zeitkratzer [old school] John Cage

zkr0009 zeitkratzer records, Barcode: 881390642922, CD, 8-page-booklet, duration: 1:05:40
all music by John Cage performed by zeitkratzer
distributed by BROKEN SILENCE [UK: Shellshock, US: Forced Exposure, F: Metamkine, JAP: Disk Union]

zeitkratzer directed by Reinhold Friedl
Frank Gratkowski < bassclarinet, clarinet || Hayden Chisholm < clarinet || Franz Hautzinger < trumpet || Reinhold Friedl < piano || Maurice de Martin < percussion || Burkhard Schlothauer < violin || Anton Lukoszevieze < cello || Uli Phillipp < doublebass || Ralf Meinz < sound ||

recorded live at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, UK, November 26, 2006 and mixed by Ralf Meinz

Reviews

“zeitkratzer are creating a New Music, worthy of the name!”
[Rob Young, The Wire Magazine]

The internationally acclaimed “hilarious releases” [vital weekly] of zeitkratzer records will continue with the new series [old school]. The first two CDs, dedicated to the music of John Cage [zkr0009] and James Tenney [zkr0010] are now released together. The collaboration of zeitkratzer with William Bennett /Whitehouse [zkr0007], recorded live in 2009 in Marseille/France and Den Haag/Netherlands, will follow this summer. Later in 2010, the [old school] series will continue with two more releases, dedicated to the music of Alvin Lucier [zkr0011] and Morton Feldman [zkr0012] respectively.

John Cage’s compositions have been part of zeitkratzer’s repertoire since the very first day. The pieces presented here justify zeitkratzer’s reputation as sound specialists. Avant-garde composer Cage is played in a conservative, precise and sensual way, apart from all philosophical ambitions, and hopefully as seductive as a Schubert quintet! The “Wire Magazine” acclaimed: zeitkratzer convinced us that Cage‘s music can still live with all its complexities, stripped of the debris of its iconic-ironic status, if we only give ourselves time, space and ears to hear!

The intelligence of the ensemble’s interpretations evinces their long-term engagement with these complex pieces, as well as a willingness to interrogate and re-examine them, just as the in-the-moment decisions the work demand clearly marries well with the individual member’s backgrounds in improvisation. The rigour and discipline they collectively bring to these compositions make both discs utterly enthralling, from start to finish.
The Wire Magazine, UK, 04/2010

si cela doit produire une telle qualité de jeu, une telle renaissance aux compositeurs "old school" on ne peut que en demander plus.
Revue et Corrigée, F, 09/2010

So dicht, so atmosphärisch aufgeladen hat man schon lange keine Cage-Interpretation mehr gehört.
Testcard, D, 05/2011

executed with dutiful precision, permeated by a sort of inimical imperturbability
Touching Extreme, I, 06/2010

ein Faszinosum, dessen Puls und Sog schwer zu widerstehen ist
Bad Alchemy, D, 3/2010

For those unfamiliar with
either of these modern American composers, their performance of three of Tenney’s ‘swell pieces’ is probably the best place to start
Rockarolla, UK, 04/2010

The epithet sounds flippant and self-defeating, all the more so given how absolutely contemporary Tenney and Cage’s works sound here, due in no small part to the power and skill of the ensemble’s interpretations.
The Wire Magazine, UK, 04/2010