The Squid's Ear Magazine


Zumthor, Peter Conradin : Things Are Going Down (Edition Wandelweiser Records)

The title's play on words for Swiss percussionist Peter Conradin Zumthor's piano compositions is explained by his performance being effected by piano tuner Rene Waldhauser while playing, the piano being slowly detuned while Zumthor plays a series of aggressive key separations in a percussive manner, the modified tuning generating unexpected turbulence and harmonic overtones.
 

Price: $12.95



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 2.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Peter Conradin Zumthor-piano player, composer

Rene Waldhauser-piano tuner


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




UPC: 4011778039549

Label: Edition Wandelweiser Records
Catalog ID: EWR 2119
Squidco Product Code: 31527

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: Germany
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels
Recorded at Klavierwekstatt Wasldhauser, in Liestal, Switzerland, on February 28th, 2021, by Thomas Gassmann.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"The first thought while listening: Prokofiev! Yes, of course - it sounds like the russian composer's toccata op. 11, which premie- red 1916 in st. Petersburg. Both pieces feature rapidly repeated octaves, evenly alternating between the great and small octave on the piano. The one note again and again - in this case the b♭ - requiring relentlessly vigourous attack. Futurist music apparently, the piano as machine. Seconds pass, then minutes. But the b♭ remains. For the first four minutes at least, just two octave doublings are added and that's it - or is it? Barely has our impatience abated when perception encounters new horizons: A great throbbing, drumming and roaring emerges round the instrument. The repetitive sounds quake, a cloud of oscillating, singing overtones begins to swell. A steady seesawing between the fifth and the third of the tonic emerges out of its spectrum.

While percussionist peter conradin Zumthor plays his rapid repeats unfazed for 46 minutes - a total of only five b♭ keys at different places on the keyboard - rené Waldhauser slowly starts loosening the strings with his tuning hammer. They are using a czech petrof of the 1930s, and the high notes on it are produced with three strings struck simultaneously. However, since the hammers for the two lower notes strike only one or two strings, every modification in the tension of the strings leads to vertiginous interference between the sound spectra of the lowered strings and those that are still at normal pitch.

The layering and acoustic turbulence that will result is near impossible to predict. It takes Zumthor and Waldhauser 38 minutes for the strings to sag completely until they are left lying slack on the bottom of the piano. From minute to minute, the relationship changes between the tonic and its overtones, between the portion of percussive, roaring, rustling, shattering and finally crackling sound. The more relaxed the strings become, the softer the sound. Not until approximately the last five minutes does Waldhauser begin tightening the strings again almost to their original tautness. Thus, the closing section not only shows a reversal of the downward drift but also a considerable acceleration of events. Zumthor and Waldhauser wear glasses to protect themselves from strings that might snap or come whipping up out of the piano.

The idea of a piano player and a piano tuner making music together is not all that far-fetched, but it apparently takes a percussionist to delve more deeply into the magical realm of the spectral. Zumthor loves the piano. According to the artist from haldenstein, switzerland, four fifths of his listening repertoire are devoted to piano music. His idol at the keyboard, sviatoslav richter, the legendary russian who died in 1997, "risked so much" and always "preferred to play a wrong note right rather than a right note wrong". However, Zumthor, who never studied piano, takes an entirely different tack, exploring diverse facets of the piano, for instance, in musical shorts that he has filmed, such as gartenklavier (2016), muldenklavier (2019) and die letzte stimmung (2021).

The piano may be a mighty generator of sound, treated like a melodious percussion instrument. Or a lovable, almost nostalgic piece of furniture, now past its prime as an ageing symbol of once so popular bourgeois house music. And of course, a grand piano of the kind that gives any salon the social prestige of a proper concert experience. While in orchestral literature from haydn to varèse to dutilleux, the tuning-up of instruments has often inspired exotic, humorous effects, the tuning of a piano has hardly ever been musically exploited. The 88 keys come into play only after the indispensable specialist has done his job. At the very most, during a concert interval, one might overhear the protracted and relatively uninteresting sound of a tuner regulating microtonal subtleties by adjusting the tension of the strings. Nowadays, a piano is properly tuned only if the beats have been banished - viz. Pythagorean comma - and all 'impurities' eliminated.

But these phenomena that lie in what might be called the shadow of musical perception are precisely what motivate Zumthor to draw them to our attention with his arte povera of sound. The two friends began experimenting with the old instruments stashed away in the cellar of Waldhauser's piano workshop. In the course of their experiments, they discovered that octaves played in quick succession are the best way to make the gradual modifications in sound audible.

But how does the coordination between piano player and piano tuner work in a live situation? "we follow the trail together on the basis of my sketches," Zumthor explains. "we know more or less when it's time for the lower or higher registers. The change depends on my state of mind. I need to stop playing octaves periodically to give my ligaments and muscles a rest. At the same time, by putting the tuning hammer on a specific pin, rené can show me which key he wants to change next." the tendency seems obvious: Things are going down - downstream. The proud concert instrument of the dazzling soloist has become an anonymous, mechanical device that gradually morphs into a slowly suffocating creature. Soon the hammers no longer produce a brilliant prokofiev, nor a melancholy rattling, only a soft crackling and rustling. While the tuner turns the pins, the strain on the piano player and his instrument steadily grows. Enormous, unremitting energy is required. Then, finally, things start going up again. Maybe the end is still open after all - who knows?"-Anselm Cybinski, Translation By Catherine Schelbert


Artist Biographies

"Zumthor, whose father is the architect Peter Zumthor , broke a violin training in the kindergarten age. Through his father he was early familiar with Jazzmusik ; Only through hip-hop did he return to active music making and learned to play drums, largely as an autodidact . At the age of 19 he played in the (last) trio of Werner Lüdi . With his projects, he is present on national and international stages; For example in the duo with the pianist Vera Kappeler , as a soloist, or with the drummer theater "Die Hintertür" with Fritz Hauser and Rob Kloet . With Dominik Blum at the Hammondorgel he plays in the duo Azeotrope. Concert tours took him to over a dozen countries. Zumthor also works at the interfaces of music and visual art. He began to make the preparations for the church bells, which were altered in sound, for both music and art festivals.

Zumthor initiated numerous projects and formations. He was involved in world premieres of New Music , gave solo concerts, played theatermusics and composed architectural music and composed music. He worked with the composers Felix Profos and David Dramm as well as with the musicians Christian Weber , Anna Trauffer, Fritz Hauser, Achim Escher and Marek Otwinowski, Jürg Kienberger, Julian Sartorius and with the Ukrainian writer Yuri Andruchovych ( Werewolf Sutra ). With Samuel Streiff, he worked on the battles (2014).

In 2009, he received a work grant from the Canton of Graubünden to prepare his solo program. In 2015, the Duo Kappeler / Zumthor received the recognition prize of the city of Chur."

-Wikipedia (translated by Google) (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Conradin_Zumthor)
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Things Are Going Down 46:03

Related Categories of Interest:


Compositional Forms
Piano & Keyboards
Duo Recordings
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
New in Compositional Music

Search for other titles on the label:
Edition Wandelweiser Records.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Niggli, Lucas Sound of Serendipity Tentet
Play!
(Intakt)
Surprises abound with Lucas Niggli's approach to improvised composition, using 40 playing cards that his ten-piece ensemble interpret, drawing on inspired performers from improvised, experimental and contemporary classical music, their game performed over three rounds, allowing an incredibly diverse set of approaches to reveal themselves on each unique track.
Other Recommended Releases:
Niggli, Lucas Sound of Serendipity Tentet
Play!
(Intakt)
Surprises abound with Lucas Niggli's approach to improvised composition, using 40 playing cards that his ten-piece ensemble interpret, drawing on inspired performers from improvised, experimental and contemporary classical music, their game performed over three rounds, allowing an incredibly diverse set of approaches to reveal themselves on each unique track.
Gerard, Pierre
A Simple Eye
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Putting less focus on the strings and more into sonic environments, French guitarist Pierre Gerard releases a set of eight abstract compositions for voice, guitar, cello, piano, violin, bass clarinet, electronics & field recordings, intended for random playing, employing silence and active sections to catch the passive or background listener off guard.
Andric, Andreja
Winter Solstice
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Their association stretching back to their time together in music school, pianist Anita Tomasevich is the perfect interpreter of Serbian composer Andreja Andric's December, exploring a single minor chord in each of six movements, challenging the performer to explore shades of tone color by working through gradual changes; plus Meditation (II) for 2 pianists.
Breylin, Aaron Foster / Luke Martin
Recursive Retent
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Excerpting part of an eight-hour performance recorded over an amplified live environment of a text score for two pianists using one piano, each positioned at the opposite registers of the piano, one player creating a block of note phrases using intervals of a 2nd or 3rd with each note allowed to decay before the next, repeated by the other player following a set of rules.
Wittenburg, Florian
Kranenburg Tree
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Using a metasynth, a software instrument that allows the user to draw or paint music, and a photograph of a small tree observed at a former train station in the German town of Kranenbur, composer Florian Wittenburg generates complex sound structures from the simple structures of the tree's branches used as a template for four rich sonic sketches.
Eventless Plot
Anisixia
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Variations of a score incorporated within a choreographic performance presented at the Archeological Museum of Thessaloniki in 2019 from the Greek experimental band Eventless Plot, the core trio of Vasilis Liolios (psaltery & bow), Yiannis Tsirikoglou (electronics) and Aris Giatas (analog synth) extended with Chris Cundy (bass clarinet), Nefeli Sani (piano) and Eva Matsigou (flute).
Rasten, Fredrik (Johan Lindvall)
Four Parallel Rivers
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Norwegian composer Fredrik Rasten, a guitarist who himself has recorded pieces by pianist/composer Johan Lindvall, sees Lindvall beautifully perform 15 of his works for solo equal tempered piano, minimal pieces developed under the influence of Debussy and Bartok's Mikrokosmos compositions along with adaptations of his own microtonal/just intonation work.
Waeckere, Emmanuelle
A Direction Out There, Readwalking (With) Thoreau [2 CDS]
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Four unique interpretations of David Henri Thoreau's essay "Walking", "a transcendental essay that analyzes the relationship between man and nature, trying to find a balance between society and our raw animal nature." (Wikipedia), performed by Antoine Beuger, Marianne Schuppe, Stefan Thut, Sylvia Alexandra Schimag and Marie-Cecile Reber.
Inderhees, Carlo
8 Stimmen1
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
A series of eight "voices" for piano, extended minimal works slowly unfolding in the performance of composer Carlo Inderhees' "8 stimmen" composition for solo piano, expressed by Guy Vandromme as the piece answers the questions "what is music made of?" with the word "voices: a sequence of sounds and silences, with its own consistency".
Bober, Max
Somos
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Four works by Argentinian composer Max Bober living in Warsaw, Poland, performed in solo, duo and trio configurations by pianist Alejandro Peña Gutiérrez, flutists Francisco Rojas and Clara Peláez Hidalgo, and soprano Natalia Jarosiewicz; fragile works of depth and beauty that unfold gracefully.
Strieff, Peter
Chronos-Kairos
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Exploring the difference between the two Greek concepts of time--chronos (measurable) and kairos (qualitative moments)--Bern composer Urs Peter Schneider's 1973 composition uses synthesizers to measure, divide, experience, forget, free from, and embody time; plus a 1968 composition with Ensemble Nueue Horizon Bern, and two recent works with Ensemble Montaigne.
Schneider, Urs Peter
Klavierwerke 1971 - 2015 [2 CDs]
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Four compositions for solo piano from Swiss composer Urs Peter Schneider, founder of Ensemble Neue Horizonte Bern, with four accompanying prose pieces with text in German from Schneider himself, Martin Luther, and Ita Wegman; unusual words to accompany Schneider's minimalist works of clear progressions, thoughtful direction and interesting concepts.
Reeder, Kory
Love Songs / Duets
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Four duets of gracefully moving music that focuses on tone without repeating melodies or rhythms, from composer Kory Reeder in his first release, performed by Erin Cameron & Luke Ellard both on bass clarinet; Jonathan Kierspe (saxophone) & Samuel Anderson (bass trombone); Alaina Clarice & Linda Jenkins, both on flute; and Mia Detwiler (violin) & Kory Reeder (piano).
Satie, Erik (Aleman / Vandromme)
Socrate
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
A beautiful rendering of French composer Eric Satie's 1918 masterwork "Socrate", originally for four sopranos and chamber orchestra, here stripped to its essence as a duo with Olalla Aleman on soprano and Guy Vandromme on piano, maintaining Satie's characterist reserve and refinement in the 3 parts: "portrait of socrates"; "banks of the ilissus"; and "death of socrates".
Cage, John / Guy Vandromme
Number Pieces (Piano)
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
John Cage wrote his "Number Pieces" in the last years of his life, using his time bracket technique of short fragments allowing the performer flexibility in interpretation; each piece is titled for the number of performers and its ordinal position in the series, and most pieces are dedicated to a musician; here pianist Guy Vandromme performs three of the "One", or solo, series.
Houben, Eva-Maria
Voice With Piano
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Three compositions for voice and piano from German composer Eva-Maria Houben, also performing on piano with soprano vocalist Irene Kurka--"Adagio" in three pieces; "Lyri"; and "Lieder Fur Die Insel (Songs for the Island)--with texts from poet Felix Timmermans (adagio) and Hilde Domin (lyrik); beautiful, stark, haunting music that presents at its own pace.
Schiller, Christoph
Spinet, 2016
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Christoph Schiller performs on the spinet, often improvising with electronics and objects; here he uses the spinet alone in patiently developing compositions that emphasize the individual tones and harmonics of the instrument played on the keys and inside the instrument.



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Bondi, Cyril
Ce Qu'il Nous Restera
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Insub.Meta director Cyril Bondi developed this work to question the life course of an artist--their starting point, daily routines and essence--realized through sound and narration in an intimate soundscape of six artists who converge, converse, accompany and answer each other, accompanied by sounds made during warm-ups, rituals and rehearsals.
Schiller, Christoph
24 Stucke Fur Ein Tasteninstrument
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
24 short works for clavichord from German composer Christoph Schiller and performed by French keyboardist Ed Williams (Heard Of Bears, TANDEM, Grand 8 Ensemble), slowly developing pieces that bring clusters of notes like falling leaves that slowly fade into silence, thoughtful works of space around unanticipated clusters, presented as groups of "Fuge" variations.
Monach, Greta
Fonerga
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Playful in its seriousness, the sound poetry of Greta Monach (1928-2018), an early proponent of computer generated concrete poetry, and known for her notated sound poem series for four voices, "Fonerga", is performed by University of Victoria voice artists Cathy Fern Lewis, Laura Brandes, Daniel Brandes and Christopher Butterfield; awe-inspiring and exotically amusing.
Underriner, Chaz
Meditations
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Composer and sound artist Chaz Underriner composed these eight meditation in 2021 during residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts and the NYU Music Technology studios, recorded at Stetson University in Florida with an ensemble including four vocalists, cello, piano, percussion, electronics and field recordings; beautifully introspective and thought provoking works.
Various
Amsterdam . Berlin . Moscow . Losoncy [2 CDs]
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
A double album of experimental works and songs, virtual meetings curated by composer Dante Boon, recorded in the performer's individual cities as ensembles formed from musicians who have never met, including the Moscow duo The Same Ensemble of Sasha Elina and Kirill Shirokov, Amsterdamn's Seamus Cater's Tree Space, Berlin's Konzert Minimal, and sound artist Gabi Losoncy.
Kervinen, Jukka-Pekka
Across / Birds / Lines
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Five extended works of descriptive ambience from Finnish composer and musician Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, working with algorithmic and electronic manifestations over five pieces--four works "Across" and one "Across (Lines)"--based on environmental field recordings of birds and ambiance, structures that he morphs & reiterates to create different facets of a single outdoor space.
Seuthe, Marei
Microcosms
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
A member of London Improvisers Orchestra, Wuppertaler Improvisationsorchester, and Insub Meta Orchestra Geneva, cellist Marei Seuthe is primarily involved with classical chamber music, contemporary music, music theatre, but here exposes her playing in a solo sonic exploration of microscopic intent performed on every inch of the cello.
Coles, Dominic
Everyone Thinks Their Dreams Are Interesting
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
A slyly disruptive set of minimalist compositions from New York electronic artist Dominic Coles, recounting six dreams, each described in the liner notes, by using the voice to drive various forms of synthesis on computer and through circuitry, a curious and surprisingly detailed retelling through unexpected tone, punctuation, confrontation and silence.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC