Torsten Papenheim : Some Of The Things We Could Be

Papenheim is a guitarist and composer from Berlin. Besides his solo work he performs mainly as a member of Rant with Merle Bennett on drums. With “Some of the Things we could be” however Papenheim takes another direction. He presents 12 new compositions played by Dave Bennett (guitar, clarinet), Merle Bennett (drums), Christian Biegai (altosax, bassclarinet), Axel Haller (bass), Christian Marien (drums), Matthias Muller (trombone), Derek Shirley (bass), Roland Spieth (trumpet), Michael Thieke (altosax), Clayton Thomas (bass), Gerhard Uebele (piano) Ute Voelker (accordion) and Torsten Papenheim (guitar, banjo, piano). The musicians recorded in small subensembles. And they had no idea of the compositions they were contributing to. Later the recordings were assembled into complete pieces by Papenheim according to the ideas he had in mind. Through this procedure Papenheim realized this project, getting inspiration from very different corners: chambermusic, jazz and improvised music, non-musical approaches, soundcollage, etc. Dave Bennett is the right producer and partner Papenheim needed for this avant garde project. All pieces have the same charming simpleness and primitiveness that make up their identity. The pieces are very open with sparse instrumentation. Many pieces have an almost weird Residentslike strange atmosphere because the musicians are not playing in tune with the compositions as Papenheim had them in his mind, causing an alienating effect. Also because some instruments are out of tune from time to time (piano). All this is done deliberately by Papenheim. It seems he seeks for a musicality by including disturbing and non-musical elements. This makes “Some of the Things we could be” an interesting and satisfying release. (DM)

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Dave Bennett – guitar, clarinet
Merle Bennett – drums
Christian Biegai – altosax, bassclarinet
Axel Haller – bass
Christian Marien – drums
Matthias Müller – trombone
Torsten Papenheim – guitar, banjo, piano
Derek Shirley – bass
Roland Spieth – trumpet
Michael Thieke – altosax
Clayton Thomas – bass
Gerhard Uebele – piano
Ute Voelker – accordion

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Hughes/ Scherzberg/ Wiese: discard hidden layers?

Quivering and clanging massed signals vie for space along with squeaking reed bites and tongue slaps plus sul ponticello slices and string pumps throughout discard’s nine tracks. Yet while some timbres are obvious from first, others are so opaque that solos must develop for instrumental attribution to be made. Upfront grainy pulsing and popping textures swell to meet cumulative arco bass strokes or warbling reed bites. Meanwhile – without disrupting the foreground – shards of Morse code-like intimations plus blurry, signal-processed swirls pulse as the backdrop.
Prominent among these eruptions of corkscrewed, processed and modulated tones are the tracks “choke chameleon choke” and “discard”. On the later, processed sound curlicues resemble both a computer rebooting and outer-space tracking signals. All the while however, Hughes is sounding traditional string slaps and Scherzberg repetitive reed tones expose the underlying sonic grain. By the climax, Scherzberg’s jagged expression is figuratively poking a hole in the fabric of computer-generated processed tones.
“choke chameleon choke” is another brainteaser where the initial timbres could be created by a ring modular but are soon revealed as smacked double bass strings. Soon the saxophonist’s renal cries and growls squall above Hughes’ subterranean-pitched sul tasto movements, in anticipation of Wiese’s fiddly and fuzzy oscillated wave forms finally creating a three-way dialogue. Mutating his electronic pulses to pipe-organ-like accelerations and irregular clangs, further textures arise from the bassist’s tremolo and the saxman’s trills, both of which reflect back onto the root sounds.
Although studio-bound, discard’s sonic coloration is wide enough to encompass not only waveforms from the cosmos, but synthetic landscaping that suggests both the ocean and solid land. (…)

Ken Waxman in JazzWord (USA)

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sieben mal solo

sieben mal solo

schraum 7

Ever since the day in 2004, when the label schraum was founded, there has been an idea to invite a handfull of musicians to Berlin-each to play a solo concert, to be recorded for a live cd. It has finally come true: In June 2007, Schraum invited seven musicians to perform solosets in the wonderful atelier of Fine Kwiatkowski and Willehard Grafenhorst, called “Cri du coeur”, in Berlin Wedding, on two subsequent evenings, before a very interested audience.

Dave Bennett (ogrephonique/Berlin), Lars Scherzberg (alto saxophon/Hamburg), Axel Haller (electric bass/Berlin), Paul Hubweber (trombone/Cologne), Ute Vlker (akkordeon/Wuppertal), Sabine Vogel (bassflute, electronics and tape/Potsdam) and Christian Marien (drums/Berlin) present seven different ways of creating a ten minute solo.

The audience experienced a broad variety of performance practice and extended technique: some instruments primarily acoustic in nature (Marien, Vlcker, Hubweber and Scherzberg), some electronically amplified, processed and mutated (Haller, Vogel), and some interestingly diverse objects used in an ogrephonique way (Bennett). The intimate atmosphere in the Atelier was enjoyed by schraum and the musicians and allowed for everybody to get to know each other and exchange ideas and talk about music and art. On both nights, the group ate and drank together in the performance space, which brought a sense of coming together and a defining of the space for themselves, both collectively and singularly. This aspect of the project can be heard in every piece, if you listen closely enough.

For the musicians as well as for the audience, these two evenings were very exciting because everything heard during the performances was to be forever engraved in stone, and these fortunate souls would have the chance to meet that sound again on some fine sunny day. Case in fact, it didnt take so very long for schraum and their sound engineer to mix, master and release the brand spanking new album called “sieben mal solo” (seven times solo) – its ready to be enjoyed as of now, and its worth listening to again and again and again and?.

Recording: 09. & 10. June 2007, Dave Bennett & Henning Rhrborn, Atelier cri du coeur, Berlin

Photo: Axel Haller

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Trio Vop : Fauxpas

Trio Vop

Fauxpas

label: Schraum

ref: Schraum 5

players: Roland Spieth (Trumpet), Cornelius Veit (Electric Guitar, Effects), Axel Haller (Electric Bass, Cardboard, Cassette)

Short fragments of interactive interests, isolated from their larger context, apparently stressing the independence of their respective discourses, but reaching a coherent status through their addition, exploring various corners of collectively drawn sound territories, their interaction as a means for real time orienteering.

Breves retazos de aspectos interactivos, aislados de su contexto mayor, con aparente acento de lo independiente en sus respectivos discursos, pero resultando coherentes mediante su suma, exploran diversos rincones de territorios sonoros dibujados en grupo, su interaccin como un recurso para la orientacin en tiempo real.

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The Same Girl : Spare Parts & The Ideology Toolkit

The Same Girl

Spare Parts & The Ideology Toolkit

label: Schraum

ref: Schraum 4

year:2005

players: Gilles Aubry, Nicolas Field

The irrelevance of connotations emerges as the interactive possibilities are explored. Their search for a suitable arena ? where the conversation between acoustic percussion and electronics is viable- stems from a reflection on the disparity between the apparent incompatibilities and the development of suitable perspectives, no matter the origin. They present us with a reflection on listening, shared spaces, improvisation and simplicity. The slowly matured approach to the materials allows a complicity in the listening which becomes manifest both in real time interaction and field recordings.

La irrelevancia de las connotaciones emerge mientras se exploran las posibilidades interactivas. Su bsqueda de un terreno adecuado ?donde las conversaciones entre la percusin acstica y la electrnica sean viable- surge de una reflexin sobre la disparidad entre las aparentes incompatibilidades y el desarrollo de perspectivas adecuadas, sin importar su procedencia. Ellos plantean una reflexin sobre la escucha, sobre espacios compartidos, improvisacin y simplicidad. La relacin con los materiales, desarrollada despacio, permite una complicidad en la escucha que se vuelve manifiesta tanto en su interaccin en tiempo real como en las grabaciones de campo.

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Hotelgäste : Flowers you can eat

Hotelgste

Flowers you can eat

label: Schraum

ref: Schraum 3

year:2005

players: Michael Thieke, Dave Bennett, Derek Shirley

A play of reciprocal influences in constant metamorphosis, taking silence as starting point, defines its boundaries time and again through careful listening. Miking and extended techniques propose a process of linguistic abstraction, complementarily phrased and biased towards horizontal, static stances where apparent permanence turns out deceptive.

Juego de influencias recprocas en constante metamorfosis, con el silencio como punto de partida, definiendo sus lmites una y otra vez mediante una cuidadosa escucha. Microfonizacin y tcnicas ampliadas para un proceso de abstraccin complementario y tendente al planteamiento horizontal y microscpico donde la aparente permanencia resulta no serlo.

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Rant : Seumsund/sundseum

Rant

Seumsund/sundseum

label: Schraum

ref: Schraum 2

year:2004

players: Merle Ehlers, Torsten Papenheim

Stopping on mid-sentence we often find abstract images, halfway between the narrative and the experimental. Close-up early morning Polaroids, tracks capturing an experimentally tinged outlook, detail contemplated and included as central…. The unanswered question of noveau naiveness as understood by the next generation.

Pararse a media frase a menudo resulta en imgenes abstractas, a medio camino entre lo narrativo y lo experimental. Primeros planos de Polaroid, cortes que capturan una mirada teida de experimental, detalles contemplados y colocados en el centro? La pregunta sin respuesta del nuevo nave entendida por la generacin siguiente.

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Zbigniew Karkowski : Consciously Unconscious Unconsciously C

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Chessex / Haller / Papenheim : Kainkwatett

Chessex / Haller / Papenheim

Kainkwatett

label: Schraum

ref: Schraum 1

year: 2004

players: Antoine Chessex – saxophone, Axel Haller – bass, Torsten

Papenheim – guitar

Departing from free improvisation, this trio takes interplay towards

abstract noise, leaving behind instrumental roles, blurring the edges

of material sources from diverse perspectives. The tracks alternate

between brittle, fast-moving passages, denser, textural spaces or

close-up observation often woven from reflections on interactive

possibilities.

Partiendo de la improvisacin libre este tro lleva la interaccin

hacia el ruido abstracto, dejando atrs papeles instrumentales,

desdibujando el perfil de recursos materiales desde perspectivas

diversas. Los cortes van desde veloces pasajes frgiles, espacios de

texturas de tipo ms denso o primeros planos tejidos de reflexiones

sobre la interaccin.

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