Partita Radicale – Frutas Azules

Free Elephant 6

Gunda Gottschalk’s Wassermonde was one of my most coveted discoveries of 2004. Her solo violin recital shrugged openly at the more garish signifiers of virtuosity and centered instead on creating an intimate fusion of player and instrument. Gottschalk’s extended techniques were and remain toe-curlingly provocative. But what most pulled me in and kept me enamored was the concentrative totality of her approach, tornado speed harmonics giving way to the tiny tug of a lone microtone.

Partita Radicale’s music advances from a similarly inclusive micro-bridging-macro mindset. Operating as an improvising entity since ’91 the ensemble, which also includes Karola Pasquay and Ortud Kegel on assorted flutes, Thomas Beimel on viola and Ute Völker on accordion, engages in a transitory interplay of minute gradations and increments. The unusual instrumentation remotely echoes the anatomy of a classical winds/strings quintet both in structure and temperament. Six tracks, ascribed the titles “Cancioneros,” or songbooks, regularly encourage ensemble subdivisions. It’s these groupings that yield the majority of music, mixing strong rapport with a willingness to test and provoke. The sound of surprise is most definitely alive in these calefactory chamber music interactions.

One of the most startling aspects of the unit is how often the five are able to match and overlap the timbral signatures of their instruments. Völker’s whirring squeezebox tones take on the resonance and reach of a pipe organ, gothic drones and suspirating sustains converging as regular facets of her repertoire. Pasquay and Kegel breathe through their flutes in ghostly shakuhachi rasps that touch the edges of inaudibility. The strings of Gottschalk and Beimel pop, scurry and scrape delicately like the patter of tiny clawed feet. These layering elements resist strict form or notational structure, favoring ethereal atmospherics and constant mutability. Herein resides the group’s core appeal, harnessed energy and animated, intricate activity balanced with a consistent consensus to play quiet and listen.

Melodic motifs do arise, but they’re frequently fleeting and prone to dissection. At one point the flutes twine in a mellifluous tandem, strings and accordion braiding a shimmering ring of counterpoint beneath their aerial flight trajectory. Vocal outbursts also enter into the exchanges, by way of whoops and muffled screams, though specific throat ownership proves difficult to pinpoint, as do the instrument-generated sounds on occasion. The ensemble’s expert attention to dynamics capitalizes on the capacious interior of the museum recording site, adding a deep spatial element to the music. Gottschalk waits until the concluding track to summon her signature dervish harmonics and propel her partners into an exuberant finale; evidence again of abiding premium the ensemble places on restraint. The mysterious blue fruits mentioned in the disc’s title are never identified, but the musical pulp bearing their name presents a juicy and satisfying repast.

~ Derek Taylor