rot |cs151

UDO SCHINDLER, free player of the soprano saxophone and bass clarinet in Wörthsee (Upper Bavaria) - joined here by Munich cellist MARGARITA HOLZBAUER and the Munich incomer, guitarist HARALD LILLMEYER, both of them crossover daredevils firm in the depths of newest and still nameless music - doesn't let himself be stopped by anyone when his city lights have turned red: ROT (cs151). The three met through playing in the Munich Instant Orchestra. Lillmeyer is the best-known among them having interpreted Scelsi or Riehm, guested with Ensemble Recherche and played with the electric-guitar-quintet Go Guitars. As far as extended techniques are concerned his partners are in no way behind him, which makes this suite of 15 improvisations scratch the guardrails of tonality with a bruitist and microtonal gusto which mellows the distinctions between acoustic and electric sounds generated by Lillmeyer, and even blurs those of the instrumental voices. Whatever the fingers might tickle or the mouth may bubble, what lips may breathe, what the cello may bow or the plectrum scratch, can only be found out during concentrated listening. Yet right at the next moment, at the next breath, contrasts bubble up only to get right back into the river of sound, which the three impassioned wrong-way drivers always take against the current. Once a cello sounds solidly full-bodied it begins to fray at its fringes, once the music sounds sustained and soft the electronics scream its poison in or corrode a yawning hole inside the boom minimalist soundscape, having macro and micro voltages alternately hum along, sizzle or fly sparks. Into jagged, scabby or laboriously smoothed-down sounds the estranged guitar enflames stinging or indefinably rustling sounds, which turn out to be the sigh of the cello, soon as the guitar surprisingly begins. Much is deceptive east of the ROT and you're listening unauthorized so to say and at your own risk. Bad Alchemy (Rigobert Dittmann)

"schindler / holzbauer / lillmeyer" is a trio that was formed following the musicians' successful collaboration as members of the 'Munich Instant Orchestra'. Defining influences for their improvised chamber music include the confrontation of the players' respective musical roots (free jazz, ancient, experimental and contemporary music), electronic and acoustic sounds, augmented playing techniques (multiphonics, microtonality, preparations, electronic sound design) and the masking and pseudo-concealment of a sound's origins. The improvisation result ranges from barely audible, through subtle to highly energetic sound events. Udo Schindler: soprano saxophone, bassclarinet; Margarita Holzbauer: violoncello; Harald Lillmeyer: electric guitar, electronics. In December 2008, the 'creative sources' label, www.creativesourcesrec.com, published their first CD: 'rot' [cs 151]. www.arch-musik.de

Apart from occasional but nontheless charming excursions to more noisy pastures, the dominating trait of "rot" is calm, concentrated improvisation. The range of delicate and delicately worked structures covers a spectrum from gentle to fragile. Having worked together as members of the Munich Instant Orchestra, the influences of this trio converge here from the - often very different - genres of chamber music, jazz, experimentation, ancient and comtemporary art music. Schindler, Holzbauer & Lillmeyer contrast this generic conglomerate with electronic, prepared, multiphonic and microtonal accomplishments. And, as if by magic, this multiple, polylingually inclined mongrel brings forth new creations. New areas of sound are formed, and on these the pervasions and blends resurface once more. This cutely hybrid music functions like a game of cards: shuffle, deal, play. But don't forget to cut. Andres Fellinger (freistil#23)

The album "rot" is by no means something you would want to just put on and have playing in the background. Recorded by Harald Lillmeyer (electric guitar), Margarita Holzbauer (cello) and Udo Schindler, the Steinebach-based architect's saxophone and bass clarinet are supplemented by all sorts of sounds. They usually emanate from the instruments themselves, but without giving the listener a clue as to the actual source of the sound. There are only very few musically contiguous passages.
In "Nr. 2", these passages take the form of a quiet, floating echoing of the electric guitar accompanied by the creaking, snapping sound of cello strings. When Schindler sets his saxophone quacking into the picture, we get the feeling that this untitled piece is not so much about melody but more about imitating the sound of ducks arguing in their pond. The trio also has little to offer in the way of classical onomatopœia, more a collection of short soundtracks for as yet unscripted technoid fantasy films.
Track 3 could be interpreted as an impression from inside a submarine, the engines humming electronically and the seams creaking under the pressure of the ocean surrounding it.
In title 10, the crescendo of the electric guitar comes screaming at us like a jet aircraft. Then silence, and the cello scrapes with the sound of panic and deathly convulsions. Is this one of the World Trade Center's towers on 9/11?
Track 4, on the other hand, places the clarinet's forlorn whimpering in opposition to the rough buzz of the guitar's strings. The pauses between the individual sounds offer vacant space for echoes and reflection, the perfect musical source for a wide range of scenarios which could cover radio plays, vernissages or memorial services. The individual, tones, sounds and noises only vaguely conjoin to produce a puzzling and decelerated jazz collage. Cohesion, tension and, on occasion, wit successively find their physical expression.
The album is a source of pure avant-garde. The trio is planning performances in Munich, Switzerland and Austria in the autumn. Udo Schindler regrets that his local "district and region in general don't offer all that many chances for performing". The story behind the CD is as full of contrasts as "microtonality, preparations and electronic sound design" (Schindler). It was recorded in a hall in Miesbach and has now been released on the Portuguese label "creative sources recordings" in Lisbon. Andreas Bretting (Münchner Merkur)

A trio of soprano/bass clarinet, cello and guitar/electronics, woven into something that threatens here and there to break out into some harsh freebop groove, but manages instead to maintain a discipline and focus that gradually elides the difference between the instruments and generates a group sound. The 15 tracks are mostly short, but unlike many improve CDs where such a programme would dissolve into one long continuous piece, these are very distinct performances, each with a definite premise and sonic destination. Brian Morton (The Wire)

At times full of energy, at other times completely distant: A musician with two very different CDs
…Udo Schindler on the CD ‘Kleine Klassiker’… This is quite different from the CD "rot" where each of the 15 passages simply has a number. It is a collection of experiments about reacting to each other. Together with the cellist Margarita Holzbauer, they have taken a tonal change of direction which requires more empathy and which pledges itself more to new music than to free jazz. As in the case of Holzbauer, Harald Lillmeyer, tutor for guitar and new music at the Munich Academy of Music, understands how to extract surprising sounds from his instrument, the few and targeted electronic elements painting a very different picture for the listener. Whereas Schindler was the dominating force on the previous CD, he now withdraws into the distance with his soprano saxophone and bass clarinet. From barely palpable spheres, unconventional playing techniques and contrasting minimalisms punctuate the action with comments. His powerful interjections which impose themselves on us with their graphic presence come as an even greater surprise. This is music which has little to do with passively consumable entertainment; instead, it offers a gripping sound adventure. Reinhard Palmer (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

The way in which the music of this trio develops is unspectacular and nonetheless unmistakeable. You notice it without having your attention drawn to it by sound information. It makes its presence felt, articulates itself and then disappears; music that takes hold without taking over. Schindler, Holzbauer and Lillmeyer first met when they performed together as members of the Munich Instant Orchestra. As a trio, they delve into the fascinating infinities between chamber music and noise. Each of the 14 tracks is between two and five minutes in length; none have titles. To the listener, however, the album still seems to be completely rounded. You can listen to the tracks like a suite which forms and re-forms itself from the tiniest of particles, wondrous sounds and surprising fusions. The three musicians take their time. They are not overwhelmed by an intention which forces them to offer something. They move in a concentrated and playful way in their electro-acoustic cosmos. The music falls gently like snow, by no means in the romantic sense, but rather with regard to the lightness of its structure. Sounds behave like snowflakes that move and change in continuously varying correlations until they are absorbed into the stable order of matter (buildings, nature). Pirmin Bossart (www.jazznmore.ch)

There comes a time where, when confronted by John Cage, George Crumb or Derek Bailey's extended performance techniques, a young musician decides "I can do that". After several misguided compositions and hours of aimless floundering, he or she relents: this is something one might be able to achieve only after a sincere lifetime of dedication. Fortunately, guitarist Harald Lillmeyer, cellist Margarita Holzbauer and wind player (soprano sax and bass clarinet for this recording) Udo Schindler persevered in this sonic realm — one riddled with cliché and gambit — to achieve mastery over this advanced language.
Rot t, if you haven't guessed by now, is saturated with the trio's ability to unlearn traditional tactics (which must be hard, as all are award winning, formally trained veterans) and speak in other-worldly tongues. Similar to a Paul Klee image (i.e. The Tightrope Walker, Reconstruction t), the sophisticated nature and sublime, often spiritual, expression in these works isn't noticeable at a CD-skipping glance. However, an examination of the subtle internal critique and connectivity — personally and globally from artist to artist, track to track — reveals the prowess of this Tower of Babel. On "4:56" (track one), Holzbauer introduces the program with idiosyncrasy (a lyrical dip almost resembling a melody) and the most base of extended techniques, the sul ponticello t. Immediately, she objects by twisting her line with scratchy bowing, microtonality then hyperactivity. Schindler and Lillmeyer respond with the visual equivalent of controlling another's shadow, pulling the cellist's (ahem) strings via sly contortion and rumbling echo. The piece burgeons as Schindler moves to the foreground with fey, sustained baritone notes that cadence in harmonics; Lillmeyer opens his electronic tool kit and gently chafes his axe with bit-reduced filters. As clamorous as this appears on paper, the trio opts to garner attention, not through screaming, but by demanding the listener lean in (and rewind) to perceive the murmur. In other words, rot is more likely to push you into a lucid trance than cause ear fatigue.
By the same token, the fourth member of the group, silence, plays an indispensable role in the success of these pieces. Even at their relative loudest on the bent-pitch drones of "2:14" (track four), the wah-wah infested, bow-bouncing "1:49" (track seven) and the clanking, banging feedback of the closer, "4:14" (track fifteen), the group employs the grandest of pauses, permitting 1) an enigmatic, breath-holding allure 2) distinction of formal and gestural shifts 3) the musicians to gather their thoughts on the moment and authorize movement towards the most exciting outcome (which, somehow, always pans out during this hour-long journey into sound).
Throughout the disc, the trio inhabits this similar spectrum, holding to a manifesto of sorts, yet never running out of ideas; the obvious understanding they have with their instruments allows for never ending jump-off points — even with modest creaks, twitches and simple finger placement. Coalescing screeches, skittles, broken strums, multi-phonic conversations, plucks, manipulations and whispered apparitions, the group gracefully chisels out a logical, organic and musical experience, a hand book for anyone who dares delve into this turf. Dave Madden (The Squid's Ear)

Classily rigorous, probing improvisations for soprano sax/bass clarinet (Schindler), cello (Holzbauer) and electric guitar/electronics (Lillmeyer). More oriented towards the archetypes of XX-century chamber music than your average CS release, Rot is distinguished by the considerable methodological preparation of all participants. Preparations, in another sense, are also utilized on the instruments to generate a hybrid electroacoustic connectivity whose transcendence rate is to be determined via its balanced investigational ramifications, often hiding behind silence, thus eliciting a mood of enigmatic mystery in various tracks. Specifically, Schindler is a dispassionate dispenser of pragmatic countermeasures whenever the collective need arises, his firm statements and sudden deviations freshening the air even in the (rare) cluttered sections. Holzbauer is as supportive as remarkably delicate, extracting individual reminders and caveats from the cello in a kind of visionary discipline. Lillmeyer’s six-stringed inventions make him appear loyal yet slightly noncompliant, an ideal partner for the depiction of defaced prototypes. The record definitely does not belong to the iPod-on-the-beach category but after three spins everything is falling in place, working impeccably. Speakers in a silent setting highly recommended. Massimo Ricci (Temporry Fault)

The trio from Wörthsee perceive themselves as being 'close to the depths and abysses of the newest music for which a name has yet to be found', and already we're on the edge of our seats. The combination of soprano saxophone, bassclarinet, violoncello, electric guitar and electronics creates an unusual mix of free jazz and experimentally contemporary music which is probably best described as improvised chamber music. (Platten aus München)

Chamber music spatial frameworks produce connections where there was once nothing at all; they make things and relationships audible which would have been imperceptible without this three-person frame. And it is this tighly coupled (or should we say "tripled"?) connection that gives the album "rot" true significance. The musicians give the listener access to a rotational profile which is fixed and skilfully realigned using the sounds of the soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, violoncello, eletric guitar and electronics. Across highly artificial terrain, structural overlaying perpetuates a flow which appears to eliminate all observance of rules and regulations. It is impossible to distinguish the figure from the base, but regardless of this, the fifteen polyvalent guises never lose their autonomy. These musical settings represent an emancipatory effort to achieve spatial liberty and distance from the ground, and after just over an hour the gateway to this tonal anti¬podean atrium is closed once again until we choose to reopen it. Michael-Franz Woels (Skug 79)

Idiom:spokój Przekaz:multi- i mikrotoniczny
Rozk?ad:karty- tasowanie, rozk?adanie, granie Astipalea Records (Felthat Reviews)

Utilizing two strings and one woodwind, a recital formation favored by Schubert and Debussy – and in jazz by Jimmy Giuffre – each of these ensembles brings unique, ambitious strategies to the resulting blend. Both paths are valid, with the divergence mostly related to preferences for acoustic over electronic interface or vice versa, and of the improvisations clinging to remnants of the song form verses a commitment to absolute abstraction.
[…] Rot’s participants are all Munich-based. Lecturer in guitar and New music at the Richard Strauss Conservatory and at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Harald Lillmeyer is also a member of the Go Guitars ensemble and has played so-called classical music. So has cellist Margarita Holzbauer, as well as having an involvement in sound installations, film and theatre music and improvisation. Like Trio Hot, this formation’s senior member is also a reedist: soprano saxophonist and bass clarinetist Udo Schindler. Involved with self-invented techniques to enlarge the limits of reed sounds, he has worked with Go Guitars plus improvisers such as trombonist Sebi Tramontana.
Schindler’s research extends to the integration of electronic media in performance, and on the 14 untitled pieces here, the contrapuntal mating of his reed plus Holzbauer’s squeaks or plucks – sometimes lyrical, but more frequently powerful and abrasive – add the requisite shading when the others’ unconnected timbres approach chiaroscuro and threaten to remain understated to the point of inaudibility.
More notable are when sul tasto patterning as well as below-the-bridge spiccato from the cellist bring out connective responses from the guitarist and reedist. At one point, for example, that strategy causes Lillmeyer to put aside folksy strumming for sudden bursts of feedback and Schindler to mutate his blowing into a cyclone of intermittent peeps and continuously breathed trills.
Elsewhere, Lillmeyer’s outer-space-like oscillations meet up with quivering bass clarinet split tones forced from the bell with intense overblowing, as the cellist accompanies the others with harmonics. Honking reed altissimo trills and basso sul tasto cello actions entwine contrapuntally until the crackling pulses push the program into silence. Klangfarbenmelodie is often apparent along with the polyphonic tone variants that encompass wobbly, staccato or fortissimo tones. Juicy reverb and echoing whistles from the reedist; shuffle-bowed ricocheting lines and hammering against wood and strings from the cellist, and blustery drones and processed electronics pulses show up singly or in triple counterpoint as well.
[…]Fine example of mature Euro-Improv trio session, the usual evasive and derogative meaning of Rot is not proper description for this session. Ken Waxman (JazzWord


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