beside the cage|cs076

[...] Creative Sources is a label devoted to improvised music, so let us start with the one with the most players, five in total: Oliver Demand (trombone), Moritz von Woellwarth (trombone), Sascha Demand (e-guitar and e-table guitar), Ralf Kleinemas (drums) and Thomas Winger (drums). The full title is '10 years of beside the cage music', perhaps suggesting they have been together since ten years. The recordings were made a year ago at the ZKM in Karlsruhe. I must say I thought it was all pretty boring improvised music. Instruments are played in a quite a regular way, tension is lacking among the players [...] Frans de Waard (Vital)

Hinter diesem anspielungsreichen Namen - ist da jemand seinem Käfig entronnen, sucht er den Schulterschluss mit John Cage oder ist er so neben Cage wie man ‚neben der Kappe‘ ist? - erwartet einen eine Wiederbegegnung mit dem Hamburger Table- & Experimentalgitarristen Sascha Demand, der in BA bereits mit seinen Arbeiten (w/ Ralf Kleinemas) und seinem Creative-Sources-Alleingang Plakation vorgestellt wurde. Erneut auf dem portugiesischen Label veröffentlicht und erneut mit Kleinemas an seiner Seite, dazu Thomas Winger als zweitem Drummer und den beiden Posaunisten Oliver Demand & Moritz von Woellwarth, entstanden 73 in 5 Abschnitte gegliederte Minuten improvisierter Musik der keineswegs nur diskreten Sorte. Die Gitarre ist das zuweilen dröhnend aufrauschende oder mit Haltetönen die Luft durchspießende Zünglein an der Waage eines vielgliedrigen Klangkörpers, der neben aller Verliebtheit in kleine Geräusche und in Stille keine Angst hat vor Klangballungen und perkussiven Anstößen oder Zwischenspurts. Plinkplonkige Ausdifferenzierung schiebt zwar das Klangspektrum immer wieder auch ins Fragile und an den Rand von Durststrecken. Aber wenn dann die Posaunen so harmlos wie zwei dänische Touristen in einem Bus voller Mekkapilger vor sich hin blubbern, arschbombt die Basstrommel dazwischen und es rasselt der Schamane des Inneren Sibiriens mit seinem Schellenbaum. Gerade wenn das Geräuschmikado in totaler Übervorsicht zu erstarren droht und ein Engel nach dem anderen den Raum durchquert, erwacht das Pantomimenquartett, das nahezu perfekt das Schweigen im Walde verkörperte, wieder zu rumpeliger Unternehmungslust, pfeift sich eins, klatscht sich wieder Blut in die Backen und sucht vorsichtig, aber mit sanftem Nachdruck Pfade ins Ungefähre. Recht so, denn wer vor lauter mentalen Vorbehalten die Zunge verschluckt, steht am Ende auch nur mit Katzengold da. Rigobert Dittmann (Bad Alchemy)

The lineup features two trombones (Oliver Demand and Von Woellwarth), two drum sets (Kleinemas and Winger) and "e-guitar & e-table-guitar" (Sascha Demand. Incombustible materials lay on a pavement, waiting for the musicians to scatter them around. Each one has its own smell and density, all of them are handled with no care for a "structure". Instruments that seem gathered in foisonless small groups penetrate a silent churchyard made of inchoate dialogues and perplexing rendezvous. A few insufflations by the trombones are enough for the drums to start an almost imperceptible infighting. Sascha Demand is the only one who can maintain his possessions for a longer time, thanks to his eBow infiltrations.The musical cells aggregate and instantly decompose, in an irregular series of short flashes; it rarely happens that a "group" materializes, but it's soon cut short by a sort of productive incoherence. A sense of tranquillity permeates everything, also in the most explorative sections; human presence is felt every once in a while - someone whistles, claps hands or grunts - but the instruments are the discreet protagonists of a silent, tremulant conversation that highlights the uselessness of a lexicon. Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes)

With a new bunch of releases coming out, here we've a five piece collective on Creative Sources that includes Oliver Demand and Moritz von Woellwarth on trombone, Sascha Demand on guitars and Thomas Winger plus Ralf Kleinemas on drums. While may expect some explosive noise caustic combo Beside The Cage is really held back in the way the players wait to push their singles notes around in an harmonic manner. Differently form many other releases on the same label they have some sketches of eruption but being just sketched and not shaped "figures" it all sounds as it's disappearing right when you look ahead to see it gets a distinct shape. Believe it or not sometimes it recalled an old band on Ecstatic Peace called Thela (it featured Dean Roberts) as if it would have been more electro-acoustical/improvised. As I told despite the improvisational essence of the work there's a chocked attempt to reach for a "melody " sometimes and that's what makes the whole effort interesting together with its “soloista vs collective” duality or at least that’s my opinion. Differently from many others Beside The Cage accomplish the interesting result to sound varied but not confused, the only possible remark is that like many other releases of the sort is a bit too long. Who knows why many artists want to taste the patience of their listeners, but it doesn't change the fact this' record is still interesting. Andrea Ferraris (Chain DLK)

Beside the Cage é uma formação com dois trombones, duas baterias e guitarra eléctrica. Susceptível de pôr meio mundo a salivar por potência e estrondo, e outro meio a fugir a sete pés? Duplo engano, seja como for. Porque o programa do quinteto alemão de Oliver Demand e Moritz von Woellwarth (trombones), Rolf Kleinemas e Thomas Winger (baterias) e Sascha Demand (guitarra), expresso na peça única intitulada 10 Years of Beside the Cage Music, é outro e não tem nada a ver com histrionismos ou volume elevado. Pelo contrário, o trabalho de Beside the Cage afirma-se de um modo plácido e tranquilo, algures entre o falar mavioso de uma língua alienígena desconhecida e essa tipologia de comunicação franca que é a música improvisada. É evidente o extremo cuidado colocado no tratamento do som e na formação de estruturas celulares, como microrganismos imateriais que se instalam e sofrem mutações vagarosas na sua progressão. Os espaços vão sendo preenchidos de maneira discreta e não intrusiva, com um módico de acção, fora as ocasionais mas contidas erupções. Por vezes, há um prenúncio de “rock” na percussão e na interpenetração com a guitarra, para logo recuperar a subtil e envolvente microtonalidade. Em 10 Years of Beside the Cage Music, a percussão das duas baterias contribui de modo particular para a qualidade orgânica essencial, balanceia o som etéreo dos trombones com os efeitos mais presentes e definidos da guitarra eléctrica, nas variantes e-guitar e e-table-guitar, com desenhos de muito bom gosto. Trabalho solidamente maturado, ainda que a forma mal se pressinta no decurso das múltiplas combinações e recombinações nascidas em directo, e onde a definição formal é substituída por estados de semiconsciência, que tanto apresentam sinais vitais mínimos, como logo a seguir recuperam forças e mostram vontade de rumar a novas paragens. A música de Beside the Cage, ao investigar na fronteira das áreas da electroacústica experimental e da livre-improvisação, procura saídas e rompe em campo aberto, para se distender lânguida e sem pressa de chegar. Mas chega. Gravação de Novembro de 2005, realizada em Hochschule fur Gestaltung (HfG), ZKM Karlsruhe, Alemanha, e editada pela portuguesa Creative Sources Recordings. Eduardo Chagas (Jazz e Arredores)