Konus Quartett & Mondrian Ensemble - Jürg Frey (2014)

Three pieces from Jürg Frey’s recent oeuvre are to be found on this portrait CD. These pieces are linked to each other in many ways – through their instrumentation (saxophone quartet or piano quartet), through their forms (canons, repetitions, chordal patterns and a degree of singlemindedness), through their harmonic structures and the shape of their lines, their slow tempi and their quietness, through their calm that bears little surprises within it, and through the attentiveness and sensibility that are brought to our aural perception. They are in many ways similar to each other and yet by design each is different. Here a multitude of possibilities is explored, namely how one can deal with such straightforward material and with these seemingly so uncomplicated procedures.