Record Reviews

HANS-GUNTHER WAUER / GUNTER SOMMER ~ VERSCHRANKTE KONSTRUKTION EDEL CONTENT 4029759080633 (Barcode: 4029759080633) ~ GERMANY ~ Free Jazz / Improvised Music Recorded: 1986 Released: 2012 This is a reissue (first time on CD) of an album by a duo of East German improvisers: organist / composer Hans-Gunther WauerFind albums by this artist and drummer / composer Gunter SommerFind albums by this artist. It presents eight original compositions, three composed by Wauer, two composed by Sommer and three co-composed by the two musicians. The music was recorded in the Cathedral of Merseburg during a festival of organ music. The magnificent church organ is meant to be played solo of course, or to accompany chants sung during prayer, but it can be occasionally found also in quite different musical environments, including Jazz and Improvised Music, like the project presented here. Pairing instruments with the church organ is of course an extremely difficult and complex task, both musically and sonically, as the overwhelming sound produced by the organ often surpasses everything else in the vicinity, but this project masterfully combines the organ with a most unlikely companion – a drum set. The music, although mostly improvised, is still very much under the spell of the dominant organ sound, which brings associations of the organ music tradition going way back to the times and work of Johann Sebastian BachFind albums by this artist. Wauer creates a modern polyphonic sound not limited by fixed meters or scales, but whatever his efforts might strive to achieve the result still sounds similar to what people associate with church organ music. It is Sommer who brilliantly adopts the drum set to play along with the organ, which is probably the most successful attempt of this kind ever made. His absolute control of the unlimited possibilities of the drums present, both rhythmically and melodically, is simply extraordinary. The urge to move forward and attempt seemingly impossible amalgams is one of the key characteristics of European Jazz, and this album is just one of the numerous such attempts. In retrospect, this is still one of the most successful and interesting projects of this kind, which lost absolutely nothing of its fascination and intrinsic beauty over time, not to mention its originality. Open minded listeners, who love church organ music, should have a field day with this album, and of course Improvised Music connoisseurs will find this lost gem to be simply irresistible. Side Note: As all the East European countries under the Socialist regime, East Germany, or DDR as it was known at the time, had only one state owned and controlled Music Company, which released most of its productions on the AmigaFind albums on this label label. Among the many Amiga releases the legendary "orange J" series was dedicated to Jazz recordings, many of which were licenses from the West, but others were original productions, mostly of Jazz made in DDR. Some of these releases, like the one described above, were absolute gems. Following the unification of Germany, the Amiga albums disappeared from the face of the earth and only in 2012 a German label reissued 15 Amiga Jazz albums on CD. They are all worth checking out!

Updated: 11/05/2016Posted: 19/03/2016

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