stand clear |cs029

[…] Although listed as a bandname, Los Glissandinos is also a duo: Kai Fagaschinski on clarinet and Klaus Filip on sine waves, a combination that was already explored by Alvin Lucier, and that works well for long sustained sounds. Los Glissandinos understand this very well, and their disc is mainly excursion along slow and quiet moving lines, with in the long middle piece 'History Of The Animals', some occasional outbursts of noise, which add up to almost digital distortion. Especially the softer moments work really well, almost in an Alvin Lucier like way. […] Frans de Waard (Vital)

Since Kai Fagaschinski and Klaus Filip issued a download-only set of recordings at Klingt.org last year, I have waited impatiently for the release of this excellent album.
For me the most interesting recent development in music has been the (often reluctant) acceptance of the laptop as a tool for making music in an improvised environment. As the laptop flies through its infancy at breakneck speed, its use alongside acoustic instrumentation has raised a lot of interesting questions.
Stand Clear is the best example I have heard yet of digital and acoustic technologies coming together to form one organic whole. This is music that simultaneously renders the tension between man and CPU both immediately apparent and completely irrelevant in the same moment.
Filip uses laptop generated sine tones, restricting himself to a very basic refined palette, very rarely contributing more than one sound at a time. He is mainly focused here on clean, smooth lines of sound (nothing granular on this disc!), but he is also totally involved in a conversation with Fagaschinski’s clarinet rather than taking the distant stance often taken by Sachiko M, perhaps the most obvious musical comparison.
Fagaschinski is one of a clutch of interesting reeds players to emerge in recent years and to my ears he brings something fresh to the scene. Unlike many of his contemporaries he is not afraid to actually play a note on his instrument. Much of his early work with Filip seemed to revolve around intertwined tones from both musicians merging together to the point it became difficult to sort them apart. These elements are still very much in evidence on Stand Clear, but he also pours breathy hisses and deep rushes of gurgling air into Filip’s subtle sonorities to create a minimal (but never silent) structure of stunning beauty.
There are three pieces here. Two shorter works book-end the remarkable ‘History of the animals’, a twenty-five minute tightly interwoven journey that stands as one of the best passages of improvised duet I have heard in ages. The track winds its way very slowly through several movements, beginning with gentle, fluttering passages from Fagaschinski folded into Filip’s envelopes of low bass tones before dropping into near silence and understated tension. Eventually a high pitched sine from Filip grows out of the quiet, pulling Fagaschinski with it until a fierce scribbling mass of high-register sound emerges, easily the harshest moments of the recording before things fall again into finely detailed and restrained interplay. Right at the end of the piece, just when you think the full dynamic gamut has been run Fagaschinski suddenly slips into a few moments of beautiful mournful melody before it is all suddenly cut short by the end of the track.
This release captures the work of two excellent musicians that have developed their sound closely together over a period of time to reach the refined state of intimacy present here on Stand Clear.
For anyone that still has doubts about the laptop’s validity within improvised music I recommend you listen to this release. This is man and machine very much in harmony yet still pushing and pulling at each other enough to create music that is very hard to describe and is unlike anything else you are likely to hear this year.
So yet another release from the absurdly prolific Creative Sources label. But to my ears this is their finest moment yet. Wonderful stuff. Richard Pinnell (Bagatellen)

Kai Fagaschinski (clarinet) and Klaus Filip (sine waves) offer their gradual process of frequency disintegration through this meaningful duet, articulated in three movements. The amazing control of every minimal nuance by Fagaschinski guarantees photocell dynamics in sounds that are unbelievably surgical, sometimes barely audible while they mix with a surcharged silence, broken only by suffocated inner ear noises and - just maybe - by some skipping heartbeat. Filip moves his waves with molecular precision, remodeling the cerebral equilibrium while making wax residues of every malleable substance in a try for a controlled torture of the membranes, which vibrate until your audio memory tells them to go with the flow, without opposition. The duo obtains your full attention through a deceptive understatement, in which aggression is subtle, almost chemical; the outcome of these procedures is uneasily distant from the expected: a clear sign of progress. Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes)

If pushed to choose just half a dozen releases on Creative Sources to take to the fabled desert island (tough call, as any present shortlist would include as least twice that many, and I'll be modest enough to exclude my own outing on the label, very proud of it though I am), Kai Fagaschinski's No Furniture, with Boris Baltschun and Axel Dörner (CS 009) would definitely be in the suitcase. One of the disadvantages of such an ambitious release programme – Ernesto Rodrigues has truly flooded the market in the past year with over 20 new titles – is that punters (and journalists) are often spoilt for choice and tend to skip over things that they might normally devote more attention to. Such was the case, it seems, with No Furniture – though heaven knows I tried to push the album as hard as a could – and let's hope history doesn't repeat itself with Los Glissandinos, clarinettist Fagaschinski's duo with laptopper Klaus Filip. While I fully respect those cats who like their album covers abstract and almost entirely devoid of information, I've always had a soft spot for cover art, believing, misguidedly perhaps, that if the artists hadn't intended it to complement in the music in some way, they wouldn't have chosen it. The photographs that adorn Stand Clear show a fine summer's day on the banks of an inviting river, a campfire that looks just about ready for a barbecue, and, behind the disc itself, the muzzle of large sandy coloured hound close to the camera (dangerously close perhaps, though it looks to all intents and purposes as if it's about to give it a friendly lick). I wonder, if the cover art had been as austere as No Furniture's hand drawn tables, chairs and sofas, whether Fagaschinski and Filip's music might sound less inviting than it actually does. As it is, Filip's glowing, spacious sustained sinewaves and Fagaschinski's breathy purrs are eminently listenable, almost soothing, even in the strident upper register workouts of "History of the Animals". A lot of this kind of music comes across as chilly – is there anything more glacial than the icy blasts of Franz Hautzinger on Brospa? – but there's a warmth and richness to Los Glissandinos' microtonal meanderings and Lucier-like investigations of difference tones that's instantly appealing. Well, the family dog might take a bite out of you if it hears it, but I think it's splendid. Dan Warburton (Paris Transatlantic)

In ferner Zukunft beschäftigen sich möglicherweise einmal ganze Jahrgänge von Sozio- oder auch Psychologiestudenten mit der Frage, warum in der experimentellen Musik kurz nach der Jahrtausendwende nach all den vorangegangenen Noise-Eruptionen der Untersuchung der Stille, der Abwesenheit von Lärm, des Leisen so viel Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt wurde.
Dann könnte auch diese CD als Studienobjekt herhalten. Man hört die Klappen an Fagaschinskis Klarinette klappern, die dezenten drones aus Klaus Filips Sinusgenerator fügen zarte Tupfen hinzu. Erst im Mittelteil des zweiten, fast halbstündigen Stücks wird's etwas heftiger. Und das wirklich Erstaunliche ist, dass daraus kein akademischer Mumpitz, sondern extrem spannende Musik resultiert. Karsten Zimalla (Westzeit)

Don't be fooled by the name and by the lush landscape on the cover - Kai Fagaschinski (clarinet) and Klaus Filip (sine waves) have recorded three tracks of sludgy, and eventually quite anguishing minimalism (Lucier came to mind, again). Always moving at molasses speed, they let the sound ebb and flow, from distant bleeps and rarefied hisses to painful metallic squeals (as in the lengthy "History of the animals"). As with all good doom music (which is "all the same" yet full of power and details), at first you have to survive a few listening sessions and a certain dose of physical stress or even boredom - then you're swallowed by the quicksands. Eugenio Maggi (Chain DLK)

Sadze, ze „Stand Clear” to plyta, ktora powinien znac kazdy szanujacy sie milosnik muzyki improwizowanej. To p_yta wazna. Wazna z co najmniej dwoch powodow. Po pierwsze, jako jeden z niewielu modelowych przyk_adów owocnego wspoldzialania instrumentow „tradycyjnych” oraz elektronicznych. To wlasnie tutaj reprezentant kazdej grupy pozostajac soba, staje sie jednoczesnie elementem jakiegos nowego tworu – niezwyklej, ponadczasowej syntezy brzmien starych i nowych. Klarnet pozostaje klarnetem i wiedzie swoja piesc jednocze_nie w, nad, obok, przed i za chmura sine waves pochodzacych z komputera. Owe dzwiekowe fale z kolei to go holubia, to znow si_ z nim przekomarzaja; raz otaczaja puchow_ koldra dzwieku, to znow z lekka tylko owiewaja podmuchem sonicznego wiatru. Nie zatracajac odrebnosci i swego charakteru, kazdy z instrumentów przemawia donosnie wlasnym glosem, tak, ze nie sposob jest go z drugim pomylic. A jednak, w jakis niezwykly, wrecz magiczny sposob, dwa glosy lacza sie w jeden. Niezwykly, dostojny, przejmujacy, szlachetny, a przy tym jakze swobodny i lekki.
„Stand Clear” wazna jest tez z innego powodu, stanowi bowiem material dosc latwo przyswajalny, nawet przez tych sluchaczy, ktorym wspolczesna muzyka improwizowana kojarzy sie wylacznie z chaotyczna kakofonia. Trzy utwory zawarte na tej plycie posiadaja precyzyjna forma, a partie instrumentalne przewaznie sa przyjazne uszom. Muzycy nie epatuja dziwacznymi brzmieniami, i jesli nawet Fagaschinski uzywa jakichs nietypowych technik artykulacyjnych, to robi to w sposob tak delikatny i stonowany, ze wszystkie dzwieki sprawiaja wrazenie nadzwyczaj cieplych i melodyjnych. Podobnie jest z sine waves Filipa – zapewne sluchacze zaznajomieni chociazby z ich uzyciem przez Sachiko M w to nie uwierza, ale sa one niezwykle delikatne, mozna by je okreslic slowem: pastelowe.
I choc lista powodow, dla ktorych warto poznac „Stand Clear”, jest o wiele dluzsza, to ja poprzestane na wymienieniu tych dwoch. Pozostale najlepiej odkrywac samodzielnie. Tadeusz Kosiek (Gaz-Eta)

Los Glissandinos – already vying for most pithy and punk rock name by an improv duo – are sine wave specialist Klaus Filip and clarinetist Kai Fagaschinski. From a couple of dates in Austria during July 2004, Stand Clear (Creative Sources 029) features some of the richest and best-integrated electro-acoustic music so far this year. Control and restraint are the name of the game here, expressed most sumptuously in the gorgeous, long, sustained tones where the two instrumentalists blend seamlessly together, achieving the fullness of an Eliane Radigue or Alvin Lucier piece (particularly so on the opening “The Long Ride of Sancho Panza”). Filip (whose work I really only know from the slightly disappointing Building Excess on Grob) is masterful here, subtly introducing different levels and shapes from the background. And Fagaschinski’s control extends not only to circular breathing and even breath but to very finely nuanced use of breath to connote feedback and radio static. The disc’s centerpiece is the 25-minute “History of Animals,” whose most immediate feature is the way round low-tones force their way to the front against flickering sparks of static. But the piece is really about oscillation and sympathetic vibration, the way the huge low end reverberates along with the clarinet or the way both pinch off their instrument’s high range until the music is constricted to the point of a dagger. This is an intense disc which stands out from the pack. Jason Bivins (Dusted Magazine)

A Los Glissandinos kÈt eurÛpai kÌsÈrleti zenÈsz, a nÈmet Kai Fagaschinski Ès az osztr·k Klaus Filip duÛja. A hangkelt¦ eszkˆzˆk p·rosÌt·sa els¦re meglehet¦sen szokatlannak t¾nhet - b·r ha jÛl belegondolunk, Alvin Lucier esetÈben m·r tˆbbszˆr is hallhattunk hasonlÛ ˆssze·llÌt·st -, hiszen Fagaschinski klarinÈtjainak hangj·t, Filip pedig laptopj·nak szÌnusz hull·mait dobja a kˆzˆsbe, hogy e kÈt hangszer segÌtsÈgÈvel egy zavarba ejt¦en esemÈnytelen Ès mozdulatlan, vagy csak nagyon lassan v·ltozÛ hang-univerzumot hozzon lÈtre. A lemezt els¦ hall·sra tal·n valamifÈle minim·l ambientes f·tyol lengi kˆr¸l, de eset¸nkben azÈrt ennÈl jÛval tˆbbr¦l van szÛ. B·r az alkot·s egÈsze nem adja mag·t kˆnnyen, s¦t az els¦ nÈh·ny hallgat·s alkalm·val kifejezetten bar·ts·gtalannak t¾nhet, kÈtsÈgtelen¸l Èrdemes vele prÛb·lkozni.
A kÈt zenei kÌsÈrletez¦ kˆzˆs munk·ja 2004 legelejÈn kezd¦dˆtt BÈcsben; tavaly a klingt.org honlap jokebox szekciÛj·bÛl m·r le lehetett tˆlteni egy nÈgy rÈszes felvÈtel-sorozatot a duÛtÛl, majd mÈg a tavalyi Èv j²lius·ban rˆgzÌtettÈk a Stand Clear lemezt alkotÛ h·rom felvÈtelt, melyek vÈg¸l csak egy Èv m²lt·n jelentek meg a portug·l Ernesto Rodrigues mini-kiadÛj·n·l. A hangfelvÈteleket kˆvet¦ id¦szakban a Los Glissandos els¦sorban koncert-t·rsulatkÈnt m¾kˆdˆtt, Ès mind Fagaschinski, mind pedig Filip ezzel a duÛform·ciÛval tˆltˆtte idejÈnek legnagyobb rÈszÈt: egy Èv alatt EurÛpa sz·mos orsz·g·ban fellÈptek (Anglia, NÈmetorsz·g, Sv·jc, Ausztria, SzlovÈnia, Lengyelorsz·g stb.), tavaly rÈszt vettek a nickelsdorfi Konfrontationen Fesztiv·lon, idÈn pedig a grazi Musikprotokollon.
…s most l·ssuk mag·t a lemezt: a majd' tÌz perces "The Long Ride Of Sancho Panza" cÌm¾ tÈtelben l·tszÛlag semmi emlÌtÈsre mÈltÛ nem tˆrtÈnik, hosszan kitartott hangok egy¸tt·ll·sa, nÈh·ny percnyi magas (de legal·bb halk) sÌpol·s, amit rˆvidebb szusszan·sok Ès egyÈb puha zajok felhorkan·sa szakÌt meg. A sz·mÌtÛgÈp gener·lta folytonos szÌnuszok Ès Fagaschinski kˆrkˆrˆs ki- Ès belÈlegzÈssel megszÛlaltatott klarinÈtjai sokszor hasonlÛ hangmagass·gon szÛlalnak meg, tal·n ezÈrt a mozdulatlans·g, az esemÈnytelensÈg gyakori Èrzete. A 25 perces "History Of The Animals" is egy hosszabb csenddel, valamint halk b²g·sokkal indul, Ès szintÈn kÌmÈletlen lass²s·ggal bontakozik ki. Klaus Filip sz·mtalan k¸lˆnbˆz¦ tÛnust hoz ki laptopj·bÛl, Fagaschinski kreatÌv klarinÈt haszn·lata is egÈszen figyelemre mÈltÛ, van is sz·mos brilli·ns momentum, de ezek sajnos elveszek a hossz² tÈtelben, Ès mindig az az ÈrzÈsem, hogy ezek a p·rhuzamosan futÛ hangok egyszer¾en kÈptelenek kitˆlteni a rendelkezÈs¸kre ·llÛ teret Ès id¦t. Ezen vÈlemÈnyemet t·masztja al· a lemezt lez·rÛ "Four Seasons" cÌm¾ nyolc perces tÈtel is, ami a Stand Clear legrˆvidebb, ennek ellenÈre a legesemÈnyd²sabb rÈsze. Az improviz·ciÛ utolsÛ egy percÈben pedig valami olyasmi kezd¦dik el, amire az egÈsz lemez sor·n v·rtam: egy lend¸letes, sodrÛ, jÛ hangos hanghull·m, amit sajnos csak rendkÌv¸l rˆvid ideig Èlvezhet¸nk. (Az ÈlmÈny tal·n ahhoz hasonlatos, mint amikor a finom, aprÛ szem¾ homok pillanatok alatt Ès megakad·lyozhatatlanul kifolyik az ˆsszeszorÌtott markunkbÛl...)
A Stand Clear album - tere siv·rs·ga Ès "fehÈrsÈge" miatt - nekem egyel¦re teljessÈggel belakhatatlannak t¾nik, Ès ennek kˆszˆnhet¦en mÈg mindig kÈptelen vagyok megbar·tkozni az anyaggal. EgyÈrtelm¾: szokni kell. Hallhatunk persze Èrdekes Ès kellemes hangokat, izgalmas hangp·rhuzamokat, de az album egÈsze egyszer¾en nem kÈpes lekˆtni a figyelmemet. Persze az is kÈtsÈgtelen, hogy akusztikus- Ès digit·lis technolÛgia ilyen organikus Ès tˆkÈletes ˆsszhangj·t lemezen ritk·n hallani, Ès azt is k·r lenne tagadni, hogy a kÈt egÈszen k¸lˆnbˆz¦ alkotÛi hozz··ll·s tal·lkoz·s·bÛl egy meglehet¦sen karakteres, egyedi Ès ²jszer¾ produkciÛ sz¸letett. Teh·t szÛ se rÛla, a Los Glissandinos duÛja egy igen jÛl szervezett Ès kiv·lÛ ar·nyÈrzÈkkel felÈpÌtett elektroakusztikus improviz·ciÛkat rˆgzÌtett lemezre. Dusted Hoffman (Improv.hu)

Kai Fagaschinski (klarinett) og Klaus Filip (sinusbølger) utgjør duoen med det svingende navnet Los Glissandinos – som sammen med omslagsfotografiene og webdesignen (http://losglissandinos.klingt.org), hver på sin måte og i felleskap påvirker opplevelsen av musikken og inviterer til en kontekstuell forståelse av den. Det er en humor og en varme – riktignok iblandet en viss tvetydighet når det gjelder omslaget – i alt dette ”tilbehøret”, som står i sterk kontrast til selve musikken. ”Stand Clear” består av tre spor. Kjølige væsker av lyd renner jevnt og kontrollert gjennom hele platen, med unntak av et parti midtveis ut i ”History of the Animals”, det midterste og lengste sporet, der en kjemisk reaksjon i væskeblandingen inntreffer og gjør den etsende. Musikken er uttrykksmessig desinfisert, renset for følelse og ekspressivitet. Lyden av Kai Fagashinski som fra tid til annen trekker pusten er det eneste som vitner om menneskelig nærvær, uten at det bidrar til å gjøre musikken mindre klinisk, mindre fremmedartet. Fagashinski blåser forsiktig og måteholdent, noen ganger rent og friksjonsfritt, men også med hvislende og gurglende teksturering. For Klaus Filip og hans laptop-genererte sinusbølger er det stort sett én tone av gangen som gjelder – særs minimalt og enkelt, i seg selv nær grensen til det enerverende. I samspill med Fagaschinski – både fascinerende og suggererende. Frank Messel (Disquieting Duck)

The debut album by Los Glissandinos combines the sound of a clarinet with computer generated sine waves. Klaus Filip, an artist living in Vienna, uses a laptop to come up with those fine-tuned sine waves and his colleague Kai Fagaschinski from Berlin plays the clarinet.
The sound both musicians generate fitt each other perfectly, resulting in a rich spectrum of minimal tones and low-key frequencies. The music is refined and improvised. Tiny details have been put in dreamy constellations, reminding of Dieb13, Christof Kurzmann, Burkhard Stangl or SSSD.
Harmonic chords, sophisticated noise collages, lovely peeps, tiny crackles and droning clusters make up for most of the abstract material. A great combination of academic level and independent improvisations. Three great tracks that promise a great future for this duo. Paul Bijlsma (Phosphor Magazine)

[…] Also three tracks of about the same total length (here after considered as »the album«), are »Los Glissandinos« (I haven’t found any explanations for that name group, but I didn’t really search either), a duet made of Klaus Filip (laptop, Vienna) and Clarinetist Kai Fagaschinski (Berlin). They cue in the line as well but in a rather moody, »Viennese school goes ambient«, parallelism and other -isms, way. Glissandinos can also be seen as far less jazz or other players’ traditions; they concentrate on the sound itself rather than twittle their instruments and forgive themselves to blow anything. So far after EAI and other new music, I’ve unsubscribed Wire magazine and went barely off any improv scenes or actualities. I always keep such records (out of their plastic cases) for later and just in case. But i could also very well do with a Box set, one day when it s all gone, of Best of the drone and other creepy digital silences (50 CDs wrapped in a posh crafted box and stamped 1994 – 2009). If you love that genre I’m sure you’d enjoy these two new ones (something in me prevents using the word »fresh« here), and probably both as separate items. If not... well: not. Not more this time than all the previous ones, I mean. Noël Akchoté (Skug)

Klarinettenklänge und Sinuswellen schwingen in- und übereinander bei stand clear (CS 029), dem Debut von LOS GLISSANDINOS. Zu diesem Duo haben sich verabredet der Computer-Programmierer Klaus Filip (*1962, Wien), dem man bisher im Orchester 33 1/3 begegnet konnte oder auf der Grob-CD Building Excess (1004), und Kai Fagaschinski (*1974, Dannenberg), bekannt mit Berlin Reeds und Projekten wie Rebecca (w/Renkel), Kommando Raumschiff Zitrone (w/Kurzmann) oder No Furniture (w/Dörner & Baltschun). Die Achse Wien-Berlin ist so virulent wie seit Jahrzehnten nicht. Nicht zuletzt Dank der billigen Künstlerquartiere seiner ‚Eastside‘ ist Berlin zum Magneten geworden mit synergetischen Effekten. Schwebende, nadelspitz bohrende Dröhnminimalismen aus Filips Laptop mischen sich mit subtilem Reedhauch, vorsichtig angeblasenen Flatterklängen, zischenden Schlangenlinien, kurzen Plops, gepresstem Fiepen. Die Selbstdarstellung der Künstler als handfeste Künstlerkolonisten im Grünen, Filip als nackter Ruderer, Fagaschinski als Old Shatterhand, steht dazu nur solange im Kontrast, bis man mitten in ‚history of the animals‘ mit den beißenden und stechenden Seiten der Glissandinos- Klangwelt Bekanntschaft macht, das in einer Volte dann doch noch im klassischen Sinn ‚schön‘ ausklingt. (Bad Alchemy)

Los Glissandinos : Stand Clear (Creative Sources, 2005). Clarinettes contre ondes sinus : sous un nom exotique (Los Glissandinos), Klaus Filip et Kai Fagaschinski enregistraient Stand Clear en juillet 2004. De longues notes, suspendues, s’y superposent, convergent ou interfèrent selon la force du vent et la trajectoire des ondulations ; surtout : quadrillent un territoire d’ébats que se disputent sifflements et chuchotements au creux desquels il arrive aux voix de Filip et Fagaschinski de se confondre avec subtilité. Guillaume Belhomme (Le Son du Grisli)