#polwechsel

Some things change, and one of them is Polwechsel’s line-up. Currently Moser and Dafeldecker share the group with percussionists Burkhard Beins (who is German) and Martin Brandlmayr. Others persist; while quietness and compositional/improvisational hybrids are no longer so generally remarkable, they remain frequently accessed tools in the quartet’s collective kit. Another common strategy is collaboration. Unseen is the third Polwechsel album out of nine to have been made in partnership with another musician. Klaus Lang is an Austrian composer and concert organist who has previously performed with both Dafeldecker and Moser in non-Polwechsel settings. He plays on all three of Unseen’s tracks, and composed the first one.  

That piece, “Easter Wings,” shows instantly that Lang was the man for the job. Polwechsel’s music is not necessarily easy to play, but it does not foreground ostentatious technical display; it’s the music, not how they play their instruments, that matters. It’s not immediately obvious what you’re hearing at first, but whatever it is, it’s instantly compelling. High pitches arise, apparently in the distance, and then gather density and presence. At first it seems like one is hearing a flock of far-off train whistles speaking in bird’s tongues. Eventually these voices resolve into string harmonics, chimes and flute-like organ sounds. Lang never resorts to the heaviness that a church organ can so easily summon, but instead displays an unshowy mobility.  

His facility also figures on the second composition, where the two string players bow in rough, dissonant proximity while the organ alternately shadows them subliminally and more forcefully ends their phrases. Moser’s “No sai cora-m fui endormitz” translates from Catalan as “I don’t know how I feel asleep,” and the piece seems to proceed from one violently bowed awakening to the next, interspersed by quieter passages that correspond to the experience of unknowingly drifting towards unconsciousness. Dafeldecker’s “Redeem” is the only piece that exploits the church organs potential for heaviness. At first, sustained chords and low string drones exert a massive pressure. The sounds withdraw or thin out over the course of 25 minutes, shrinking until the string players alternate bowed swoops and silence falls.