Sylvia Bruckner

Despite an extended and imposing history in Middle European folk music and latterly with some acceptance in the so-called classical music field, it seems as if no one has attempted to adapt zither textures to free improvisation. At least that is until this session by Viennese musician Sylvia Bruckner. Furthermore the Austrian improviser, better known for her piano extemporization with the likes of Martin Siewert, John Butcher, Joëlle Léandre and many others, has chosen to do so in a solo setting. Her break with tradition though extend fingers or plectrum techniques with violin bows, marble pieces, moistened household sponges, toys and other preparations subvert the zither’s timbre in unexpected and unforeseen fashions. .

Consisting of seven briefer tracks and the over 28 minute “Zither Rapsody”. Brucker twists, pummels and flexes the instrument’s 42 strings in various combinations. At points Delta Blues bottleneck suggestions come forward, other times concentrated strums, twangs and string hammering move the instrument into the percussive realm of Austrian and even Appalachian mountain music. The sometimes moist and dulcet preparations pivot corded affiliations into pastoral echoes, but timbres elsewhere also include jagged agrarian toughness. Then again a track titled “Two Bows” illustrates just that. But in this case the two violin bows sliding over the zither strings set up antiphony, with each one projecting and responding to the other’s thrusts.

Lengthier than the other tracks combined, “Zither Rapsody”, with its slightly tweaked title is as much a concerto as a rhapsody since the performance advances more sound avenues and echoes than a standard rhapsody. Electronic-style whooshes that elsewhere would have bene programmed are sometime heard along with a collection of rubs, scratches and pumps that suggest idiophones not interludes. The equivalent of wood-rending pulses, plectrum stroked tones almost appear to be cutting into the taunt steel strings, while staccato and spiccato strums pull patterns further out past their expected resonance, Repetitious strident vibrations  and throbbing thumps echo what could be bell-pealing or horn murmurs, with the penultimate sequence almost sounding like a guitar and drum duet. Ascending to cacophony and then finally braking up into singular twangs. plinks and rubs, the accumulated pressure eventually subsides into a conclusive drone.

A striking achievement on its own, Austrian Wood should encourage more creative types, like those who have experimented with allied instruments like the harp and the cimbalom, to broaden the zither’s musical definition towards free music.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Zither Rapsody 2. New Start 3. Birds in the Bush 4. Fata Morgana 5. Leaving the Country 6. YABO 7. Two Bows 8. Epilogue

Personnel: Sylvia Bruckner (zither)