The Austrian ensemble Knoedel (known in its first incarnation as Die Knödel) has deep roots in local traditions. Its name means dumpling, which you can find in many shapes, variations, and tastes in Austria’s different regions. Its music is an imaginative kind of new and fresh Alpine chamber music.
Konedel was founded more than thirty years ago by a graduate of the Tyrolean Conservatory, bassoon and zither player and composer Christof Dienz, who has a background in folk music but wanted to perform local folk music in a contemporary way. The first incarnation of the Die Knoedel ensemble disbanded in 2000 but celebrated its comeback 17 years later with (almost) the same line-up and a shorter name, Knoedel.
Knoedel found inspiration for Wunderrad (wonder wheel) in the work of East Tyrolean mathematician, surveyor and inventor Simon von Stampfer (1790-1864), known as the inventor of the stroboscopic disk – the Wunderrad, the first device to show moving images that later became the cornerstone of what is known as «stop motion» in film technology. The compositions of Dienz rely on the emphatic dynamics of the eight-musician ensemble and its unique instrumentation, including dulcimers and zither.
These short compositions suggest a series of touching, dramatic and cinematic musical wonders. These musical miracles are strange yet joyful, dreamy and mysterious ones, spiced with touches of melancholia and romanticism, just like the innocent illusions created by the stroboscopic disk and are always tasteful and elegant, as the Austrian konedels are. This ensemble of the godmothers and fathers of the new Alpine chamber music sounds like it has no geographical or genre boundaries.
Eyal Hareuveni
Catherine Aglibut (violin), Margret Köll (harp), Alexandra Dienz (double bass, dulcimer, Jew’s harp), Michael Öttl (guitar), Walter Seebacher (clarinet, dulcimer), Andreas Lackner (trumpet, flugelhorn, dulcimer, glockenspiel), Charlie Fischer (haimophone, wooden glockenspiel, glockenspiel, drum set, shaker, woodblocks), Christof Dienz (bassoon, zither)
