Kathrin Pechlof - Imaginarium (2013) [Hi-Res]

Musical space for fantasy. Harpist Kathrin Pechlof leads the listener to a very unique musical world. In Pechlof's music the harp comes into its own in its own unique way. Harp tones resound: harsh, dry, beautiful, like delicately reverberating columns, as bright saxophone intonations, and a highly flexible bass nestle around. The three musicians play this excitingly unusual repertoire with open ears and an instinctive sense for one another. A music emerges that is filled with subtlety, discipline, and artistic lyricism - a cornucopia of fantasy for the listener created out of a music stripped to the essentials.

How often do you say about a piece of music that you have never heard anything quite like it. In the case of this recording it is likely that many listeners will say exactly that. This music has its own beauty. An exciting yet softly-voiced adventure is here to be discovered. It begins with the instrumentation: harp, alto saxophone, and bass— totally out of the ordinary, yet sounding as natural as can be. And it carries over to the music, as if with its quiet, spare tonal colors, the music pierces light through a slowly opening door, gradually illuminating the space behind it. The spaces have been consciously created in every detail, subtly changing with every newly perceived angle. Let’s immediately get one thing straight; you are not about to hear the typical harp music with its sparkling runs and beguilingly sweet arpeggios. This will be a new experience. Pechlof does not want to play the leading role here; rather, her desire is to coalesce with the other two. Saxophonist Christian Weidner and bassist Robert Landfermann are Katherin Pechlof’s musical partners on Imaginarium, her first CD on Pirouet. The title already gives it away; the spaces involved here open up to the imagination—to the listener’s fantasy.

Katherin Pechlof was born in Munich. She studied harp at Munich’s Richard Strauss Conservatory; later she studied jazz composition in Cologne. After her studies she gave concerts as time soloist and played in various well-known chamber music ensembles and orchestras. She gradually migrated towards jazz, playing in such avant-garde ensembles as the Wanja Slavin Sextet and the Cosmic Groove Orchestra, as well as working with such internationally successful groups as the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra. Thus, it’s a logical next step for this musician to appear with her own ensemble, plaaying a contemporary jazz-chamber music that leaves plenty of room free for improvisation.

Pechlof’s two partners are ideal for such an undertaking. With the Pirouet CDs The Inward Song and Dream Boogie, Saxophonist Christian Weidner has made a name for him- self in the last few years as the author and interpreter of a music deeply grounded in beauty. Bassist Robert Landfermann is one of the most sought-after jazz bassists in Germany. He can be heard on Pirouet on various recordings of pianist Pablo Held (the latest being Trio Live), as well as recordings of other artists. Here he has shown him- self to be an exceptionally flexible improviser who places a high value on new sounds and improvisational challenges. For one thing, these two musicians have the broad horizons that the music requires; for another, they have the ears for all the subtle nuances.

One particular aspect of the music is very important as far as Kathrin Pechlof is concerned: “In almost all of the improvisations the trio reacts as a meta-instrument. There is seldom an explicit soloist; it is actually a sort of ‘coming together as one’. It requires trust and self-understanding, and the willingness to follow the music’s flow. With musicians like Christian and Robert it works out in a very simple and enjoyable way, completely open and dedicated.”

And you sense this. You hear it in every moment. The amount of improvisation depends on the particular piece— compositions from Kathrin Pechlof and/or Christian Weidner, as well as the adaptation of a song from Claude Debussy. The two extremes are Teetotum in which only a few bars are notated—a line that always spins in a circle— and Debussy’s Les Cloches, a song for voice and piano in which the transcription is modeled after the original and transposed to the three instruments. Yet the notated elements and the improvisation meld together so naturally that on listening, the question of what is written and what is improvised is immaterial. The sounds develop an atmospheric power that is riveting.

The title choices for the pieces are no accident; they are closely connected with the musical ideals behind the particular piece. By Teetotum “in which a short melody spins in the middle of the musical action, the explanation is an easy one: a teetotum is a small spinning top used in an old game of chance: numbers or letters are printed on the side. After the spin, the visible letter indicates either “take” money from or “give” money into the betting pool. The player follows the results. Les Cloches (the clocks) rings much slower in this version than in many of the classical interpretations of Debussy’s piece: sounds in slow motion. This works well with the story on which the song is based. As Kathrin Pechlof hears it, “the ringing of the bells is a call to pause, reflect, and reminisce. That is exactly what her fascinating interpretation accomplishes.

Kathrin Pechlof, harp
Christian Weidner, alto saxophone
Robert Landfermann, bass

Tracklist:
01. Kathrin Pechlof - Gestalten (3:47)
02. Kathrin Pechlof - Imaginarium (6:34)
03. Kathrin Pechlof - Von Stille umwoben (3:01)
04. Kathrin Pechlof - Mikrosuite (3:52)
05. Kathrin Pechlof - Fernen wie sie vielleicht nur Vögel kennen (2:06)
06. Kathrin Pechlof - Kyrie (7:14)
07. Kathrin Pechlof - Triptychon (3:16)
08. Kathrin Pechlof - Das alte Ägypten (3:27)
09. Kathrin Pechlof - Teetotum (3:07)
10. Kathrin Pechlof - Les Cloches (4:28)