Three Days of Wandelweiser

Press Release
Friday, 13 February 2009

February 27 – March 1, 2009
Jazz Atelier Ulrichsberg

Dealing with our auditory faculties in a conscious, self-determined way is the central mission of Peter Androsch’s Capital of Culture year concept. Accordingly, Jazz Atelier Ulrichsberg’s projects produced in cooperation with Linz09 present, above all, music that deals explicitly with aspects of hearing and perception: Peter Ablinger’s landscape opera in seven acts, a site-specific improvisation concert by the group Contest of Pleasures, and, leading off this lineup, “Three Days of Wandelweiser”—new music by Antoine Beuger, Jürg Frey, Marcus Kaiser and Radu Malfatti.

Wandelweiser is a publishing house, a label and a loose alliance of composers bound by mutual friendship. Each artist’s works are highly distinctive; nevertheless, there are a number of commonalities. The music is often soft and slow; traditional organizational elements like harmony and rhythm play, at most, a subsidiary role. Complexity is primarily conceived as the revelation of “natural” circumstances and the diverse conditions specified by the location, the acts of hearing and seeing, the instruments and the voices, rather than as an interwoven accumulation of complex musical elaborations. Most of these pieces dispense with ornament; the music is reduced to its essence, and this is precisely how it is often able to conduct the audience’s capacity to hear through portals that ordinarily remain closed to it.

Thanks to the participating composers’ strong commitment and the high degree of self-organization of their joint efforts, Wandelweiser has become a viable and internationally renowned network featured in concerts and performance series at venues ranging from Tokyo and Los Angeles to Aarau and Neufelden. All the same, so-called Wandelweiser music remains controversial. This is music that triggers discussions. And maybe that explains why works by Wandelweiser composers are heard most frequently at special festivals and rarely on the programs presented by the musical establishment.

So, wouldn’t you agree it’s high time for a few Wandelweiser Days in Ulrichsberg!

Concerts:
Friday, February 27, 2009, 8 PM
Antoine Beuger: “quelque chose qui nous attire” for flute, cello and trombone

Saturday, February 28, 2009, 5 PM
Jürg Frey:
“Buch der Räume und Zeiten” for flute and cello
“Buch der Räume und Zeiten” for trombone and clarinet

Saturday, February 28, 2009, 8 PM
Marcus Kaiser: “Unterholz” for video and instruments

Sunday, March 1, 2009, 11 AM
Radu Malfatti: “Bad 4” for baroque flute, clarinet, trombone and violoncello

Sound installation:
Jürg Frey: “Ulrichsberg Melodien” (all three days in the Jazz Atelier Gallery)

Antoine Beuger (NL), composition and flute
Jürg Frey (CH), composition, sound installation and clarinet
Marcus Kaiser, (D), composition, video and cello
Radu Malfatti, A, composition and trombone

Venue/Information
Jazzatelier Ulrichsberg,
Badergasse 2, 4161 Ulrichsberg, Austria
Phone and Fax: +43 (0)7288 6301

You’ll find additional info online at www.jazzatelier.at.

Jazzatelier Ulrichsberg in cooperation with Linz 2009 European Capital of Culture.