PRICE:
$15.00
LOW STOCK LEVEL
ARTIST
TITLE
To Touch A Distant Soul
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
BTL 014 BTL 014
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
4/30/2001

"Lorenz Raab (trumpet), Max Nagl (soprano, altosax), Martin Siewert (guitar), Oscar Aichinger (piano), Achim Tang (bass), Paul Skrepek Jr. (drums). Elements Of Poetry already had listeners enthusing about Oscar Aichinger's masterly command of formal idiom, which occupies an exceptional position in the realm of melodic sound sculptures and sound landscapes. For To Touch A Different Soul, the trio founded by the Austrian pianist was expanded into a sextet by the addition of two brass players and a guitarist. No friction losses occurred as the new formation found original ways of deciphering the signets contained in the leader's compositions without abandoning their own individual creativity. Alternating between written and improvised parts, they craft imaginative arcs of tension.Oscar Aichinger's music leaves abundant leeway for the listener's imagination. A piece like 'Siren Song' seems to bring voices from a crystalline world to a point of convergence with spontaneously emerging musical structures. In 'Cocoon', something we deem familiar -- a hint of a blues riff -- is borne away in the subsequent thematic element like a trace of sound blown there by a chance breeze. Even in the calmer sequences of the session, the spectre of leaden contemplation never raises its head. In Aichinger's music, the pauses between the individual notes are an important structural element. One example of this is the insistence of his percussive accompaniment in 'Phoenix', over which the brass instruments soar in a wondrous choreography. Other passages feature a perplexing playing with the randomness of sound episodes. In 'Ritornell', the way the brass players suddenly come in after a plethora of sublime motif sequences is just one of the imaginative demonstrations of this conception, which is dominated by exquisite melodies and sounds."