Lucio Capece / Werner Dafeldecker

A moody mercurial performance, Iteration is a two-part concert by veteran sound reductionists that takes full spatial advantage of the location while propelling understated reed and string impulses into a gripping meld. Austrian bassist Werner Dafeldecker of Polwechsel and Argentinian saxophonist/clarinetist Lucio Capece, who has worked with Burkhard Beins and others were part of Berlin’s echtzeitmusik circles late in the last century. Like Socialists who adapt to changing times though, this Munich recording includes affecting modifications alongside characteristic pulsations from the duo.

Deflecting from the location’s dimensions, machine-like drones are a constant leitmotif. But interspaced among these airy wisps and thickened blusters are suggestions of strained string and reed textures. Encompassing mouthpiece suckling and reed glissandi plus sul tasto string slides and echoes they add grit and gravitas to the unrolling narrative as these timbres also attach to and dissolve from intersection. Reaching a flexible crescendo during “Part II” with col legno pressure on wood and strings and winnowing cries from the slide saxophone, spatial currents amplify the result until it abruptly almost vanishes. Revived as suddenly the instruments’ thin sonic strands are aligned so closely that they cross and finally blend into the already existing drone. Yet Dafeldecker confirm the humanness behind this improvisation by breaking out of the horizontal miasma with conclusive bow- against-string bounces.

Pressurized multiple textures draw fans to this continuously evolving performance and careful, listening reveals its human ebbs and flows.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Iteration Part I 2. Iteration Part II

Personnel: Lucio Capece (bass clarinet, slide saxophone, mini-speakers with feedback and room acoustics/amplifications) and Werner Dafeldecker (bass)