This CD documents the performance of two compositions by flutist Antoine Beuger and one by clarinettist Jürg Frey at a side space of Les Instants Chavirés in Montreuil, France. Beuger and Frey are both longtime members of Wandelweiser Group, a collective of international composers inspired by the post-Cage exploration of silence within composition, and they join the sextet Dedalus Ensemble in performance for this concert.
Along with the acoustic instrumentation of the sextet (guitar, viola, flute, clarinet, percussion, and trombone), the acoustics of the space—particularly the sound-bleed from the street outside—blend into a sonic field ripe for detailed listening. Beuger’s first piece, Meditations poetiques sur quelque chose d’autre, sets the stage by including texts that the musicians occasionally speak. The soft sibilance of the spoken words creates a quiet but insistent undercurrent—an insistence characteristic of all the performed sounds in these three pieces. The resulting performances go beyond the Cagean revelation that all sound is music. They also subtly but firmly assert that the creative act has importance even when almost swallowed by the surrounding noise. A beautiful listen.
Chris Kennedy is an independent filmmaker, film programmer and writer based out of Toronto. He has programmed for the Images Festival, the Pleasure Dome screening collective, the Free Screen at TIFF Bell Lightbox and he co-founded the Early Monthly Segments film salon. His short experimental films have screened at over one hundred film festivals. He holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. More information on his work is available at www.theworldviewed.com