Ensemble 2 INQ

Rhön
Nurnichtnur 106 02 07

Tammen/Harth/Dahlgren/Rosen

Expedition

ESP Disk 4031

A mid-Atlantic musician by definition, among his infrequent gigs, guitarist Han Tammen is involved with electro-acoustic experiments in his adopted hometown of New York, while keeping up with the improvised music scene in his native Germany.

Using extended playing techniques and electronic hook-ups attached to his table-top, so-called endangered guitar, variations of his style are highlighted on these CDs. Expedition is fiery combo Free Jazz, while Rhön leans more towards group Free Improv, with touches of contemporary notated sounds.

Recorded live, Expedition matches Tammen, with multi-reedist Alfred 23 Hatth, another expatriate German who now lives in Seoul Korea, and two Americans. Chris Dahlgren, now a Berlin resident who has worked with Anthony Braxton among others, is on bass and electronics, while Jay Rosen, an always-busy New York percussionist, is know for gigs with the bands of bassist Michael Bisio and multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee.

All 10 members of Ensemble 2 INQ, which has a long – if unrecorded history – are German. Several of the players – such as reedists Joachim Zoepf and Dirk Marwedel, bassists Ulrich Phillipp and Georg Wolf, plus percussionist Michael Vorfeld – have names with some overseas resonance. The others, flautist Margret Trescher, and percussionist Wolfgang Schliemann, electronics manipulator Ulrich Böttcher and vocalist Marianne Shuppe, are unknown qualities – at least outside of Germany.

Belying its numerical membership, INQ’s sound is minimalist and reductionist, somewhat like the Berlin-based King Übü Orchestrü. Containing burbles, whistles, slaps, mumbles, jiggles and quivers, there are no real featured soloists. Each of the numerical tracks reaches its descriptive zenith through a pointillist accumulation of electronically-triggered or acoustically expelled timbres.

That doesn’t mean however, that individual expression isn’t heard. It’s just that, unlike more aggressive music, not one exists in isolation from another. At points Tammen’s strummed reverb hangs in the air, as do hollow, wooden drum clip-clops and cymbal clangs, tough, broad puffs from Trescher’s quarter-tone flute, bowed double bass vibrations and rotating electronic drones. If either Zoepf’s or Marwedel’s wet reed tones, hisses or tongue slaps define some passages, then single word articulation in French and German, as a well as Bedlam style expostulations from Shuppe define others.

At nearly 17 minutes and almost 23 minutes respectively, tracks “II” and “V” give the tentet the broadest field on which to display extended swells and undulations. On the first piece contrapuntal percussion and wavering electronic pulses provide the shifting ostinato for the other players’ sound layering. Among the pitches exposed are irregular drum plops, flams and ruffs; double double bass sul tasto sweeps and spiccato motion; and connective tongue rolls and note swelling with body-tube vibrating from the reeds.

Even longer, and climatically the finale – followed by the nearly-six-minute coda of “VI”, “V” initially balances on reed split tones; tooting flute lines; continuous signals that could arise from Tammen’s, Böttcher’s or even Phillipp’s electronics; and most prominently the vocalist’s throat gargles and phrase-swallowed muttering.

Eventually this inchoate sequencing reaches a crescendo of sorts when Shuppe’s basso tongue rolls unite with Zoepf’s bass clarinet lines and sweeping double-stopping from Phillipp and Wolf. With the massed troops now galvanized for a purported, lower-pitched attack, string swells and echoing percussion thumps harden into battle-ready abrasions. Just when the point-of-no-return appears to have been reached, however, the track dissipates into growling electronic drones and reed gurgles plus double and tripe drum paradiddles. A conclusive reed squawk confirms the finale.

More-in-your-face than Rhön’s evolutionary reductionism, the 10 tracks on Expedition easily reference passionate 1960s Energy Music. If the 10-member Ensemble 2 INQ seems to be holding back, then the Expedition quartet charges forward, symbolically firing on all cylinders.

Especially notable is Harth, who in the years since the set was recorded (2001), has spent a lot of his time dabbling in electronics and sound collages. However, not only does he expose expected serpentine tenor saxophone multiphonics here, but on tunes such as “A Brief Pleasure Trip” and the connective “From One Place To Another” expresses himself with sluicing bass clarinet overblowing and flutter-tonguing, counterbalanced by Tammen’s guitar manipulation. The guitarist’s responses take the form of snapping string distortions and ascending, intensive rasgueado lines on the former and triggered, buzzing sound envelops and machine-gun-like harsh expansions on the later.

Moving from pseudo Free Bop, a near-Aylereian waltz “…Pleasure …” benefits from Dahlgren’s slap bass line and Rosen’s cymbal-clacking cross pulsation. Among the electronic drones on “… One Place…” are shape-shifting dissonant chomps from Tammen’s axe.

Distinctively, the miasmic sound-making serves as prelude to the final two tracks – “A Place That Has Emotional Significance” and the nine-minute “Returning To The Place Where It Began”. With Tammen’s bent notes erupting into sounds that could only come from the converse of a fretless guitar, his carnivorous patterns suggest miscegenation between one million frets and an equal number of passing tones. Meanwhile Harth’s Brötzmannian intensity translates into primitivist cries and altissimo shrieks as bell pealing – either from Rosen’s mallets or Tammen’s tabletop guitar manipulation – are heard. For a finale upward guitar frails accompany unidentified cries and calls, which are as likely to have arisen from samples as from the participants live work.

Suitably cosseted by sympathetic associates, Tammen’s endangered guitar displays its low-key and exuberant qualities on different discs. Either can be profitably investigated by seekers of out-of-the-ordinary sounds.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: Rhön: 1. I 1. II 3. III 4. IV 5. V 6. VI

Personnel: Rhön: Joachim Zoepf (bass clarinet and tenor saxophone); Dirk Marwedel (extended saxophone); Margret Trescher (quarter-tone flute); Hans Tammen (guitar and electronics); Ulrich Phillipp (bass and electronics); Georg Wolf (bass); Michael Vorfeld and Wolfgang Schliemann (percussion); Ulrich Böttcher (electronics) and Marianne Shuppe (voice)

Track Listing: Expedition: 1. Setting Out with Aggressive Intent 2. Taken at a Leisurely Pace 3. Many Have Passed Rigorous Courses 4. A Considerable Amount of Time and Distance 5. Retained Notions Of Speed and Purpose 6. A Brief Pleasure Trip 7. From One Place To Another 8. A Long Trip By Water 9. A Place That Has Emotional Significance 10. Returning To The Place Where It Began

Personnel: Expedition: Alfred 23 Harth (bass clarinet and tenor saxophone); Hans Tammen (endangered guitar and electronics); Chris Dahlgren (bass and electronics) and Jay Rosen (drums)

October 26, 2007

Tammen/Harth/Dahlgren/Rosen

Expedition
ESP Disk 4031

Ensemble 2 INQ

Rhön

Nurnichtnur 106 02 07

A mid-Atlantic musician by definition, among his infrequent gigs, guitarist Han Tammen is involved with electro-acoustic experiments in his adopted hometown of New York, while keeping up with the improvised music scene in his native Germany.

Using extended playing techniques and electronic hook-ups attached to his table-top, so-called endangered guitar, variations of his style are highlighted on these CDs. Expedition is fiery combo Free Jazz, while Rhön leans more towards group Free Improv, with touches of contemporary notated sounds.

Recorded live, Expedition matches Tammen, with multi-reedist Alfred 23 Hatth, another expatriate German who now lives in Seoul Korea, and two Americans. Chris Dahlgren, now a Berlin resident who has worked with Anthony Braxton among others, is on bass and electronics, while Jay Rosen, an always-busy New York percussionist, is know for gigs with the bands of bassist Michael Bisio and multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee.

All 10 members of Ensemble 2 INQ, which has a long – if unrecorded history – are German. Several of the players – such as reedists Joachim Zoepf and Dirk Marwedel, bassists Ulrich Phillipp and Georg Wolf, plus percussionist Michael Vorfeld – have names with some overseas resonance. The others, flautist Margret Trescher, and percussionist Wolfgang Schliemann, electronics manipulator Ulrich Böttcher and vocalist Marianne Shuppe, are unknown qualities – at least outside of Germany.

Belying its numerical membership, INQ’s sound is minimalist and reductionist, somewhat like the Berlin-based King Übü Orchestrü. Containing burbles, whistles, slaps, mumbles, jiggles and quivers, there are no real featured soloists. Each of the numerical tracks reaches its descriptive zenith through a pointillist accumulation of electronically-triggered or acoustically expelled timbres.

That doesn’t mean however, that individual expression isn’t heard. It’s just that, unlike more aggressive music, not one exists in isolation from another. At points Tammen’s strummed reverb hangs in the air, as do hollow, wooden drum clip-clops and cymbal clangs, tough, broad puffs from Trescher’s quarter-tone flute, bowed double bass vibrations and rotating electronic drones. If either Zoepf’s or Marwedel’s wet reed tones, hisses or tongue slaps define some passages, then single word articulation in French and German, as a well as Bedlam style expostulations from Shuppe define others.

At nearly 17 minutes and almost 23 minutes respectively, tracks “II” and “V” give the tentet the broadest field on which to display extended swells and undulations. On the first piece contrapuntal percussion and wavering electronic pulses provide the shifting ostinato for the other players’ sound layering. Among the pitches exposed are irregular drum plops, flams and ruffs; double double bass sul tasto sweeps and spiccato motion; and connective tongue rolls and note swelling with body-tube vibrating from the reeds.

Even longer, and climatically the finale – followed by the nearly-six-minute coda of “VI”, “V” initially balances on reed split tones; tooting flute lines; continuous signals that could arise from Tammen’s, Böttcher’s or even Phillipp’s electronics; and most prominently the vocalist’s throat gargles and phrase-swallowed muttering.

Eventually this inchoate sequencing reaches a crescendo of sorts when Shuppe’s basso tongue rolls unite with Zoepf’s bass clarinet lines and sweeping double-stopping from Phillipp and Wolf. With the massed troops now galvanized for a purported, lower-pitched attack, string swells and echoing percussion thumps harden into battle-ready abrasions. Just when the point-of-no-return appears to have been reached, however, the track dissipates into growling electronic drones and reed gurgles plus double and tripe drum paradiddles. A conclusive reed squawk confirms the finale.

More-in-your-face than Rhön’s evolutionary reductionism, the 10 tracks on Expedition easily reference passionate 1960s Energy Music. If the 10-member Ensemble 2 INQ seems to be holding back, then the Expedition quartet charges forward, symbolically firing on all cylinders.

Especially notable is Harth, who in the years since the set was recorded (2001), has spent a lot of his time dabbling in electronics and sound collages. However, not only does he expose expected serpentine tenor saxophone multiphonics here, but on tunes such as “A Brief Pleasure Trip” and the connective “From One Place To Another” expresses himself with sluicing bass clarinet overblowing and flutter-tonguing, counterbalanced by Tammen’s guitar manipulation. The guitarist’s responses take the form of snapping string distortions and ascending, intensive rasgueado lines on the former and triggered, buzzing sound envelops and machine-gun-like harsh expansions on the later.

Moving from pseudo Free Bop, a near-Aylereian waltz “…Pleasure …” benefits from Dahlgren’s slap bass line and Rosen’s cymbal-clacking cross pulsation. Among the electronic drones on “… One Place…” are shape-shifting dissonant chomps from Tammen’s axe.

Distinctively, the miasmic sound-making serves as prelude to the final two tracks – “A Place That Has Emotional Significance” and the nine-minute “Returning To The Place Where It Began”. With Tammen’s bent notes erupting into sounds that could only come from the converse of a fretless guitar, his carnivorous patterns suggest miscegenation between one million frets and an equal number of passing tones. Meanwhile Harth’s Brötzmannian intensity translates into primitivist cries and altissimo shrieks as bell pealing – either from Rosen’s mallets or Tammen’s tabletop guitar manipulation – are heard. For a finale upward guitar frails accompany unidentified cries and calls, which are as likely to have arisen from samples as from the participants live work.

Suitably cosseted by sympathetic associates, Tammen’s endangered guitar displays its low-key and exuberant qualities on different discs. Either can be profitably investigated by seekers of out-of-the-ordinary sounds.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: Rhön: 1. I 1. II 3. III 4. IV 5. V 6. VI

Personnel: Rhön: Joachim Zoepf (bass clarinet and tenor saxophone); Dirk Marwedel (extended saxophone); Margret Trescher (quarter-tone flute); Hans Tammen (guitar and electronics); Ulrich Phillipp (bass and electronics); Georg Wolf (bass); Michael Vorfeld and Wolfgang Schliemann (percussion); Ulrich Böttcher (electronics) and Marianne Shuppe (voice)

Track Listing: Expedition: 1. Setting Out with Aggressive Intent 2. Taken at a Leisurely Pace 3. Many Have Passed Rigorous Courses 4. A Considerable Amount of Time and Distance 5. Retained Notions Of Speed and Purpose 6. A Brief Pleasure Trip 7. From One Place To Another 8. A Long Trip By Water 9. A Place That Has Emotional Significance 10. Returning To The Place Where It Began

Personnel: Expedition: Alfred 23 Harth (bass clarinet and tenor saxophone); Hans Tammen (endangered guitar and electronics); Chris Dahlgren (bass and electronics) and Jay Rosen (drums)

October 26, 2007

TRIO VIRIDITAS

waxwebwind@ebroadway
Clean Feed CF 003 CD

As first-generation European Energy players reach middle age and beyond it’s interesting to see them adopt strategems already tried by their American counterparts. Most commonly, they seem to be pacing themselves, preserving their strength for distinctive showcases. As well, there appears to be a new interest in ballad playing. Underneath it all, though, whether the musician in question is Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor Peter Brötzmann, or in this case Alfred Harth, proficiency wins out in the end.

German saxophonist Harth, who was working with such driving players as Brötzmann, pianist Heiner Goebbels, British vocalist Phil Minton and the Swedish percussionist Sven Åke Johansson as long ago as the early 1970s, was often described as having a tone like Archie Shepp’s. And there are times at the beginning of this disc recorded with Trio Viriodtas, a co-op filled out by Americans, bassist Wilber Morris and percussionist Kevin Norton, that Harth’s low key balladic tone makes you wonder if, like Shepp, he’s trying to cover up a loss of lip.

The program picks up considerably as the 12 selections over almost 68 minutes unreel. By the end of the disc you wonder what those initial concerns were. Harth, who has also composed music for films and theatre productions, recorded this CD on New York’s East Broadway and most of the tunes seem to reflect his outsider’s view of he city’s Lower East Side, especially it’s restaurants.

For the first five numbers, Harth exhibits a deep, breathy tenor saxophone tone that suggests Shepp’s recasting of Ben Webster’s, which when paired with Norton’s vibes also brings to mind BAGS & TRANE, John Coltrane’s mainstream meeting with Milt Jackson. Throughout, Morris takes so much of the weight on his shoulders --and bass -- that you don’t even notice the lack of steady drumming.

Even here, though, the reedist is no Old Lion. On saxophone he introduces a bit of reed-biting, slap-tonguing and even some percussive spetrofluctuation to make his sound bigger. On clarinet, his trills and air hisses are a perhaps-unintentional tribute to Jimmy Giuffre, who proved in the early 1960s that a clarinet could produce advanced music without being shrill.

Eye-opening and longest tune, “Interstice” written by Morris, finds the composer plucking the taunt strings beneath his instrument’s bridge while Norton creates percussion sounds that resemble sand rustling in a foil plate, and Harth wiggles lines from his clarinet. On tenor saxophone, he then creates enough intense, weeping multiphonics that the piece starts to resemble one of those John Coltrane-Pharoah Sanders freak outs of the 1960s, as Norton gets into the mood by smashing his cymabls and battering away on the toms and snares. Eventually, the horn climbs to the altissimo range as Morris (probably) begins wordlessly vocalizing along with the strong thrusting bow work, again suggesting the chants that enlivened some of Trane’s compositions at the time. Finally, the storm subsides, the percussionist goes back to panning gold with his auciliary instruments, the bass sounds an occasional tone and the saxophone quietly growls.

Things pick up from then on. For example, “Age pl @ mandarin court” -- initiated by a visit to a Chinese restaurant perhaps -- finds press rolls introducing a hearty Oriental imperial court march from the saxophone, then relaxes into click-clacks of stick percussive that in the right hands could be crated by chopsticks. Following a stop-time tenor excursion that gets louder and wilder, Morris reintroduces the theme with string patterns that could come from a pipa, the four-stringed traditional Chinese lute.

“Cue (ball) #1” uses the thump of the bass and flams and paradiddles of the snares and sticks to recreate the balls-and-table atmosphere of a pool hall. But should we hear the whiny scratch of a bow on a cymbal as a stick being tempered? Plus what about the unaccompanied clarinet solo followed by silence. Did someone miss the pocket?

On the other hand, the liquid multiphonics spilling from Harth’s clarinet on “Major Airports” recalls Eric Dolphy’s dissonance a lot more than flight plans. Plus the bending of clarinet and bowed bass on “Fur die katz’s dell (ght)” has a distinct Mingus sound about it, which might only be explained by the late bassist/composer’s large capacity for food. That would definitely be satisfied at cavernous Katz’s Deli on Houston, honored by this composition of Harth.

Trying to interpret the CD as program music is probably reductive though. Suffice it to say that with everyone pulling his weight Trio Viriditas come across as an exceptional debut session by three fine musicians. Listen to it and you’ll probably want to sample it again.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing:1. From The North 2. Braggadoclo 3. Auda-city 5. Starbucks 6. Interstice 7. Fur die katz’s dell(ght) 8. Cue(ball) #1 9. Age pl @ mandarin court 10. Route 23 11. Starbucks variation 12. Major airports

Personnel: Alfred Harth (tenor saxophone, clarinet); Wilber Morris (bass); Kevin Norton (drums, vibraphone, percussion)

August 5, 2002