Amsterdam-based Seamus Cater, a player of the duet concertina, a kind of early Victorian accordion, and Berlin-based clarinetist Kai Fagaschinski, half of The International Nothing duo that focuses on blending two clarinets into psycho-acoustic sculptures, took their time before releasing «Secrets». Six years of secluded work.

«Secrets» is the product of a collective process where all music was composed together in the same room. No advanced sketches were used, no strategies established. Every piece began with a basic exploration, asked a different logic, and required its own form. A kind of proposal and counter-proposal method was used, with pieces evolving through hours but also sometimes years, of combining tones and refining sounds.

«Secrets» lasts only 33 minutes, refuses to submit itself into any genre, and visits in its winding journey minimalism, contemporary music, art-rock, and even Eastern devotional music. The ingredients are simple. Fagaschinski offers the ethereal, vulnerable foundation, and Cater adds layers of surreal poetry, sonic experiments with the folky duet concertina, and other sounds from his re-tuned harmonica, and Fender Rhodes. The abstract and sparse yet highly suggestive atmosphere is more than enough. Cater and Fagaschinski created their own secretive universe.

You may be one of the lucky ones that were invited to their mysterious universe, knowing that time may lose its meaning there, and only Cater and Fagaschinski may know its real secrets. But it may be fun to try to decode some of these enigmas, especially as they are served with such seductive elegance.

Eyal Hareuveni

Seamus Cater (v, concertina, Fender Rhodes, harm), Kai Fagaschinski (cl)