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Other Recommended Releases:
Jorge's Orbe (Marti / Arrizabalaga / Amakawa)
Playas
(Creative Sources)
Recorded live in 2019 at Burgbachkeller in Zug, Switzerland, the international trio Jorge's Orbe creates tapestries of sound, bringing together free improvisers from three different parts of the world: Switzerland through trombonist George Francis Marti, Japan through pianist Tsukiko Amakawa, and Spain through Pelayo Fernandez Arrizabalaga on turntables and voice.
Papenheim, Torsten
Hellerau
(Creative Sources)
A percussive "Natchtprogramm" and a tonal "Syntax" from composer Torsten Papenheim, recorded in the studio in Cologne and Berlin, the former performed with trombonist Matthias Much, double bassist Achim Tang and pianist Philip Zoubek; the latter with Johannest Trondle (violincello) & Axel Haller (electric bass), then with Elena Kakaliagou (french horn) & Evi Filippou (percussion).
Werckmeister (Eichenberger / Ludwig Hubsch / Nillesen / Zoubek)
Musik
(Creative Sources)
With "fragments of alien melodies, bizarre call-and-response activities, boiling liquids, airy perturbations, clusters", the electroacoustic improvising quartet of Markus Eichenberger on clarinet, Carl Ludwig Hubsch on tuba, Etienne Nillesen on extended snare drum and Philip Zoubek on synthesizer, focus their listeners on their remarkably turbulent and rich interactions.
Cajlan / Wissel / Nillesen
fourtyfour fiftythree
(Creative Sources)
A trio of improvisers recorded live at Exploratorium in Berlin, 2018, from Zemun prepared pianist Dusica Cajlan-Wissel, European percussionist Etienne Nillesen on extended snare drum, and improviser/sculptur Georg Wissel on prepared alto saxophone, through extended technique and preparations creating unusual sonic interactions of detail and restrained idiosyncratic discourse.
VCA (Vilanova / Castrillon / Andean)
Ceres
(Creative Sources)
Electroacoustic improvisation from the trio of Marc Vilanova on saxophone, Sergio Castrillon on cello, and pianist James Andean also performing on objects and electronics, in nine collective improvisations of close-knit dialog balancing intense activity and silent space, building tension and releasing it in unexpected and wonderfully eccentric ways.
Frey, Peter / Daniel Studer
Zwirn
(Creative Sources)
"Zwirn" means "twine" in German, an apt description of the interweaving sound that double bassists Daniel Studer and Peter Frey play together, in 7 freely improvised works of unusual technique and new musical structures.
Charbin / Van Isacker
kryscraft
(Creative Sources)
Tense and subtle improvisation from the Belgian duo of pianist Marjolaine Charbin playing inside and out of the piano and alto saxophonist Frans van Isacker using microtonal and extended approaches with the sax.
Busolini / Loriot
VIOLAtwoVIOLA
(Creative Sources)
This duo arose from the meeting between two violists avid to confront with their instrumental double to create a common sound universe from the same instrument played by two different personalities.



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Halvorson, Mary
Reverse Blue
(Relative Pitch)
Guitarist Mary Halvorson's project with Chris Speed on sax & clarinet, Eivind Opsvik on bass, and Tomas Fuijwara on drums, a band formed for a one-off concert at the Blue Note in NYC, that continued on based on the strength of the bond between them, as heard on this superb release.
Ducret, Marc
Tower-Bridge [2 CDs]
(Ayler)
Guitarist Marc Ducret completes his "Tower" series with a 12-piece ensemble including all musicians from the 4 Tower volumes, includi> ng Tim Berne, Tom Rainey, Matthias Mahler, &c. in 2 CDs of two concerts from their 2012 tour; innovative and astoundingly great modern jazz.
Martin / Lozano / Lewis / Wiens / Duncan
At Canterbury
(Barnyard)
Saxophonist Frank Lozano brings together four other artists for a first time collaboration that results in this groovy, soulful, and passionate live studio recording.
Watt: Smith / Marshall / Flinn
Alter Egos
(Creative Sources)
Active and interactive percussion using extended techniques from the London trio of trumpeter Ian Smith, percussionist Stephen Flinn, and cellist Hannah Marshall.
Morris / Fernandez / Wooley
From The Discrete To The Particular
(Relative Pitch)
An incredible trio of two New York improvisers - Joe Morris on guitar and trumpeter Nate Wooley - with European free improv legend pianist Augusti Fernandez, for 7 remarkable free improvisations of astounding skill.
PascAli
Suspicious Activity
(Creative Sources)
The acoustic bass duo of New Yorker Sean Ali and European Pascal Niggenkemper use unusual techniques and preparations for the large double bass to make a series of 22 concise, diverse, and engaging improvisations.
Bleak House
Dark Poetry
(Creative Sources)
The Norwegian free-improvising trio of prepared pianist Dag-Filip Roaldsnes, alto saxophonist Kim-Erik Pedersen, and percussionist Tore Sandbakken in 14 darkly graceful and succinct works.
Various Artists
30 Jahre Inventionen 1982-2012 [2 CDs + DVD]
(Edition Rz)
Two re-releases of Edition RZ LPs that are now available in this double CD box with additional tracks, as well as a mainly acousmatic DVD that features electronic tracks by a variety of electroacoustic composers.
Cage, John
Music Of Changes (1951)
(Hat [now] ART)
"Music of Changes" was composed by John Cage using the hexagrams of the I Ching and has no sense of structure, continuity, rhythm, or speed; change itself is the only consistent aspect of the work.
Dorner / Rodrigues / Guerreiro / Momeme
Fabula
(Creative Sources)
A live recording from Portugal's Cine-Theatre Curvo-Semedo of the minimal ea-improv quartet of trumpeter Axel Dorner, violist Ernesto Rodrigues, prepared electric guitarist Abdul Moimeme, and Ricardo Guerreiro on computer.
Kullhammar / Zetterberg / Aalberg
Basement Sessions Vol.1
(Clean Feed)
Following the traditions of the saxophone trio, tenor & baritone player Jonas Kullhammar releases this studio album of irrepressible compositions performed with bassist Tobjorn Zetterberg and drummer Espen Aalberg.
Mcphee, Joe / Ingebrigt Haker Flaten
Brooklyn DNA
(Clean Feed)
A project about the rich jazz history of Brooklyn, NY, recorded in that burrough by NY saxophonist Joe McPhee & bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, referencing Putnam Central, The Blue Coronet, Sonny Rollins, and Brooklyn itself.
Hauf Sextet, Boris
Next Delusion
(Clean Feed)
Berlin-based saxophonist Boris Hauf's sextet with Keefe Jackson (sax), Jason Stein (bass clarinet), Frank Rosaly (drums), Steve Hess (drums & electronics) and Michael Hartman (drums) in 4 extended pieces of boiling intensity.
Nabatov / Reijseger / Schubert
Square Down
(Leo Records)
12th CD by Simon Nabatov on Leo Records recorded at the same time as his previous CD "Roundup" celebrating his 50th Birthday; powerful, high-energy free jazz sustained for over 50 minutes.
Heyn, Volker
Sirenes
(Edition Rz)
Works from Volker Heyn, an outsider artist interested in acoustic process, tone gestures, friction, discontinuous movements, &c., with recordings by Pellegrini-Quartett, Ausfuhrende: Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, &c.
Josephson / Wachsmann / Lindsay / Smith / Blume
Zero Plus
(Balance Point Acoustics)
The Triple D Trio of Aurora Josephson (voice), Jacob Lindsay (clarinet) & Damon Smith (bass) met with visiting European improvisers Philipp Wachsmann (violin) and Martin Blume (drums) to record these live concerts in Oakland and SF.
Fuchs / Lindsay / Smith / Baghdassarians / Baltschun
The Happymakers
(Balance Point Acoustics)
Golia Quartet, Vinny
Take Your Time
(Relative Pitch)
The third recording from this group of long-time collaborators, with Golia on soprano, alto and tenor sax, Bobby Bradford on cornet, Ken Filiano on bass and Alex Cline on drums in a set of Golia original compositions.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC