RM74/RLW
Pirouetten
Crouton 2006

01. Hanswurst, Lethargisch, aber Guter Dinge
02. Abwege
03. Kontrollpunkt am Herzen der Volksseele
04. Sturmangriff zur Austreibung der Wintergeister und Anderer Geistlicher
05. Folklore Off
06. Sack im Fegefeuer
07. Herz Schlägt Noch
08. Maestro Zungenpflug

Pirouetten was started in September 2003, when Reto Mäder a.k.a. RM74 wanted to visit Ralf Wehowsky a.k.a. RLW in his solid green middle-class garden. On his way to RLW's single-family house, RM74 became a victim of the German control paranoia, as embodied by a sturdy female Karlsruhe tram-warden. Influenced by the folkloristic stubbornness of present-day control authorities, a sustained penance resulted in mutual musical pieces. -l.n.

>> gsize / mfire (72mb) (d-_-b)
>> love it, buy it (Mimaroglu)

Although it balances spontaneous improvisation with editing and post-production, Pirouetten may well be a triumph of freedom over control. The two gentlemen play equal parts (RM74 - organ, accordion, piano, cello, bass guitar, harmonica, transformations; RLW - gamelan, sitar, paper, guitar, trombone, chimes, "recordings of populated fields", transformations), the end result being perfectly articulated in a single vision. "For me music is about communication. Once it was a rather one-way communication, addressing everything to God (and waiting for a reply); today it's more about communication with other human beings. In ideal circumstances there's no unique authorship, no separation between composer and performer, and a constant interchange of ideas and musical material", says Wehowsky, who has gotten famous for joint ventures with an entire myriad of artists. In all, this here project serves as an example for experimental music with a very well defined/thought-out internal structure (nothing seems random, everything made useful), but at the same time, beyond famous German pragmatism, there's a subtle zone of intuition - Improv's own raison d'être. Pretty accessible release, depending, obviously, on how deep you want to go. I can definitely recommend it - it's well worth your time & money.