The latest from Leo’s den is a wide and varied collection of sounds.
Peter K Frey and Daniel Studer meet for a series of double bassed duets on these seven intuitive originals. There’s lots of slapping and bowed jabs on “Curved Teeth”, a climb to almost inaudible hight notes on “Semicircular Teeth” dark bowing on “Lustre Teeth” and sawing of wood during “Saggitate Teeth”. Did a dentist write these tunes?
Ensemble 5 consists of violinist Naoki Kita, trombonist Robert Morgenthaler, pianist Reto Staub, bassist Fridolin Blulmer and Heinz Geisser playing various percussion pieces. One almost thinks we’re returning to the Portsmouth Symfonia where the musicians exchanged instruments with each other, as the four pieces of music sound like a collection of rehearsals. “Reverie” ruminates and hesitates with tentative bowing and cricks and cracks for 18 minutes, “Celestial Orchard” features a throbbing bass and sustained trombone tones through a rustling breeze, “Luminescence” is a dreary trudge of brass and strings, and Proceed” mixes puffs, strums and things that go bump in the night. Was Brian Eno conducting?
Francois Lana plays piano for her compositions with a trio setting teamed with Fabien Iannone/b and Phelan Burgoyne/dr. While she pens a tribute to Andrew Hill on the ectomorphically dark “Hillness”, her sound and style is actually closer in feel to Thelonious Monk, both here and on the slowly undulating “Weird Stuff” with Iannone’s strolling bass and on the elliptical “Divertissement” supported by Burgoyne’s brushes. There’s also a bit of free flailing on the “Chaos Momentum” that actually lands pretty softly, and the high pitched Morse Code of “Nocturne” with some piano strings scratched along with loose rumbles by the drummer on “Cathedrale”. Spherical Monk moods in cubes.
For 11 songs, Hanna Schorken uses only her voice, throat and buccinator muscles to create a wide palate of sounds and moods. She uses her cheeks as percussion, popping out “Climbing” while singing false Gaellic on “Ending”, imitative Arabic on the need-for-a-subtitle “Rest” and giving fluffy “La Las” on “Forests”. She might be gargling through “Sidi Ifni” and sounding like a kid making car and airplane sounds on “ Land” or “Try”, the whole time making you wonder if she’s using these songs to work out a cure for hiccups.