By Nick Ostrum

5 years after their 2018

Music for 2 Organs and Two Bass Clarinets

, the low-end quartet of Thanos Chrysakis (chamber organ, voice), Chris
Cundy (bass clarinet, contra-bass clarinet, sopranino ocarina), Peer
Schlechta (organ) and Ove Volquartz (bass clarinet, contra-alto clarinet,
contra-bass clarinet) went again to the Neustädter Kirche for a session that
would produce Archangel.

It begins with excessive organ pitches and plodding bass tones. Breathy reeds
are available, as does a blast of organ chords. What Archangel offers
is what Chrysakis achieves so persistently and expertly: a posh layering
of tones that drone, fluctuate, collide, entwine and, most significantly,
form one another. A becoming metaphor could also be a giant hole pipe, whereby
sounds bounce and rebound but in addition converge right into a larger, richer and extra
whole-sounding combination. The clarinets billow by means of the alternately
piercing circuitry sounds and the intermittent elongated tones. Over time,
the clarinets get extra aggressive (or probing) and begin pushing their means
to the entrance because the organ holds again, erecting pillar after pillar of
sound. Because the musicians transfer into Elements II-III, the organs shift to the
fore once more splitting the bottom between heavy tones and the crackling excessive
notes, which, 16-and-a-half minutes in, break into one among a number of moments
of redirection and readability. Right here, one clarinet soars as the opposite flirts
with the organ drone. And the dance continues Clarinets flutter in and
out of notion, generally clucking and different instances ascending and
descending scales. I can not communicate to people, however one organ is
constant in its countless hum, generally damaged by keyboard strikes. The
different – the piercing one – wanders out and in of winding melodies, or
dramatic climbs. Certainly, Half III ends in one thing of a march or a
tension-ridden, punctuated pulse that almost all usually comes from a big string
part.

Half IV reverses the roles at first, with elongated higher register buzz and
the clarinets deep in scalar dialog. This part, nonetheless, is extra
spacious, and possibly much less cavernous (regardless of the sonorous confines of the
church through which it’s carried out). The Cundy and Volquartz intrude a bit
additional into hotter, lyrical terrain at factors, and the total impact is
considerably extra private – and fewer intimidating – than the early actions.
I feel I even hear chants or groans at factors, which can be Chrysakis or
is perhaps resonant illusions. That, after all, provides to the thriller that
Chrysakis as composer generates so successfully in lots of his works. Half V
leans again into whistles (this should be the place Cundy picks up the sopranino
ocarina), surprisingly nimble bass clarinet clusters, some jaunty organ
melodies (that sound like a distant, hazy and irregular organ grinder) and
heavy chords. That is the place issues get most intense.

Then once more, the dynamics of rigidity would possibly not be the correct lens by means of
which to view this. Slightly, Archangel is a misleading monolith. One
can pay attention casually and listen to, actually, the identical dynamic vary and comparable
textiles, not fairly homogenous or scripted however not terribly wild both.
The actual impact, nonetheless, comes within the dissimilarities and the positive
options that shatter any inclination towards homogeny. After all, one should
take heed to the area of the church, as nicely, which lends gravity, echo and
reverberance. Particularly those that are driving the up to date organ music
wave (on wandelweiser, One other Timbre, Zorn’s Airtight Organ mission), I
suggest choosing this one up. Archangelhas a fuller sound than
these are likely to. However, it approaches the instrument, and quite a lot of
deep clarinets, with the same drive to push the instrument tonally and
bodily out of the baroque and into the trendy world. And, for these
acquainted with Music for Two Organs, Archangelflows alongside
comparable traces, however is extra cohesive. The previous appears an experiment; the
latter, an expression of a shared imaginative and prescient.