The International Nothing - Mainstream

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The first release on this promising offshoot label of IMJ features the clarinet duo of Kai Fagaschinski and Michael Thieke presenting eight largely composed pieces, five of which feature only themselves while three others make use of a handful of other musicians, sometimes with odd results.

The five duo pieces are a little bit of a type in some respects though well varied in others. As he’s been doing for a while now, Fagaschinski seems very preoccupied with the reinvestigation of more “traditional” clarinet sonorities and he and Thieke do so with a vengeance here. The first sounds you hear, on “Einfache Freuden”, are the paired reeds, one full and burred, one breathier, tracing long lines in closely spaced pitches, splintering out into adjacent areas, recombining a bit later. It’s a lovely effect, slightly reminiscent of Alvin Lucier’s experiments with sine waves and pitched percussion though there’s no tinge of the laboratory here. They have a special fondness for dwelling in the deeper, woodier regions of the clarinet’s range, luxuriating in lengthy swells of foghorn-like dimensions. This and the succeeding two pieces, especially the third track, work wonderfully, each coming at the situation from somewhat different angles. “We Already Know…” begins with a gentle series of “melodies” not terribly different than what you might have heard at one time from Julius Hemphill, before splaying out into a thoughtful, perhaps mournful rumination. That third piece, whose title has something to do with “pain” and “nothing more” (someone help me out here) has a strikingly beautiful theme, simple and pensive, even romantic in a way I’ve heard Fagaschinski's music sound in concert. The duo basically works the thematic material through subtle variations, especially in tonality, for the length of the composition. Simple and very moving.

Things get a bit rocky from this point. The two remaining duo pieces, one an exercise in high warbles that recalls Evan Parker at its onset, Braxton at its denouement, the other a study in steady pulses and closely aligned pitches, neither quite as compelling as the first three (though each decent enough), bracket a song featuring the voice and acoustic guitar of Margareth Kammerer. “And the Morning”, in which you can hear some enjoyable ambient noise, has something of the character of a Robin Holcomb work, though not an especially impressive one. Her guitar strumming, especially as it grows more forceful, doesn’t add anything of interest and the words, unfortunately for this reviewer in English, are better left undeciphered. That said, the piece has a nice overall sound; I wouldn’t be averse at all to hear further stabs in this direction. I just don’t think this one works.

Girding their loins for the stretch, “Lovetone” adopts the excellent idea of combining Fagaschinski and Thieke with two bassists, Derek Shirley and the increasingly ubiquitous Christian Weber. The sheer lusciousness of the two arco strings with the clarinets goes a long way toward ensuring the success of the piece though its structure, a series of slow episodes that evolve into a delightful offsetting of low rumbling basses and ethereal high reeds, is lovely on its own. “Mainstream” closes with another wild card, a jaunty number (you can find premonitions of its thematic material in earlier tracks) titled “Hauntissimo” where they’re joined by Christof Kurzmann whose vocal contribution will be enjoyed by those who also liked the close of “schnee_live”, as I did.

While there is a misstep or two to be negotiated here, there are several really fine works, though hardcore eai-ists may find much of it a tad too songlike. But for those listeners unfamiliar with Fagaschinki’s work and who have an appreciation of the clarinet as such, “Mainstream” wouldn’t be a bad place to begin.

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