Werner Dafeldecker / Christof Kurzmann / John Tilbury / Stevie Wishart

Werner Dafeldecker, Christof Kurzmann, and Christian Fennesz, three of the prime movers in the Austrian improvising electronics community, are captured here in several live recordings with single guests on each occasion, either Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm, or Martin Siewert. The music provides a superb snapshot of the sort of non-idiomatic, high-level creations being pioneered by adventurous musicians of the time, as more and more began investigating the vast terrain pointed to by veteran ensembles such as AMM. Most of the pieces collected here have an underlying drone, even a pulse though it is one more likely associated with a turbine generator than any standard rhythm; what rhythmic impetus there is tends to be provided by repeated sound cells rather than beats. A paradoxical air of lush sparseness pervades the recording, a deep hum counterbalanced by insectival chirps or the static crackle of dancing glitches. Only rarely can one hear identifiable instruments like Dafeldecker's bowed bass or Kurzmann's clarinet. More often, the listener finds himself awash in electronic sounds from no obvious source (though many, presumably, emerging from the Apple G3's), with no individual performer usurping the collective sound which has, as its central tendency, a kind of agitated calm. Excellently recorded, with the tracks from various shows run seamlessly into one another, Dafeldecker/Kurzmann/Fennesz is a very fine representation of one of the most exciting musical environments of the late '90s. Highly recommended.