space
music for bells, cymbals and gong
fritz hauser & michael askill
celestial harmonies 13262-2
released 2006

the project

Recorded at Therme Vals, in Switzerland, over the course of two predawn mornings in June, 2005, there was a kind of sound alchemy that took place as Fritz Hauser and Michael Askill played the simple bells normally worn by cows, sheep and goats in the beautifully reverberant space of the thermal spas.
Write the performers "The music on this CD has been created through improvisation. Based on the instrumental material—about 40 cow, sheep and goatbells, various cymbals and a small gong from China—we developed playing concepts, and in dialogue with the room and the unusual sound environment we recorded the takes. In the studio some of the pieces have been used for multi-track arrangements, but most of them have been left untouched. We have put them in an order that now carries the title Space: Music for Bells, Cymbals and Gong.

"The spa in Vals was conceived as a place that allows a direct reconnection to a sense of ritual. It presents itself as a meditation on stone and water, light and space, where sounds take on a special dimension and present to the ears a chance to hear as if for the first time. It is a spa beyond the usual categories—a cave of light and sound which has contributed substantially to the sound of the bells, influenced the harmonics, changed the characteristics, melted them together and last but not least, inspired and provoked us, the musicians.

"The bells seemed to reestablish their connection with the transcendent and resonate as a bell would resonate in the cathedrals of Europe and the temples of Asia."

"The bells themselves played a major role in the development of these improvisations. They are insturments with a sound history, which have tinkled, rung and sounded for years around the necks of the various animals in all weather conditions. Every bell has developed its own characteristcs and when one strikes them today, each sounds a little shorter or longer, more pure or out of tune, louder or softer than the others. The bells want to be discovered while being played. Their nature is incalcuable and they are full of surprises.

"The arrangements of the bells according to shape, size, response and tuning result in a sound that is ancient and timeless. The conversations between the two players are spontaneous and intuitive. A combination of child-like discovery where there are no wrong notes, and the accumulated musical experience of two musicians who have no answers, just questions! "

the composers

Born in 1953 in Basel, Switzerland, Fritz Hauser develops solo programs for drums and percussion which he performs worldwide; cross-media works with dancer/choreographer Anna Huber and architect Boa Baumann and director Barbara Frey; compositions for percussion ensembles and soloists, sound installations, radio plays and music for films and readings. In the field of improvised music he has worked with numerous musicians and since the Stockholm International Percussion Event in 1998 he has collaborated with many percussion groups and soloists around the world.

Born in 1952 in Durban, South Africa, Michael Askill is one of Australia's most experienced percussionists and composers. He has held principal positions in two of the country's leading orchestras, the Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras and is founder and artistic director of Synergy Percussion, Australia's longest established contemporary music ensemble

notes courtesy of Celestial Harmonies

Reviews:

"Silence is the massive, blank, black canvas which Switzerland's Fritz Hauser and Australia's Michael Askill light with the sounds of bells. This album was recorded before dawn on two mornings in a cave at Therme Vals, Switzerland, lending electric resonance to the sudden flashes, flares and booms of sound emanating from a collection of bells intended to be worn by cows, sheep and goats. The music is improvised and the players often let silence come flooding back in like the tide between strikes. It is sufficiently spooky that those with heart conditions should keep the light on while listening."

John Shand, ABC Limelight Magazine, March 2007

"If conversation turns to Australia’s leading percussionists, Michael Askill’s name is sure to be mentioned. Previously a principal in the MSO and SSO, founder and presently Artistic Director of Synergy Percussion, he has composed for Sydney Dance Company and acted as their Musical Director amongst numerous other projects. Fritz Hauser, born in Switzerland a year later (1953), has developed an international career performing and composing solo percussion and cross-media works with dancers, sound installations, music for radio and film; his CV includes more than twenty CDs. They have previously collaborated in Synergy and now come together as an improvising duo in the distinctive acoustic of the spa at Vals in the Swiss Alps.
The new spa, opened in 1996, is all stone, glass and water: big, interlocking spaces with strong, complex echoes.
Artificial studio reverb is like bottled pasta sauce, giving something dull an illusion of savour. The real thing, on the other hand, is as individual as the space that creates it, filtering sounds as it returns them to the performer and the listener. Even more importantly, it is an element that the musicians are working in and with as they play, responding to the development of their sounds in time and space, so that the echo itself becomes an instrument, almost another performer. And the more improvisation is occurring, the more significant both factors become. space is entirely improvised.
Askill and Hauser have limited their resources to untuned metallic instruments - a small Chinese gong, cymbals and, in a gesture both symbolic and practical, a collection of the cow, sheep and goat bells traditionally used by herders in the region around the spa. With them they create an entrancing sound-world.
At the most obvious level, space is meditation music. Textures are generally sparse and delicate, and movement is slow.
But ‘meditation music’ is a subspecies of ‘ambient music’, which often has no real substance at all. Bad ambient music slips out of consciousness however hard one tries to grasp it, as though one were trying to hold on to a handful of smoke.
The opposite happens with space. Askill and Hauser show an exquisite awareness of the inner life of their sounds, and the ear follows the long, complex decay of separate timbres or shimmering clusters. Reflections and allusions give the music a subtle structure just below the level of consciousness, and the listener’s attention is continually drawn back into the music if it should happen to drift away.
All the material was improvised, but it was then edited and re-ordered in the studio to create a pleasing large-scale form. The result comprises twelve tracks ranging from less than two minutes to nearly nine, in a sequence drifting from delicate exploratory gestures to strong, almost ugly, statements, and back to misty delicacy before a recapitulatory final track.
This disc already has a well defined place in my collection, near Ros Bandt’s Stargazer, Riley Lee’s Water Music, Sarah Hopkins’ Sky Song, and Jouissance’s Akathistos Fragments. Anyone who has enjoyed any of these should listen to space."

Reviewed by Malcolm Tattersall