DANIEL STUDER - Extended for Strings and Piano
ezz-thetics 1007 (Hat Hut Records)
Harald Kimmig, violin; Frantz Loriot, viola; Alfred Zimmerlin, violoncello; Philip Zoubek, piano; Daniel Studer, double bass and compositions
Recorded live at Kunstraum Walcheturm in Zurich, February 7th 2018
The knowledge that ezz-thetics is a sub-label of Hat Hut Records tells me at once that I am in for a recording treat, even before I hear the music. Hat Hut has been bringing us brilliantly varied music for almost 50 years, originally specialising in avant garde jazz and classical. The recording quality has always been a pleasure in itself and in front of that, performers and their materials have had few equals.
Bassist Daniel Studer is the composer of all the music on this 2018 recording and he and his fellow musicians are up there with the best of them. ‘Challenging minimalism’ might be a fitting description, if only such an expression were not seen to be so negative – but it’s no more negative in fact than the music itself – it’s a simple statement of fact. My applause is partly due to the uncategorizable nature of the music and that fact reveals that ‘challenging minimalism’ is precisely a description and not a classification.
Although the music is composed, we must not turn away from its other side, those elements which are distinctly improvised components, arising with great subtlety as a kaleidoscopic and immeasurable diversity of proclamations and purposes from the formidably accomplished artists playing alongside the composer.
The album is both logically and aesthetically integrated, though avoids any chronological development which might have seemed trite. Its continence is of a different nature, form being indispensable though not overstated. It seems that there may be as much silence on the disc as there is sound and many of those brief sounds disappear into their ensuing silences, leaving just their echoes as ripples on the deep pools of those dark quietudes.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
ezz-thetics 1007 (Hat Hut Records)
Harald Kimmig, violin; Frantz Loriot, viola; Alfred Zimmerlin, violoncello; Philip Zoubek, piano; Daniel Studer, double bass and compositions
Recorded live at Kunstraum Walcheturm in Zurich, February 7th 2018
The knowledge that ezz-thetics is a sub-label of Hat Hut Records tells me at once that I am in for a recording treat, even before I hear the music. Hat Hut has been bringing us brilliantly varied music for almost 50 years, originally specialising in avant garde jazz and classical. The recording quality has always been a pleasure in itself and in front of that, performers and their materials have had few equals.
Bassist Daniel Studer is the composer of all the music on this 2018 recording and he and his fellow musicians are up there with the best of them. ‘Challenging minimalism’ might be a fitting description, if only such an expression were not seen to be so negative – but it’s no more negative in fact than the music itself – it’s a simple statement of fact. My applause is partly due to the uncategorizable nature of the music and that fact reveals that ‘challenging minimalism’ is precisely a description and not a classification.
Although the music is composed, we must not turn away from its other side, those elements which are distinctly improvised components, arising with great subtlety as a kaleidoscopic and immeasurable diversity of proclamations and purposes from the formidably accomplished artists playing alongside the composer.
The album is both logically and aesthetically integrated, though avoids any chronological development which might have seemed trite. Its continence is of a different nature, form being indispensable though not overstated. It seems that there may be as much silence on the disc as there is sound and many of those brief sounds disappear into their ensuing silences, leaving just their echoes as ripples on the deep pools of those dark quietudes.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
