2CD – Col Legno
Quadrat:sch are a chamber music ensemble that includes Barbara Romen, Christof Dienz, Gunter Schneider, Alexandra Dienz, Zeena Parkins, Herbert Pirker and Kassian Erhart. The band plays many instruments; some conventional (various guitars, contrabass, electric harp and jazz drums), some less so (chromatic dulcimer, zither)thea wooden room, or, more exactly, to a room inside a farmhouse where people can rest, have parties or play music. The combo takes its inspiration from the traditional instrumentation of the alpine chamber groups of the eighteenth century, but influences also stretch to contemporary areas, including traditional folk, jazz and ragtime, touching grounds that also relate to the classical tradition and free form music. Kassian Erhart contributes sound sculptures that are iterated quietly and always nicely calibrated. On the first CD the scores are more melodic, with constant fast rhythms reminiscent of honky-tonk. The tempos become even faster and the music more percussive, though the record remains grounded in a moderate, choral sensibility. On the second CD the interweavings become quite more complex and free; it seems that the emphasis moves from the structures to the quality of sound, realized even more carefully, inserted and spread with an extreme sensitivity and devotion.