Pol-dancing
Pleased to see the mighty Polwechsel included in Ben Ratliff's Playlist in the NY Times over the weekend, for their evocatively titled new album, Archives of the North. Of the group's players--drummers Burkhard Beins and Martin Brandlmayr, saxophonist John Butcher, bassist Werner Dafeldecker, and Michael Moser on cello and computer (Burkhard Stangl doesn't appear on this disc)--Ratliff writes, "they make the most beautiful bowings and chimings and scrapings, blending them so that it all becomes one fluid motion. It’s lovely music that some people might not call music at all."
(Until now, I've had absolutely no luck finding the new disc anywhere in the US; Wrapped Islands (Erstwhile), the group's 2002 collab with Fennesz, is usually the easiest to track down. Among the shops that don't stock Archives: Amoeba, Aquarius, Other Music, PDX's Everyday. Amazon has it through third-party sellers, but at a premium. But Bellevue, Washington's Jazz Loft, stocks the full selection of Hat Hut releases, so the disc is finally on its way to me.)
Judging from the excerpts on Polwechsel's own site, Archives promises exquisite drifting. This is quiet music, where the clacking of pads and valves may be louder than the breath moving through the horn. Brushed cymbals lose their attacks to become more like a bellows, and disparate timbres flow into one another like melting icecaps into the salted Arctic.
Excerpts (linked from Polwechsel's site):
Core Cut
Datum Cut
Magnetic North
Mirror
Site and Setting