Aphanite documents the meeting of two idiosyncratic and experienced free improvisers – German, Berlin-based trumpeter-electronics player Axel Dörner, who has developed a completely different language for the trumpet as well as inventive, extended techniques that make use of breath and microscopic sounds as much as conventional note-playing, with Swiss guitarist-sound engineer Beat Keller, who is based in Winterthur, Switzerland, and Berlin, who has developed a unique musical language based on the use of an electric feedback guitar, and extended playing techniques and unconventional guitar tunings. Aphanite is the debut album of the duo and it was recorded at Lagerstudios (the first three pieces) and Theater Neuwiesenhof (the last two pieces) in Winterthur in February 2023 and edited and mixed by Keller.
Dörner and Keller met in Berlin and have been playing together as a duo since 2020. The title of the album and its five pieces describe fine-grained rocks containing minerals that cannot be distinguished with the naked eye, and all tell about the spirit of this meeting. The unusual and enigmatic music of Dörner and Keller is defined by their unconventional approaches to the trumpet and the guitar, enhanced by extended techniques and special electronic effects, that transform the instruments into otherworldly sound generations.
But Dörner and Keller are more than mad sonic scientists. Their electro-acoustic, sound-oriented conversations are highly nuanced and restless and employ elements of experimental music, contemporary music and abstract and industrial-like noises but balance cleverly and sometimes even playfully these indescribable sounds while suggesting an organic flow. The deep listening essence of this meeting keeps the mysterious audible dimension of the unpredictable sonic frictions and events and allows Dörner and Keller to weave complex, layered textures, that are subversive, thoughtful and stimulating at the same time, and often morphing into one sonic entity.
Eyal Hareuveni
Axel Dörner (trumpet, electronics), Beat Keller (feedbacker electric guitar, acoustic guitar)
