Recording at the Neustadter Kirche in Hofgeismar, Germany, the quartet of Thanos Chrysakis and Peer Schlechta organ with Chris Cundy and Ove Volquartz on bass clarinets, use the resonance and massive sound of their organs to create active improvisations of deep tones, cries, and unearthly squalls, an incredible set of interacting textures and runs.
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2018 Country: Greece/UK Packaging: Jewel Case Recorded at Neustadter Kirche, in Hofgeismar, Germany, April 21st, 2017.
"This is one for headphone listening. Organists Thanos Chrysakis and Peer Schlechta, in collaboration with clarinetists Chris Cundy and Ove Volquartz, have created an album of morphing space and shifting textural planes. The album's opening and closing moments are magical, as a landscape haunted by nearly recognizable shades unfolds in reverb-drenched murk. The opening of the fifth section dwells in similar half-light; organ and clarinet tones almost match, floating around each other in rhythms too wet to grasp. The recording itself is a study in contrast pitting a dead-center clarinet against one off to the side, living in a semi-spectral world where pitch relations are as fluid as pulse and meter. Each instrument has a shadow self that headphone listening renders apparent. If the motivic material itself is slightly lacking in contrast, volume, register and timbre make up for that. Chamber organ and clarinet both add layers of percussion against the lines interwoven by the other two instruments. The music justifies the label's name. [AT : This album was recorded at Neustädter Kirche a church in Hofgeismar, Germany]"-Marc Medwin, Dusted
About the Artists
Thanos Chrysakis' output consists of composition, performance, and installation. He was born in Athens in 1971. After residing in the UK between 1998-2014 he moved in 2015 to Belarus.
With several albums to his name his work has appeared in festivals and events in several countries, including CYNETart Festival, Festspielhaus Hellerau - Dresden, M:AI (Museum für Architektur und Ingenieurkunst NRW) - Berlin, Diapason Gallery - New York, ohrenhoch - der Geräuschladen Gallery - Berlin Neukölln, XXII "Sound Ways" International New Music Festival - St Petersburg, Artus Contemporary Arts Studio - Budapest, CRUCE Gallery - Madrid, Fylkingen - Stockholm, Relative (Cross) Hearings festival - Budapest, ZEPPELIN festival - Barcelona, Festival Futura 2013 - Crest-Drôme, XIII Festival Internacional de Música Nueva - Monterrey, Oosterkerk - Amsterdam, Störung festival - Barcelona, Center for New Music - San Francisco, Västerås Konstmuseum -Västerås, BMIC Cutting Edge concert series - The Warehouse - London .
His music has been also frequently aired by RAI Radio 3, BBC Radio 3, Radio Portugal Antenna 2, Radio Nacional de España, FM Brussel, Polskie Radio (Warsaw), Elektramusic (Strasbourg), Undae! Radio and Onda Sonora - Radio Circulo de Bellas Artes (CBA) (Madrid). He composes for electronic and acoustic instruments as well environmental sounds, focusing on the structural, aesthetic and transfigured capacity of sonic matter.
His work was amongst the selected works at the International Competition de Musique et d'Art Sonore Electroacoustiques de Bourges 2005, in the category œuvre d'art sonore électroacoustique, while received an honorary mention in 2006 at the 7th International Electroacoustic Competition Musica Viva in Lisbon.
Chris Cundy is an English musician, composer, and arranger specialising in bass clarinet, saxophones and other woodwinds. He has worked with Cold Specks, Lol Coxhill, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Devon Sproule, Timber Timbre, Guillemots, Little Annie and Baby Dee. His work ranges from improvisation and experimental music through to modern composition and pop music.
Between 1996 and 1999 Chris studied painting at Cheltenham art college and during this time he more fully expanded his practice of improvised music, sometimes referred to as 'free music' out of which various projects have emerged such as Weavels which features bassoonist Mick Beck and guitarist, clarinettist Alex Ward. He has also established several ventures into composition developing the use of 'extended techniques' such as multi-phonics, circular breathing, micro harmonics and generally speaking a more tactile approach to instrumentation. He has worked closely with a number of composers and educators including John Tilbury, Thanos Chrysakis and Dominic Lash.
During his time at Cheltenham he also met songwriter and orchestrator Fyfe Dangerfield with whom he has worked on many different occasions including as a touring and recording artist in his band Guillemots. More recently Chris has been working with Cold Specks and appears on her 2014 album 'Neuroplasticity' (Mute Artists) recorded at Montréal's Hotel2Tango Studios. One off sessions have seen Chris performing with Moby, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Vieux Farka Touré and Lisa Hannigan.
Other projects and collaborations have included appearing on several albums with electronica outfit Longstone and performing music with Nofit State Circus for a number of their award winning shows under the artistic direction of the Italian choreographer Firenza Guidi.Picture of Chris Cundy
Peer Schlechta is an organ and bell expert and regularly plays concerts as performer and improviser.
He studied organ with Hans-Ola Ericsson, Bernhard Haas and Jean Guillou and has performed on historic instruments in several provinces thoughout Europe.
Further studies in musicology and German philology completed his education.
He works for the Protestant Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck. His research is focused on the history and instruments of the organ builders Kohlen-Heeren-Kuhlmann-Euler from Gottsbüren and Hofgeismar. He is also interested in the development of keyboard instruments especially in the field of organ construction.
Since 2006, Peer Schlechta has been a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association for Organ Documentation (IAOD) while since 2013 serves as its Chairman.
Musician, improviser and composer in the fields of jazz and improvised music since the 70's. He originates from the German free jazz scene but developed and involved into the more open field of improvised music. The treatment of musical timbre and of advanced techniques on low and very low clarinets, have become the distinguishing features of his playing. He has worked with (free) jazz and improvising musicians like Cecil Taylor, Roscoe Mitchell, Peter Kowald, Gunter Hampel, Barre Phillips, Sabu Toyozumi, Perry Robinson, Peeter Uuskyla, Gianni Mimmo, Gianni Lenoci. On the other hand he works with pipe organ player Peer Schlechta and contemporary composers like Daniel Ott. In addition he has worked through out the years in collaborative projects with dancers like Tadashi Endo, painters, poets and film makers. Volquartz has played at many festivals like Moers, Leipzig, Leverkusen among many others. In concert tours he went as far as to Africa where he worked with drummer Kojo Samuels in Liberia. He has recorded with Annexus Quam, Gunter Hampel, TAG Trio, Second Exit, Reciprocal Uncles, Yoko Miura and Cecil Taylor among others. As a musicologist he has worked about flow experiences in improvisation.Picture of Ove Volquartz