Czech reeds player Radim Hanousek is known for his collaboration with the Norwegian-Czech outfit NOCZ, and focuses on various forms of improvisation, intermediality and projects on the border of jazz and contemporary classical music as an interpreter and composer.
«Escape» was conceived during Hanousek’s studies in Portugal. There he recorded field recordings in Lisbon, Peniche, and Sintra, and prepared a simple graphic score inspired by the phases of the waves of the sea in relation to wind speed. During the Covid-19 lockdown, he asked six Czech and five Portuguese musicians to interpret this score and send him their home recordings, without any idea how Hanousek is going to edit all their contributions. He processed the materials in two ways: by layering the recordings of the eleven participating musicians («Escape I») and by mixing the Portuguese field recordings with a studio quartet of musicians responding independently of each other to different sonic materials («Escape II»).
The acoustic, 9-minute «Escape I» sounds like a chaotic and quite stormy collage, but with a clear attempt to follow the movements of the Atlantic waves. The 27-minute «Escape II», with vocalist and harmonium player Jana Vondrů, double bass player Hernâni Faustino, percussionist Martin Opršál and Hanousek on bass clarinet and soprano sax is even stormier, more layered collage, but radiates better the claustrophobic sense of being in the center of the mighty and wild sonic collisions where waves and winds meet, with surprising lyrical and melodic undercurrents articulated by Hanousek.
Hanousek suggests the listeners to create their own mixes of «Escape I» and try various combinations of instruments and sounds (solo, mute, dynamics) via his website: www.radimhanousek.cz/en/ESCAPE
Eyal Hareuveni
Helena Espvall (c), Maria do Mar (vio), Anežka Nováková (marimba), Žaneta Vítová (acc), Jana Vondrů (v, harm), Hernâni Faustino (b), Peter Korman (b), Matej Olah (g), Martin Opršál (marimba, marimbula, kalimba, Tibetan bowls, timpani, cymbals), Guilherme Rodrigues (c), Alvaro Rosso (b), Radim Hanousek (bcl, ss)
