philip samartzis / michael vorfeld : scheckenrock
Scheckenrock is the record of live concert by Philip Samartzis and Michael Vorfeld made in Berlin and later in January 2009 released by the Austrian label Non Visual Objects. The first of the two improvisation masters was responsible for electronics and field records, under the second master’s rule were percussion and string instruments. Improvisation itself can’t be uninteresting – while improvisation each musician’s soul is filled with creative spirit that exposes his talent for spontaneous, unexpected playing devices. As a result, the present element of unexpectedness and fortuity of some events can vivify any performance.
“Krause” is one of three long-lasting parts of the album. It starts pacifically with the noise of crickets and birds’ singing. Soon they are changed by Vorfeld’s string squeaking and thin layer of streaming electronic noise by Samartzis. I think this sound is similar to the sounds produced by crickets if they were, for example, stroke by electrical charge. Then starts percussion and the composition twists into dense noisy, winding vortex of metal sounds. It’s not the last time when this vortex makes a shake-up during the album. In Scheckenrock noisy and somewhere sharp parts, when you sometimes want to lower the volume, are changed by more calm abstract patterns made of squeaking strings and irregular strikes. This puzzle is pasted together by monotonous digital hisses and crackles with acoustic sounds threaded on them like on a thin fibers. Proceeding the started theme, “Wams” widens a little the sounding of the whole work and makes a step to drone ambient. The initial and final parts of the track are accompanied by shrouding, low drone. “Schaube” unexpectedly starts with the sounds collage from the training of the representatives of some fight style and syncopated strikes over various surfaces. This part of the album seemed to me boring and uninteresting. After it, in the final part of the album the theme, already started in “Krause” proceeds with new variations. In the result, I think, musicians managed to record a rather interesting and, most important, memorable work.
release date: january 09
tracks:
01. krause | 18:10 mp3 excerpt
02. wams | 19:41
03. schaube | 14:27
limited edition: 300
Philip Samartzis: electronics, field recordings
Michael Vorfeld: percussion, stringed instrument
Recorded at the Modezentrum Berlin-Mitte,
March 22, 2007
Mixed and mastered by Philip Samartzis
1980
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