reviews_cs146

figuren |cs146

Hard not to get a sense of Swiss rolling hills here (well, there is an alphorn), the fairly gentle undulations provided by the dual pianos and the round sounds of flutes and low horns. Generally pleasant enough, though with several missteps ("Penelope") where things wander off-track and stay there. Too slack structurally and a mite too busy for my taste, but fans of things that appear on Intakt might enjoy it. Brian Olewnick (Just Outside)

I won’t bore you with another story of my tough day tonight. You know how it goes by now… Just tomorrow to get through and then I have four days off, three of which will be spent at the Unnamed Music festival in London and Leeds. Sorry if I keep mentioning the festival, but it deserves my support and yours. Say hi if you come along. Today then I listened to another release on the Creative Sources label (I am determined to listen to each one properly and write something on it!) Actually it wasn’t easy to listen more than once to today’s disc. I really didn’t enjoy it much. The CD in question is a new release by an all female quartet from (I think) Switzerland named (really rather badly) Quatre Têtes. Their album of ten shortish tracks is called Figuren.
I’m not actually sure how to describe the music they play, but Quatre Têtes are mad eup of two pianists Gabriela Friedli and Claudia Ulla Binderand two wind instrumentalists, Susann Wehrli (flutes and melodica) and Priska Walss (trombone and alphorn) In places their music is definitely very jazzy. There are several patches of melody to be heard, and a tendency for different instruments to come to the fore and almost solo on different tracks. Elsewhere it has a new music feel to it though, almost a kind of loosely played Earle Brown. It is certainly improvised, as in places it meanders slowly all over the place. It is busy, but somehow it doesn’t quite have the spark and energy of good old-school improv. It actually feels a really polite recording, with no aggression and no real surprises.
I have to be honest, I just don’t like this CD at all, but I am really struggling to pin down exactly why. It just has a certain sound to it, a mixture of groaning (often farting) wind instruments and quite annoyingly persistent piano. It spends a lot of time developing ideas that just don’t interest me much, little loops of repeated melody from one of the group mixed with rhythmic patterns from elsewhere and the odd dissonant moment thrown in by one of the others. I hate being so negative about music but I have to be honest, this CD bored me to tears. Maybe to others with completely different expectations of what they want from a quartet of this type Figuren is a good record. I’m obviously only voicing one opinion but there was very little here that held my attention. Richard Pinnell (The Watchful Ear)

Another quartet of female improvisers. This one is Swiss and consists of: Susamm Wehril (flute), Priska Walss (trombone, alphorn), Gabriela Friedll (piano), and Claudia Ulla Binder (piano), the latter being the only musician here I had previously been aware of. Original instrumentation with two pianos, something rare in the field of free improvisation. Figuren is a nice record that has several moments of beauty to offer, but it isn’t a striking record. There’s nothing here that surprises or shocks or strikes as particularly bold, except for the fact that it’s free improvisation. François Couture (Monsieur Delire)

Zawsze jest mi jakos´ przyjemnie dobrac´ sie³ do materia?u tworzonego przez kobiety, które w muzyce, a w muzyce eksperymentalnej i improwizowanej w szczególnos´ci sa³ w zdecydowanej mniejszos´ci.
Tu mamy szwajcarski kwartet wykonuja³cy 10 miniatur dz´wie³kowych w oparciu o akustyczne instrumentarium. Co ciekawe w sk?adzie sa³ dwa fortepiany co jest rzadkie i nadaje muzyce pewnego swoistego szlifu. Momentami muzyka ociera sie o jazz, moz²e z racji wykszta?cenia Pan´ i ich wczes´niejszych dokonan´. Szcza³tki melodii i nadaja³ce rytm pasaz²e...chwileczke³ czy tego juz² nie by?o? niestety muzyka tu zawarta jest jak szwajcarski zegarek, nudna i przewidywalna. ech.. Astipalea Records (Felthat Reviews)

De deux duos (Gabriela Friedli - Priska Walss / Claudia Ulla Binder - Susann Wehrli) est né Quatre têtes, quartet exclusivement féminin. De l’étrangeté de l’orchestration (deux pianos, flûte et trombone) émerge une intensité confondante. Car plutôt que de n’explorer qu’une seule piste, ce sont en multiples chercheuses de sons et de sens que se sont postées nos quatre musiciennes. Dans cette musique, se croisent l’attente et le tâtonnement, la curiosité et l’inquiétude. On y découvre des enchâssements de timbres singuliers (la grave palette de l’imposant cor des Alpes, un mélodica sorti des sentiers battus), des arithmétiques audacieuses (quartet et divers duos), des fugues et des courses-poursuites haletantes. Bruissements, glissandi, horizontalité inquiète, dialogues ludiques et affranchis s’entrecroisent sans tourment et avec une décontraction naturelle. Stabilité, classicisme des phrasés et cassures abruptes ne s’opposent nullement car on sent les quatre musiciennes durablement soudées et toujours en demande de nouvelles situations. Une réussite totale pour nos quatre têtes pensantes et si magnifiquement jouantes. Luc Bouquet (Le Son du Grisli)

An all-female Swiss quartet, basically the fusion of two duos. Pianist Gabriela Friedli and trombonist Priska Walss (here doubling on alphorn) are known as Duo Frappant, a CD already released on Intakt titled Intervista. A second pianist, Claudia Ulla Binder, was a regular performing companion of flutist Susann Wehrli, in this occasion also featured on melodica. The separate entities took the shape of Quatre Têtes five years ago, after having met at "Zürcher Stadtsommer 2004". As a symbolic memento of past times, three of the pieces in this program are duets.
That these women are technically well-trained becomes evident from the very first cut "Beauty's Biest", a cross of amusing improvisation and chamber music which meshes somber chordal work and quiescent coals of whimsical, if digestible anti-patterns. Another episode, "Lavtina", examines the connections between a somewhat disenchanted predisposition to leaving lots of spaces for the ideas to flow and contrapuntal environments that might recall early theatre backgrounds. An acceleration of sorts is found in "Läufer und Turm", Walss' trombone spreading astute lines amidst a not overly dissonant harmonic tissue, while in "Penelope" the alphorn is tackled by rendering it akin to a didgeridoo against Wehrli's quasi-accordion melodica shades, causing yours truly to fantasize about a transverse If, Bwana/Guy Klucevsek liaison before aptly bowed piano strings conclude the whole with remarkable authority and a required touch of mystery.
Someone could be turned off by the instrumental cluttering characterizing certain parts of the record, or decide that this kind of impromptu decision-making hides in actual fact a lack of revolutionary spark. This is in part true — we couldn't really say that everything sounds unexpected. Yet even during the most skeletal exchanges, such as the Wehrli/Friedli dialogue in "Voyageurs", the rewards come from a pair of factors: the absolute transparency of the timbres and the rather candid approach to unearthing instant solutions, both qualities manifested in every juncture by the musicians. This is a much appreciated attitude revealing seriousness — not necessarily a given in today's scene.
Maybe the secret lies exactly there: this stuff does not sound like "avant-garde". Figuren appears more as an ongoing process involving four artistic voices who are still attempting to reach a superior level of consistency as a collective unit, but whose straight genuineness is a pleasant diversion from the annoyingly sanctimonious rigor shown by many weightier names in this field. Massimo Ricci (The Squidco's Ear)

Born in southern Germany, but a Zürich resident since 1986, pianist Claudia Ulla Binder has evolved her own style of improvisation. Rather formal and cold, it seems to draw heavily on her background, which includes a Masters degree in Psychology, a later degree in classical piano – and perhaps the climate of northern Europe.
However this recent CD, while as rigorously structured as her earlier sets, appear to mark newfound relaxation. Binder’s playing also seems more flexible on Figuren since she’s only one part of a quartet. As unusually constituted, as only a European combo can be, Quatre Têtes is made up of Binder and Gabriela Friedli on pianos, the trombone and alphorn of Priska Walss and Susann Wehrli’s flutes and melodica. Recorded almost two years before the Butcher CD, the instrumental combination resulted from a melding of Binder’s duo with Wehrli – who also plays with laptopist Karin Ernst – and the Friedli/Walss group. Walss has also recorded with pianist Urs Voerkel, while Friedli has been featured in bands led by saxophonists Omri Ziegele or Co Streiff. [...] Still a double duo, along the lines of Ornette Coleman’s double quartet or Glenn Spearman’s double trio, means that the band excels in narratives that expose both the interaction of the established twosomes which cross four dissimilar sound expressions. A tune such as “Lavtina” for example is buoyed on understated stops and strums from both pianists. Then as the flute whistles and the trombone brays, one keyboardist expels arpeggio-like connections as the other produces cascading abrasions, slapping the back frame and bottom board of the piano. As extended brass slurs meld with flute trills, one pianist’s percussive ruffs meet the other’s tremolo runs, with the piece culminating in an across-the-mountain peak tattoo from the brass player.
Staccato and rubato melodica ejaculations combine in double counterpoint displays of brass noises which sound closer to frogs than formalism on “Penelope”. As mouth instrument expressions turn forte, so does the polyphonic bowing and strumming from two sets of internal piano strings. This roughness is welcome and defining, since elsewhere Wehrli’s flighty lyricism and one pianist’s preference for legato harmonies often creates tessitura which leans towards fantasias and chamber music-styled intermezzos. [...] Much more exhilarating are those occasions when methodical chording on the pianists’ part and the flutist’s downy spongy tones are set aside to expose unusual timbral explorations from all concerned. As the internal piano strings clatter, stretch and rebound, and either the alphorn or trombone rumble, blat and flutter-tongue, these tunes eschew decorative tendencies to become focused, taut improvisations. [...] But considering the band members have had an additional four years to put their heads together since the CD was recorded, it’s possible their sound has become more sophisticated since Figuren. Ken Waxman (JazzWord)