truly, slightly, overflowing, whereabout of good will documents an unlikely meeting of two radical, open-minded, avant-garde musicians – Japanese legendary guitarist (and the bandleader of the avant-rock Fushitsusha), multi-instrumentalist and intrepid improviser Keiji Haino, and German hyper-pianist Reinhold Friedl, the artistic director of the contemporary zeitkratzer ensemble. But these improvisers have collaborated before, when zeitkratzer hosted Haino (who played guitar, electronics, and vocals on Electronics, zeitkratzer, 2008; vocals on the self-titled album and Live At Jahrhunderthalle Bochum, zeitkratzer and Karlrecords, 2014, and again on vocals when zeitkratzer and Haino performed Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Aus Den Sieben Tagen, Karlrecords, 2016). Haino and zeitkratzer ensemble performed in Germany, Poland, and Japan.
Haino and Friedl recorded the album at Morphine Studios in Berlin. Haino uses only his voice, while Friedl plays inside the piano, letting this acoustic string instrument breathe and sing its mysterious and unpredictable songs in an otherworldly voice of its own. The first song is a surprising, evocative, and extended cover of Abel Meeropol’s «Strange Fruit», which was made famous by Billie Holiday, now titled as «strange fruits». The interplay, as expected, is powerful and intense, but also intimate in its own brutal way, incorporating this iconic song into Haino’s extreme vocal techniques and Friedl’s orchestration of the prepared piano sounds. This arresting performance owes very little to the original version or her phrasing of the lyrics, or to Nina Simone’s later iconic version, but faithfully captures the song’s zeitgeist, now relevant again.
The following «wild harvest» is a wilder, stormier, more adventurous duet. Haino pushes his voice into extreme registers, producing tortured, vulnerable vocalisations and sudden vocal explosions, as if he were possessed by a higher force, while Friedl resonates his singular, wordless voice with industrial and drone-like percussive sounds. The last, 25-minute of «true, slightly fly» is more gentle, still demonstrating Haino’s rich, singular vocal spectrum, encompassing the widest range of human expression, but now Friedl’s enigmatic, microtonal piano sounds. now set an introspective, intimate atmosphere.
A unique album that asks us to open our ears and immerse ourselves in this sonic journey.
Eyal Hareuveni
Keiji Haino (vocals), Reinhold Friedl (prepared piano)
