REVIEWS
CD 1
Klaus Treuheit: prepared piano, intensified harpsichord /
Georg Wissel: reeds /
Lou Grassi: percussion
CD 2
Klaus Treuheit: organ /
Lou Grassi: drums
The New York City Jazz Record (Steven Loewy,01.2022)
Two performances, one a trio recorded in 2007, the second a duet recorded in 2016, this double album is undoubtedly one of the oddest (though surprisingly enticing) releases of 2021, for a variety of reasons.Regardless of how extreme the music, traditional structures can provide a point of reference, leading to accessibility. For conventional jazz, that includes melody and improvisation based on a set chord structure. For more radical, free improvisation, there is often some sort of structure that breeds familiarity. What German pianist Klaus Treuheit’s vision shows here is a way to interact in an abstract way that is sui
generis, with few antecedents. The first CD, consisting of ten tracks, is divided
into two “suites”, the first half called “Prickly Tenacity” and the second “Sublime Sensations”, performed by a wide-ranging trio of tenor saxophonist Georg Wissel,
veteran drummer Lou Grassi and Treuheit on prepared piano and “intensified” harpsichord. The band displays a wonderful, if uncanny, connection. The music does not ‘go anywhere’, at least in the conventional sense; rather it has a surprisingly soothing and animal-like quality, which eschews convention and relies on seemingly random primitive sounds, often played thoughtfully and slowly, diminutive sounds prevailing. But what makes it so attractive are the continual
surprises that pop up, with the leader scratching away, saxophone indulging in light, forceful aberrations and the always wonderful Grassi adding considerably with bells and variegated sounds. So, for example, the fourth track features deliciously fluttering saxophone, without any grandstanding, the others joining and dropping out as needed. The next track is intensely fast and light, Wissel gliding above, with vocal interjections and an always-on Grassi. Treuheit is dashing throughout, with each piece sounding different, as the trio offers a powerful ode to something new and exciting and an antidote to society’s anthem and the bête noir of creativity: conformity and thoughtlessness.
The second CD constitutes a single-track live recording called “Serracapriola”, with Treuheit on organ and Grassi. There is clearly a different vibe in concert, without saxophone and with organ substituted for harpsichord and prepared piano. In a sense there is a static, seriously random element, with a tip of the hat to composer John Cage, as much happens without preconceived notions. So a rumbling organ may increase its volume, followed by tinkling bells, and the volume slowly increases and then drops; or expectations are defied in some other way such as playing a solo for much longer than is customary or suddenly engaging in new rhythms. It can, at times, be languorous, tedious and even humorous, but somehow it works and, while this strange album is not for everyone, it has an indescribably quirky appeal, due to continual surprises and high level of performance, sucking the listener into its maw.
Raul da Gama - WHOLENOTE (83/4 2021, Toronto, Canada):
"The physical qualities of time– that indefinite, continuous progress of existence from past to future – seem ever-present in the conception and execution of the art of Klaus Treuheit. You hear it in the sound and silent spaces of his soundscapes, as the black dots of the page leap and gambol in linear and elliptical arcs, propelled forever forward. As a highly imaginative thinker, Treuheit utilizes form and space to innovatively develop musical architecture seemingly created in spectral dimensions.
Sound also has a natural momentum in Treuheit’s world; dynamism seems to grow out of his atomic pianistic pulses. All of this is superbly reflected in the music of Prickly Tenacity/Sublime Sensations and Serracapriola - Live, a double album he shares with the deeply empathetic percussion-colourist Lou Grassi, who sounds as if he has a similar philosophical bent of mind.
Treuheit is also supported on Prickly Tenacity/Sublime Sensations (the first of the two discs) by Georg Wissel who is known to be a master of sculpting compressed air by means of reeds and other devices. Grassi plays drums, cymbals and miscellaneous percussion on this trio disc. The repertoire here is split between the six movements constituting Prickly Tenacity, followed by four sections that form Sublime Sensations. A kind of invisible propulsive force shapes the massive architecture of the music.
Grassi and Treuheit return to perform an extended, live duet in Serracapriola (disc two). This improvised musical dialogue, is created in the spur of the moment by two like-minded artists. Grassi bends and shapes time with sticks, mallets and brushes, alternately caressing the skins and stirring up moments of rumble and thunder on a myriad of drums and orchestral timpani, his phrases often punctuated by the sizzle and swishing of cymbals. Treuheit joins in the proceedings on (2) organs producing cascades of tumbling arpeggios, great wheezing, thumping chords and short stabbing gestures which punctuate the music. Together, the musicians challenge us to listen, with wide-open ears, to music that references the past, but is rooted in the moment, while all the time charging relentlessly into the future.
This is truly impactful and memorable music by Grassi and Treuheit (with Wissel’s contributions on disc one). It is an idiomatic musical palimpsest; a triumph of time created with uncommon musicality and delivered in performances of monolithic, yet superbly dynamic power.”
Jean-Michel van Schouwbourg (4/3/2021):
"Rencontre entre un pianiste (préparé), claveciniste (intensifié) et organiste d’obédience musique contemporaine , Klaus Treuheit et d’un percussionniste issu du jazz et élève de Lennie Tristano, Lou Grassi. Concours d’un saxophoniste (préparé) alto et ténor dans les deux premiers cycles de variations (Prickly Tenacity – Sublime Sensations CD1).
Le pianiste et le batteur ont déjà commis ensemble un LP en duo chez No Business (Port of Call) et un remarquable compact avait réuni Treuheit et Wissel avec le violoniste Christoph Irmer (Katachi). Dans le premier CD : Une musique aérienne, éthérée, incursion dans le détail avec des cordes grattées, cithare légèrement percutée et finement résonnante, espace sonore étiré par les mailloches allusives effleurant les toms nus.
Le souffle sinueux et vibratile du saxophone et son aura cotonneuse tracent une ellipse scalène désenchantée, … Il faut attendre la quatrième et dernière improvisation de la série Prickly Tenacity pour entendre débouler Georg Wissel en zig-zags anguleux, hachés menu ou déchirés et le tandem piano batterie évoluer en montagnes russes percutantes. La série suivante sollicite étrangement un clavecin intensifié. L’intention très précise de Klaus Treuheit aux claviers fait qu’enchanté par le flux musical, on en vient à oublier qu’il s’agit d’un clavecin. Le deuxième CD en duo débouche sur une configuration nettement plus orchestrale, Treuheit jouant remarquablement des effets multiples et toujours surprenants des grands orgues alors que son compagnon mue véritablement en percussionniste d’orchestre. Il faut souligner la classe de ce percussionniste qui trouve naturellement la stratégie idoine dans ces circonstances hasardeuses. On se laisse complètement envoûter par les souffles libérés des tubes d’étain : contrepoints délirants, multiphonie folie, sarcasmes fracassants dans l’espace résonnant de la Neustadte Kirche , Erlangen, sarabande féérique, … c’est toujours la fête des grands vents, des sifflements sournois, des hululements de volière insoumise… quand un maître un peu fou se déchaîne de la sorte. ”
Bruce Gallanter (DowntownMusicGallery, NY,NY):
"It turns out that Mr. Treuheit has a half dozen records out as a leader starting around 1988. I am a longtime fan of ace Downtown drummer Lou Grassi, who has worked with Marshall Allen, Rob Brown, Gunter Hampel and who has around 10 out as a leader. Mr. Treuheit does a good job of experimenting by rubbing things on the string of the piano while Mr. Wissel plays haunting tenor sax sounds and Grassi matches both with careful, quiet drumming.
The subdued, slow-moving quality makes this trio/disc forces us to slow down and listen closely as the dream-like vibe takes over. Mr. Wissel plays some Evan Parker-like controlled multi-phonics which work well when Treuheit switches to harpsichord, an instrument not usually used in experimental music, while Mr. Grassi plays some soft, spooky mallet-work on the drums. I like the way the harpsichord sounds here, both quaint and quietly eerie, the overall sound calm yet mysterious combining elements from different eras or centuries past.”
Rigobert Dittmann in Bad Alchemy 109, Februar 2021:
"Uff, wenn ich mit Grassi anfange, finde ich zu keinem Ende. Denn der durch seine PoBand und The Nu Band bekannte Drummer hat in den 90er & Nuller Jahren neben seinen Gewirbele auf CIMP eine Spielwiese in Germany gesucht und gefunden, mit Günter Heinz, Gunter Hampel, mit Treuheit. Mit dem weißmähnigen Tastenbläuling traf er sich im Januar 2016 in Erlangen für "Port of Call". Daneben betrommelte und bepaukte er Treuheits Orgelspiel in der Neustädter Kirche, nun belauschbar als 'Serracapriola'.
Wenn nach dem minutenlang dunkel rollenden Grassi-Intro endlich die Orgel schillernde Leuchtspuren schießt, läuft es mir heißkalt über den Rücken. Treuheit zieht die dröhnenden und zwielichtigen Register abseits von protestantischer Nüchternheit. Die barocken Phantome, mit Tintenfass verscheucht, kehren wieder with a vengeance (wie Grassi sagen könnte, wenn sie sein Blech erbeben lassen). Irrlichternd, auf Hyänenpfoten, als Bosch'scher Spuk und doch mit prachtvollem Glanz und mächtigem Donnergroll. Zugespitzt in Spritzern und Flötentönen, klappernd wie hagelnde Körner, geschüttelt wie eine Handvoll Silberlinge über düsterer oder diskanter Dauerwelle. Treuheit brütet über John's Zorn, Grassi siebt arme Sünder und lässt die verworfenen treppabwärts kollern. Von Porto-Novo bis Novgorod wampiger Erlkönig-Pomp und kichernde Circumstances. Strange Encounter? Oder spielerische Versöhnung des christlichen Abendlandes mit seinen teuflischen Engelszungen und der rührigen Hände und Panthertatzen des Schwarzen Kontinents? Diesem Dreikönigs-Voodoo voraus gingen aber schon 2007 'prickly tenacity' & 'sublime sensations' als Zusammenklang von Grassi mit Treuheit an präp. Piano und Cembalo und noch Georg Wissel an präp. Alto- & Tenorsax.
Aufgezeichnet im BR Studio Franken. Wissel hatte um den Dreh rum - mit noch Christoph Irmer, seinem Geigenpartner in Canaries on the Pole - mit Treuheit schon "Katachi" als interaktives Ritual ge-formt. Auch mit Grassi auf treuen Pfoten durchstreifte er Klimperauen und leckte mit rauer Zunge Frühtau, die Stimme zu 'ölen' für einen gehauchten und bebenden Morgengruß. Treuheit verschönt die Idylle mit schraffierten Saiten, prickelnden Tasten, Grassi schüttelt mit spitzen Stöckchen Blechfünkchen, Tropfen tanzen. Grassi auf pelzigen Sohlen, mit überrauschtem Pochen, Treuheit mit kapriziösem Arpeggio, zirpendem Draht, Wissel mit rostiger Zunge, aber übergehendem Mund, halb Sang-, halb Blaseton, mit wackeligem Vibrato. Plötzlich ein Schauer von Klangkürzeln, das Cembalo tanzt dazu Tarantella und klimpert dann neobarock unter grollenden Wolken. Wissel gurrt raukehlig zu Treuheits unbändigen Spinnenfingern und zu Grassis federndem Sprint, wolfsbeherzt hin zu offenem Horizont.”
