Album: HAUSCHKA – Ferndorf (130701 CD1308 2008)

Prepared piano isn’t a new concept. It was pioneered by John Cage who liked to bung all sorts of bolts, screws and rubber band into the piano mechanism to blunt the strings and introduce changes in pitch and tone. Volker Bertelmann takes those techniques and runs with them. Whilst Cage’s work was studied and intellectual, Bertelmann doesn’t let the method completely dominate the end product. The twelve pieces on Ferndorf range from Reich and Glass-like serialism, to neo-romantic piano more redolent of the Paris salons of the early twentieth century.

The cellos of Insa Schirmer and Donja Djember are almost ever-present on the album, giving even the most clinical pieces a warm melancholic glow. It leads to a far richer, and deeper sound than on any previous Hauschka record. “Eltern” is completely dominated by the cellos, with the piano offering little more than a rhythmic backdrop.

Mainly, though, the piano takes centre stage. The modifications work to a varied degree. In a few pieces, the clinking and rattling of loose objects are more of a distraction than anything else. The clattering bottle-caps on “Blue Bicycle” get in the way. The changes are more subtle in other tracks. The gentle “Morgenrot” merely has some blunted notes, and the gorgeous “Neuschnee” appears to be played completely straight. “Barfuss Durch Gras” is completely dominated by the clink and clatter of wires, brilliantly transforming the instrument until it sounds like a wonky clock mechanism.

Ultimately, no matter how fascinating the method, if the music itself was not interesting then Ferndorf would be a failure. That’s far from being the case – it’s stuffed full of ideas and melody. Wistful trombone adds colour to the nostalgic “Freibad”, whilst “Heimat” sounds like a silent movie score, and things end with the gentle nocturne of “Weeks of Rain”. If the rattling wires of the prepared piano can occasionally feel overdone, the album as a whole is an extremely satisfying listening experience with no pieces that seem like filler.

Tracks
1 Blue Bicycle
2 Morgenrot
3 Rode Null
4 Freibad
5 Barfuss durch Gras
6 Heimat
7 Nadelwald
8 Schönes Mädchen
9 Eltern
10 Alma
11 Neuschnee
12 Weeks of Rain

Website
www.fat-cat.co.uk

Album: A FatCat Records Sampler (FatCat FAT-SAMP08 2008)

So what the hell happened to FatCat? Time was it was a label you could rely on to come up with interesting stuff that knew no boundaries, crossing classical, electronica, folk and rock. Whether it be the noisy data-rock of Xinlisupreme, the epic landscapes of Set Fire To Flames, or the warped electro-folk of Múm, there was always something pretty unique and hard to pin down about the records they put out.

The sampler given away with the August issue of Plan B was the only reason I bought the magazine, so it was a real disappointment to discover that so much of it is crushingly ordinary. It kicks off with a Vashti Bunyan track from 1965 that proves that she was never cut out to be a swinging sixties pop singer, and despite the best efforts of Jagger and Richards, she sounds really awkward trying to do straight pop. The next half dozen or so tracks range from the forgettable to the excruciating (Tom Brosseau’s contribution) but with a large dollop of twee shared between them. Charlottefield’s “Snakes” at least has some life to it, but they strike me as a poor man’s Aereogramme.

Things do pick up along the final stretch. We Were Promised Jetpacks kneel at the feet of Franz Ferdinand, but they do have a bit of spark about them (and a great name). The Twilight Sad’s contribution growls along nicely, although they forgot to pack a tune. Max Richter’s “Return To Prague” is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it miniature that’s really too short to work outside the context of his forthcoming album of very brief pieces. Our Brother The Native’s “Augural Wrath” is an excellent piece of mellow free-folk. The blurb in the magazine claimed that they’d left the best till last with Hauschka’s track. And so it proves. “Blue Bicycle” is far richer and more expansive than anything I’ve heard by him before, and easily the best thing on a disappointing collection.

As for the magazine, there’s Kevin Martin, Philip Jeck and Leila Arab and a whole host of other stuff. For some reason, I’ve never got on with the publication, even though they write about a lot of interesting stuff that often gets ignored elsewhere and don’t seem to have any agenda other than “if we like it, it’s in”. I don’t know if it’s the dead hand of Everett True clouding my judgement!

Tracks
1. Vashti Bunyan – I Want To Be Alone
2. David Karsten Daniels – Martha Ann
3. Gregory & The Hawk – Ghost
4. Nina Nastasia – Your Red Nose
5. Vetiver – To Baby
6. Tom Brosseau – True to You
7. Silje Nes – Dizzy Street
8. Ten Kens – Y’All Come Back Now
9. Charlottefield – Snakes
10.The Rank Deluxe – Tightrope
11.We Were Promised Jetpacks – Tiny Little Voices
12.Frightened Rabbit – I Feel Better
13.The Twilight Sad – Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did
14.Max Richter – Return To Prague
15.Our Brother The Native – Augural Wrath
16.Hauschka – Blue Bicycle

Albums of the year: #25

HAUSCHKA: Room To Expand

Fat Cat’s experimental and neo-classical offshoot 130701 only seems to issue about one LP annually, but they are always pretty special. Volker Bertelmann’s collection of prepared piano pieces manages to be warm and emotional while still sounding slightly off-kilter. It’s part of its charm, and why it never palls after repeated listens. It may have been constructed using a specific process of piano manipulation, but it is neither a dry, intellectual exercise nor a one-trick novelty.

The video is from the Fat Cat Open Circuit Festival in Hasselt, Belgium, recorded in February this year. The picture is a little dark, but the sound quality is superb.

Album: HAUSCHKA – Room To Expand (Fat Cat / 130701 CD1306 2007)

Hauschka is an alias of German pianist and composer Volker Bertelmann, a third of Music AM (alongside Luke Sutherland and Stefan Schneider). His music under this moniker consists of sparely accompanied piano pieces which adopt the “prepared piano” technique most famously utilised by American avant-garde composer John Cage. This process involves the transmutation of the way that the instrument sounds by inserting objects into its mechanism – whether this be by wrapping the strings and hammers with rubber or foil or wedging objects between strings. This disrupts the pure tones of the instrument and introduces discordance and a certain amount of unpredictability to the sound. For example, the track “Kleine Dinge” features something that gives a percussive slap every time a certain note is played. Bertelmann has constructed the piece’s melody in such a way that this becomes an almost metronomic beat.

Prepared piano pieces can be a fairly dry and overly intellectual listen. Room To Expand is far from being either of these things. Hauschka’s particular strength is taking an experimental method of making music and coming up with something that is warm, moving and melodic (if in an unorthodox way). The album can be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of whether they know or care how the music was constructed.