This is an e.mail exchange between my friend Paul Garcia and me after I sent him 2 CDRs with all of Klangstaub’s recordings from London and Koblenz. Paul expresses his creativity by means of painting and photography, and has written a novel available as an eBook free of charge on his website http://www.field.nu/paulgarcia/ . Check it out!
Paul: bernhard. your discs arrived this morning. many thanks. have given the first a good listen. the second is playing behind me, so i will only comment when i’ve given it full attention. first impressions of one were all wonderful. hit like a mix between speaking and music. how future creatures might communicate – emotion and content rolled into one endless flow. pleased there are musical elements too. even picked out little snippets of rhythm and melody. gary’s guitar seems to ground it in more familiar territory – so i heard weird elements of reggae, folk and even some sonic youth. maybe that is just me. your clarinet is great. its sound always reminds me of being patronised by some super-intelligent eccentric – a slow gangly lecture you listen to, but sympathise with nevertheless. felt overall there was a nice balance of circumspection and..usually improvised music is either one or the other). there are some things i don’t really like. sometimes gary’s clusters are a bit too intense and come and go without much reason – prefer the slower exploration (and when you aren’t playing). not to keen on the creaking garden gate moments now behind me. prefer the richer, warmer textures.
there is a moment on disc one of a near/far confusion – when a distant spatial clarinet solo is interjected by some close up guitar. sounds a bit clumsy and might have to be tweaked. although, if that sounds like a criticism, it obviously means the music is working on a visual level. sometimes i would like a bit more space – give the constant babble a bit more flow and authority.
preferring disc two in that respect. but maybe because it is more noticeably trente oiseaux and i am a sucker for familiarity. think the looping/reverse loops work seamlessly and isn’t once overdone. hats off for that. i wouldn’t even say no to more melody/phrases – and, dare i say it, lyricism. moments are very close to that
that nordic jazz vibe. it might also blunt the open ’session’ feel a couple of the longer tracks have. you know i like things to start and end for reasons.
ok. hope there were more good than bad points. overall i thought it was amazing. comfortably the most interesting thing i’ve heard this year. and this year has been a heavy year. of course, i’ll say more over the next few days as i listen to it more. really hope you can get a decent release lined up. what about häpna? i think in hindsight i wouldn’t recommend a 2xcd. there is too much content. needs to be split to justify it – and enjoy it.
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Bernhard: paul. thank you for your thoughtful comments. i will give you some information to make the nature of our work a bit clearer: for one thing, everything you hear is improvised and recorded live, very few edits, and nothing can be tweaked – the relative volume of the instruments and loops are all part of the improvisation, and i think considering this, the ‘mix’ is quite amazingly good. in london, gary played a guitar combo amp going directly to my mixing board, and we both wore open headphones ( the cheap walkman-style ), so that gary heard my clarinet ( and acoustic guitar ) both on the headphones and from the room, while i only heard him on my headphones – this is the reason he sometimes overestimated my volume and hit the guitar a bit too hard.
in koblenz we both wore much better, semi-closed headphones, and the volume balance is much better. for the london gig, i bought closed audio technica studio headphones that will keep most room sound ( even of myself ) out, so that i can do a balanced mix, and have a realistic idea of our sound, the headphones being very linear.
the order of tracks on the two cds is chronological and thus reflects the evolution of our music, in other words, if you find disc two a bit more ‘trente oiseaux’, this where the music has been going. the music gives gary and i enough room to implement our musical selfs, this is how the various influences you hear in it – the nordic jazz touch, and the lyricism ( i’m not afraid of the term ) are part of me as a musician, and i’m very grateful that klangstaub let’s me be myself this way. these influences are, however, ‘filtered’ through the rest of my musical background, and so they are always ’second level’- the lyricism is almost a slightly nostalgic memory when lyricism was still ‘first level’, and not to be questioned, as was jan gabarek’s sax style ( that has left its mark on my clarinet playing / style ).
these elements are sort of ‘reflected’, though, which might merit me the ’super-intelligent eccentric’ tag – i indeed combine various stylistic elements to a kind of ‘meta style’ and try to make them seamlessly blend to become my own musical voice, representing my very varied musical influences without simply quoting, or worse, stealing – there must be a difference between my implementing my musical background in an original style and a sample library using as spices for a bland musical cuisine. there certainly is an intellectual side to this, but i’m also very much emotionally involved in what i do, my playing in this style is very spontaneous after the many hours that have gone into developing it. i sure think about my playing and style, but definitely not while i’m playing. i’m sure this is also the way things work for gary… when you follow the evolution of our music, you find gary starting to play things of a similar timing to what i do, while i now sometimes adopt gary’s pace. he generally sort of ‘wraps himself around’ what i play, and this is quite effective.
i think you are right in saying that there are moments when the music could breathe more, and a bit more silence certainly wouldn’t hurt – on the other hand, you must not underestimate the task of simply keeping the music going when playing in a duo… i always thought playing guitar was tough, but playing in a duo is more challenging indeed. i do think, however, that we have come much closer to letting the music breathe as we went along developing it, and this has also to do with why we have been discussing finding a drummer or percussionist to play with us in a trio – when you think of the guitar trio situation, you at least have a drummer who keeps things going…
the balance of musical influences and the feeling and duration of our pieces are something that happens instinctively, it is not planned, and although we discuss these topics, we still simply start to play and let things happen. this is the way our music evolves, and it’s hard to say where it will head – keep in mind that gary and i have spent about ten days together, maybe six or seven actually playing together.
i recall a funny moment: gary and i were listening back to our recordings in koblenz and discussing the different elements and parts in a rather critical fashion, when gary all of a sudden said: ‘ you know what? we must be crazy sitting here discussing the weaknesses of our compositions when everything is just two people improvising ‘.
we had a good laugh at that, and he was absolutely right – one cannot apply the same criteria to a stereo live recording as to a composition, or a sophisticated multi track studio recording. nowadays, not even ‘live’ recordings are done two track, but everything is recorded on plenty of tracks to be fully edited and mixed. when i listen to our recordings, i’m really quite amazed at how good the balance between instruments, effects, and loops is…
in terms of publishing, the are two more tracks you don’t have, so that we now have the material for three cds and two eps ( the six short pieces and the piece with michael vorfeld are both in the 3″ cd or ep format ). we’ll have to see how to go about this, but i really tend to creating a klangstaub website with a download shop, maybe combined with a cd release per year on an appropriate label….
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Paul: bernhard. enjoyed reading your response. hard to believe the discs are straight takes of live pieces. was under the impression it was improvised music as a base, edited into compositions. there was only a handful of moments across two hours that didn’t sound right to my ears. amazing. you’re definitely creating an interesting place.
Bernhard: paul. so now you understand why we ourselves are sometimes between surprised and amazed how well we managed to make the music happen and sound like actual musical pieces…
Paul: the way i see it, there are two kinds of improvisation. asking and answering the similar questions, with subtle variation, against the scattergun exploration of all possibilities. this idea came to me whilst listening to the discs against a backdrop of a kitten purring and the fire crackling away. to me, you are the cat, gary is the fire. i think this contrast in approach works really well for the most part, but there are occasions on disc one when i wish gary was a bit slower and more reflective. let something develop naturally, rather than forcing the next idea. evidently you’ve worn him down, because cd2 is much more relaxed. i think tracks 3, 4 and 5 are wonderful. closer to the feeling of night music / then, silence than the jazz melancholy of the first. it is the difference between sadness and the slowed awareness of space and time. for me, the last thirty minutes of cd2 is left blank for me to interpret. which is probably the holy grail.
Bernhard: i agree with you, and of course disc one, that mostly contains our recordings from london, is not only music, but also a document of the two of us finding each other, and becoming a band ( if you agree to call a duo a band ). the band is really based on difference, not similarity between the musicians, something that is rather rare, i think. i would not agree to say ‘i wore gary down’ – in fact gary constantly reflects what he does / plays, and the second disc reflects the conclusions he has drawn from what we played earlier. i should mention that we also constantly discuss our music and the strategies we employ to create it. as is wrote before, we don’t think about the music too much while playing, but there is a lot of reflection and discussion in between. we are currently discussing strategies for the london gig by email.
it is true that time is slowing down during disc two, i.e., during the recording sessions in koblenz. by the end of the last improvisation ( that constitutes the last two tracks on cd two, but was actually played in one take of over 32 minutes ), i was completely drained of any energy at all and could not have continued recording without a day of rest ( and gary had to leave the next
day ). during this improvisation, time almost stood still, and my already present fatigue set me to work on a purely instinctive / intuitive level. the term ‘blank’ is interesting, because it could describe the absence of any intention that was my state of mind when playing. it feels very strange when i listen to it unfolding, and sort of creating itself now.
Paul: other little things. should say i prefer it when the loops are more hidden, or off-kilter – sometimes the straightforward rhythm sounds a bit too conservative. not sure about the drummer for the same reason. if anything, some subtle halliwell style feedback drones that might provide a bit more space for you and gary to work with. finally, i am not sure that the trumpet has the presence or richness of sound of the clarinet. it might just be an issue of recording, or quality, rather than a comment on your playing.
Bernhard: the more rhythmic short loops are from a different machine than the long ones, and maybe there is a bit too much of them every once in while. i find , however,( i listened to disc two last night ) that if one ‘takes a step back’ from the actual rhythmic pattern to feel the flow of time, it is a different perception, and their rhythmic side is taking less importance. their maximum length is five seconds, and i’m thinking of eventually getting a device that will do similar things, but with maximum cycles of 23 seconds, sort of in between the short and long loops. i’ve been thinking about my use of long loops quite a bit lately, and i think my way of using the different forms of looping will soon change.
it was bit early in my trumpet history ( about ten weeks after buying it ) to actually record with it, and i have made a lot of progress since. it would be too long to explain this, but it is easier for me to play with a mute ( it takes less breath ), but of course it sounds somewhat muted ( sic! ). the trumpet can have a lot of presence and richness and i’m working hard on bringing these qualities to life, making good progress. the trumpet’s sound blends very well with the sound of the electric guitar, and there’s a lot that can be done to modulate its notes and sounds – i’m working on this, too. my trumpet playing is still in the phase of big steps
forward, while my clarinet playing is now gradually improving.
Paul: bernhard. i liked disc two like i enjoy good art. when what you see is overtaken by the feeling the piece evokes. i can’t remember much of the sounds but the feeling stays with me. even learnt a little something about myself. i was hesitant to use the term blank, because it sounds kind of rude, but neutral didn’t really explain what i meant. luckily it seems i was trying to explain what you felt – which probably best describes a successful work of art.
Closing remark by Bernhard: In the meantime, I have edited and shaped Klangstaub’s recordings into a Double CD format that represets our duo’s development and work so far. We are currently thinking about ways of publishing this 2CD set, and planning our next recording session at trente oiseaux for March 2008, and looking for more gigs…
