Travelling Sound Images cs851

Udo Schindler appeared with Soundforge Laboratory here in September, shortly after flipping this page, and I'm already turning to a related trio release of note, Travelling Sound Images - Cognitive Transfers [Trio], recorded in Munich this past May: Soundforge Laboratory had involved adding to a duo recorded the previous day (in April) with Austrian cellist Noid, and that trend continues for Travelling Sound Images - Cognitive Transfers with double bassist Werner Dafeldecker, Travelling Sound Images - Cognitive Transfers [Duo] having been recorded the day prior (& released in August on Schindler's Bandcamp). There're further parallels, in that both string players have a relatively austere style, precise & exploring resonances, including via planning or sound installation.... (And Dafeldecker, an original member of legendary composed-music ensemble Polwechsel — which actually released a massive 4LP set late last year, Embrace on Ni Vu Ni Connu — has appeared elsewhere here, e.g. with Induction....) But there're non-parallels as well, as Soundforge Laboratory had added flute (i.e. a melody instrument) to form its trio around cello, while Travelling Sound Images - Cognitive Transfers [Trio] adds Gunnar Geisse on laptop guitar (which isn't as much a guitar played from a lap, as it is interfaced with a computer...) around the initial reed-bass pair. Geisse is then another musician whom I've heard only with Schindler, and who seems also to contribute to various of his trios (like flautist Erhard), e.g. already the more rock-infused GAU & superGAU (reviewed here together in August 2019), and then more recently Dachau Polyphonics (reviewed October 2022) by MUC Chamber Art Trio (in its second album), with another bassist (Sebastian Gramss). So the latter features a similar ensemble, but also more textural variety, including some genre references, forging wilder & often more involved counterpoint. (Geisse has joined Schindler as well for a trio series with pianist Max Arsava, Sightings and Stratifications recorded this July, with a first volume already released....) Travelling Sound Images - Cognitive Transfers does emphasize Dafeldecker & bass, though (i.e. as framed by the texture) — & these recordings return too to Schindler's Low Tone Studies series (contra the work with Noid...), now Nos. 19 & 20 — bringing as well a more focused exploration versus Dachau Polyphonics. Indeed Geisse not only projects an often Braxtonian aura for the trio, but generally uses electronics (per SuperCollider?) to "frame" a space (via both high & low...) for both acoustic players to interact. So there can be tremendous bass exploration here, not only per the precision of Dafeldecker himself, but with Schindler employing especially "double bass clarinet" (as well as cornet, tenor sax & even sopranino at times...), and then Geisse with low hums too (plus e.g. shimmering highs at various points). Although he can even sound like piano at times on Dachau Polyphonics, Geisse is usually much more spectral for Travelling Sound Images - Cognitive Transfers [Trio] then, even as he does emerge into more musico-figural expressions at times... including some "spacey" (but subtle) synthesizing electronics (& still a bit of piano). (And the Braxton comparison can be extended here to Schindler's variety of horns: Braxton himself employs other low reeds, including within analogous textures.) There's less evocation of genre at this point then, but various textures evolve, including slowly shifting resonances (& various subtle swells, sometimes suggesting accordion...), occasional jazzier snippets (especially from tenor range...), even another sort of nautical vibe (e.g. around cornet calls...). But it's generally not "outdoor" music either, with senses of interiority asserting themselves as well, "impersonal" senses of interiors (or installations...), sometimes more humanized by horns. And moreover there're senses of anticipation, already from the softly (scuffling) pregnant opening — building & shifting — fading away again to close.... In between, the trio conjures a distinctive sonic environment, overtone spectra aligned by hazy yet sparkling electronics, while leaving considerable space in the middle of the texture (especially) for a variety of (sometimes even tuneful...) investigations. Less melodically intricate than typical of Schindler then, Travelling Sound Images - Cognitive Transfers [Trio] (released on Creative Sources) forges its own sound world, a geometric (in the sense of "acoustics") world well-grounded in bass resonance(s), but also framing high into the audible spectrum (while being traversed & imbricated by snaking lines...). There's thus darkness to this music, but light too, awaiting further elaboration & illumination. Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

Travelling Sound Images-Cognitive Transfers [Trio] is just one of the latest installments in a several year surge primarily of live releases from multi-reedist Udo Schindler. It is the 20th installment in his LowToneStudies series, as Schindler (double bass clarinet, sopranino sax, tenor sax, and cornet) is joined by Werner Dafeldecker on double bass and Gunnar Geisse on laptop guitar and virtual instruments, which seem to revolve around a laptop-pedal set-up.
On Travelling Sound Images, Schindler, Dafeldecker and Geisse are intent on creating and exploring the subtle layers of electro-acoustic environments. Sounds billow and release, they loom and lumber before they dissipate. They are richly colored and deeply layered but also transient, much like the ebbing and flowing streams of a spring wind. It can be cold and spikey, or hot and blustery, or simply gusty. But, always, it is unsteadily textured.
The three pieces on the album — simply titled "TSI_Cognitive Transfers [Trio]" — parts 1 -3 — run into each other. They are movements in a greater improvised piece. Part 1 puckers, squeaks, and plunks like an old steam heating pipe. Part 2 begins with long, sweeping tones that smear into each other, as if being played on a pipe organ. It is suspenseful, and even more so as the later stages of the piece incorporate the gurgling techniques of Part 1 coupled with some glitchy contributions from Geisse. Then, the trio moves to the low end in part 3, where Schindler muddles his double bass clarinet with Dafeldecker's deep arco. This piece pulses more than the others, given the appearance of momentum while, in actuality, the tempo seems to slow throughout. As with the other two parts, the dynamic range is small, even as the textural variation is quite wide.
Together, the three section evoke a collage of fragments that are both jarringly juxtaposed and seamlessly woven together. Nam June Paik's television sculptures might be a good analogy, as the elements that should not necessarily work together blend in a confusing but convincing singularity. Here, however, the music is composed and performed in real-time and a single space (live at Schnitzer & Studio in Munich), so we have to read intentionality into the elements. Geisse is the disruptive one, alternately painting blurry soundscapes and throwing out odd-ball sounds that Schindler and Dafeldecker capture, emulate, and deflect. Dafeldecker's bass is often weighty, holding to the background and maintaining depth. Schindler is reserved but responsive, focusing on control and the finer edges of sound. In that, he, again, shows his mastery of a variety of reeds and, for the first time I have heard him, cornet.
In short, consider this trio another peculiar feather in Schindler's already fully-plumaged cap. I am less familiar with his comrades in this effort, but I must assume the same for them, as well. This is wonderful music, very much in the moment and of the moment. Nick Ostrum (The Squid's Ear)