JULIAN HESSE & STEPHAN PLECHER - Wheel Of Life
Black Forest Sounds: HGBSBlue 20201
Julian Hesse: trumpet; Stephan Plecher: piano.
Recorded by Jason Seizer at Kyberg Studios, Munich.
This set of duets between trumpet and piano are inspired by the life and works of Fritz Kahn. I was sent first to Google and then to the local library to find more about him. I’ll not write an essay of Kahn here; suffice it to say his work on medical illustrations presaged contemporary work on ‘infographics’ (which explains the sleeve design) and involved analogies between the human body and machines (good example are the cover of his book ‘Das Leben des Menschen’ or his poster ‘Der Mensch als Industriepalast’). As an outspoken critic of Nazism whose books were banned and burned, he relocated to New York (aided by his friend Albert Einstein) returning to Europe in the mid 1950s. To return to the music, Hesse and Plecher have chosen to celebrate Fritz Kahn (who is less fashionable now than in his heyday) through a suite of tunes which have elements of his life (emphasising that Kahn was physician, educator, intellectual) and times. In places, this involves word-games (track 1 is ‘fre’, track 2 in ‘free’, track 5 in ‘freer’, and track 12 is ‘freeze’) which also turn into musical games (in that, motifs reappear in different forms across these pieces), or ‘Miss Terioso’, track 10, which hints at the Monk tune in abstruse and tangential ways. This tangentiality in playing is also apparent in the closing track, ‘These Foolish Things (remind me of you)’, in which the familiar melody becomes layered and amended – much like one of Kahn’s diagrams in which human anatomy is presented in analogy to a mechanical system. While these aspects, of playing verbal and musical games might sound a little academic and dry, I can assure you that they do not seep into the playing, which remains warm and vibrant. Both players clearly benefit from the support offered by their partner and enjoy each other’s company. More to the point, the concept - from music to sleeve-design - provides a fitting tribute to Fritz Kahn and, one hopes, will encourage more people to do what I did and seek out, and be impressed by, his work.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Black Forest Sounds: HGBSBlue 20201
Julian Hesse: trumpet; Stephan Plecher: piano.
Recorded by Jason Seizer at Kyberg Studios, Munich.
This set of duets between trumpet and piano are inspired by the life and works of Fritz Kahn. I was sent first to Google and then to the local library to find more about him. I’ll not write an essay of Kahn here; suffice it to say his work on medical illustrations presaged contemporary work on ‘infographics’ (which explains the sleeve design) and involved analogies between the human body and machines (good example are the cover of his book ‘Das Leben des Menschen’ or his poster ‘Der Mensch als Industriepalast’). As an outspoken critic of Nazism whose books were banned and burned, he relocated to New York (aided by his friend Albert Einstein) returning to Europe in the mid 1950s. To return to the music, Hesse and Plecher have chosen to celebrate Fritz Kahn (who is less fashionable now than in his heyday) through a suite of tunes which have elements of his life (emphasising that Kahn was physician, educator, intellectual) and times. In places, this involves word-games (track 1 is ‘fre’, track 2 in ‘free’, track 5 in ‘freer’, and track 12 is ‘freeze’) which also turn into musical games (in that, motifs reappear in different forms across these pieces), or ‘Miss Terioso’, track 10, which hints at the Monk tune in abstruse and tangential ways. This tangentiality in playing is also apparent in the closing track, ‘These Foolish Things (remind me of you)’, in which the familiar melody becomes layered and amended – much like one of Kahn’s diagrams in which human anatomy is presented in analogy to a mechanical system. While these aspects, of playing verbal and musical games might sound a little academic and dry, I can assure you that they do not seep into the playing, which remains warm and vibrant. Both players clearly benefit from the support offered by their partner and enjoy each other’s company. More to the point, the concept - from music to sleeve-design - provides a fitting tribute to Fritz Kahn and, one hopes, will encourage more people to do what I did and seek out, and be impressed by, his work.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
