Live in St. Johann documents an inspired, free improvised meeting between close friends. French double master Joëlle Léandre recorded and toured with Austrian classically-trained, pianist-composer Elisabeth Harnik (Tender Music, Trost, 2018) and with Slovenian master drummer-percussionist Zlatko Kaučič, as a duo (in the Beauty/Resistance box-set, Not Two, 2021) and in the Jubileum Quartet (with Evan Parker and Agustí Fernández in A Woman’s Work box-set and, A Uiš?, not Two, 2016 and 2020). Harnik recorded a duo album with Kaučič (One Foot In The Air, Not Two, 2023), but Live in St. Johann is the first album that documents these three improvisers playing together, live at Alte Gerberei in St. Johann in Tirol in Austria during the ARTACTS Festival in March 2023.
The opening, 17-minute piece already cements the sheer magic of this performance, recorded beautifully in the resonant space of Alte Gerberei. Léandre is such a force of nature and her energetic arco playing of the double bass triggers a like-minded, expressive yet unpredictable stream of ideas from Harnik, often playing inside the piano with preparations and objects, and Kaučič, with his inventive set of percussive devices. All are possessed by this profound and masterful sonic poetry – or sonic painting – and instant composing. There is enough space for individual solos and duets that highlight the idiosyncratic, imaginative languages of Léandre, Harnik and Kaučič. Léandre’s wordless vocals add a dadaist dimension to the uncompromising commotion. The following, shorter free improvisations suggest different strategies of free improvisations, constantly alternating between playful and sound-oriented in a seductive kind of post-chamber dances. Léandre leads the last, stormy 12-minute piece, and her wordless vocals set a powerful, lyrical conclusion to this brilliant, uplifting musical feast. It is one of those performances that you wish you were there.
Synergetic Matches is the third collaboration of Harnik with German, Krailing-based reed player Udo Schindler, following their duo album Empty Pigeonhole (Creative Sources, 2013) and Schindler set of duets with female pianists, Botenstoffe (Confront, 2017). Synergetic Matches was recorded live at Schindler’s home base, Atelier & Studio Schindler, in October 2023.
Schindler likes the intimate, free-improvised duo format and has worked with such improvisers as Jaap Blonk, Olaf Rupp and Paul Rogers. The title of the album captures perfectly the close, stimulating dynamics of Schindler and Harnik. It offers six contemplative conversations that focus on intricate architectures of sounds and textures, often using extended techniques – Harnik plays inside the piano with objects and transforms the piano into a percussive instrument while Schindler explores resonant, ethereal timbres of the clarinet family and the alto horn. The duo structures this set as a dramatic narrative that blurs the distinction between free jazz, free improvisation and contemporary music, using Schindler’s skills as a director, actor and composer for theater.
The cover artwork has excerpts from the essay «Störungen» (Disturbances) by German novelist Esther Kinsky who characterizes what a disorder and how we can approach this negatively occupied word in such a way that may open up unexpected spaces of thought.
Eyal Hareuveni
Joëlle Léandre (double bass, voice), Elisabeth Harnik (grand piano, objects), Zlatko Kaučič (drums, percussion), Udo Schindler (clarinets, alto horn)
