BASIS_B(r)uchstücke cs750

The more I listen to his music, the more convinced I become that Udo Schindler is one of the un(der)sung master reedsmen both in the strange streams of sound he coaxes out of his horns and the concerted way he avoids the conventional grammar. It is as if he is building a new vernacular for his instrument in real time.
Schindler's unique style comes through particularly well in duos and, it seems, in live performances. He took the pandemic to dig through his back catalog of recordings. Many of these reached public ears through download only releases on his Bandcamp page and, notably, many were duos. Indeed, Schindler seems to have really gravitated to the duo, likely somewhat because of practicality but also because of the possibilities of that configuration. It offers big spaces for each musician to be heard — full blast or sotto voce — and gives each a counterpart — sometimes a companion and others a sparring partner — with whom to bounce around ideas and to whom to respond. Depending on the instrumentation and the players, it also frees the musicians from rhythm's centripetal force and gives them license to explore other, in this case amelodic and atonal, places.
By now, of course, musicians have returned to the stage. In March 2022, Schindler and multi-instrumentalist Ardhi Engl met for a performance in Munich's BASIS-Klangraum for an intimate session of nine duos, captured here on BASIS_B(r)uchstücke. Schindler came to the session with clarinets and theremin, something rarely heard in such formats perhaps because of how understated its sound is. Engl brought along a slew of homemade instruments. Many seem to be strings and wind instruments, though it is sometimes difficult to tell, just as, at points, it is difficult to discern his from Schindler's contributions. Others sound electronic, complementing Schindler's warbling with crackling fuzz. This album covers a lot of sonic terrain. The musicians deploy everything from clucks and squeals to entwining trills and warped foghorn calls to metal-on-metal grind. Really, almost everything except for clear extended melodies or full tones (though the latter do slip through fleetingly at points.) That diversity, however, works when harnessed by these two musicians. I know little about their prior history together. But it is clear that in March of 2022, they hit their stride together — fragmented and wonderfully, relentlessly oblique. Nick Ostrum (The Squid’s Ear)

The now 70-year-old Munich improviser, organiser and architect Udo Schindler has a wide-ranging interested and networked with an international circle of similarly oriented people, including Swiss among them. His sound explorations, which he documents in particular with duo recordings, are accordingly inspired by very different stimulated. ...
Schindler's recording with Ardhi Engl of last March is the first of the new concert series in the BASIS sound room of the Munich MUCCA.
On his bowed, plucked and blown instruments Engl produces fascinating instruments, Engl produces fascinating sounds and his experience with dance and theatre projects theatre projects sharpens his sense of drama.
Here it's not about rubbing contrasts, but about synthesis. The different qualities of the instruments are found in sensitive dialogues close to chamber close to chamber music and "folklore imaginaire".
Here, too, the musicians strive to create unheard-of structures and moods, but this often leads to often leads to almost meditative moments of tonal and atmospheric harmony. Jürg Solothurnmann (Jazz’nMore)

BASIS_B(r)uchstücke (Creative Sources, CS 750 CD), UDO SCHINDLERs experimentelle Klarinetten- & Thereminmusik mit ARDHI ENGL, dem als Beschaller von Gerhard Polt und Spielgefährte von Geoff Goodman ja beinahe prominenten Münchner Original, an einer Metagitarre Marke Eigenbau, ist eine buchstäbliche Liebeserklärung an die einstige Basis-Buchhandlung in der Adalbertstraße, wo der Dealer ihres Vertrauens Münchner Bücherwürmern jahrzehntelang neben dem Gesuchten auch noch das Notwendige an Herz & Hirn legte. Entstanden ist es als dasvinzenZ-Gastspiel in der Bibliothek des MunichCenter of Community Arts [MUCCA], wo sich nach 99 Konzerten im Salon für Klang+Kunst in Krailling mit der Basis_Klangraum-Reihe eine Fortsetzung abzeichnet. Engls String-Ding, gestrichen und getupft wie gerupft, und seine Flöten- und halb gesungenen Didgeridootöne evozieren mit dem klarinettistischen Krähen, Plörren, Ploppen oder surrendem Theremin ein bizarres Morgenland, in dem neutönende Sophistication und romantische Restbestände mit anarchischem Gusto einem 'primitiven' Modernismus frönen.
BASIS_B(r)uchstücke (Creative Sources, CS 750 CD), UDO SCHINDLER's experimental clarinet & theremin music with ARDHI ENGL, the Munich original who is almost a celebrity as Gerhard Polt's stomacher and Geoff Goodman's playmate, on a meta-guitar of his own making, is a literal declaration of love to the former Basis bookshop in Adalbertstraße, where for decades the dealer of their confidence put the necessary things to the hearts and brains of Munich bookworms in addition to what they were looking for. It was created as a dasvinzenZ guest performance in the library of the MunichCenter of Community Arts [MUCCA], where, after 99 concerts in the Salon für Klang+Kunst in Krailling, a continuation is on the horizon with the Basis_Klangraum series. Engl's string-thing, bowed and dabbed as if plucked, and his flute and half-sung didgeridoo sounds evoke with the clarinetistic crowing, plunking, plopping or whirring theremin a bizarre Orient in which neo-tonal sophistication and romantic remnants indulge in a 'primitive' modernism with anarchic gusto. Rigobert Dittmann (Bad Alchemy)