Ekkehard Ehlers / Joseph Suchy / Franz H - Soundchambers [Staubgold - 2004]In 2003, Ehlers and Suchy each released truly excellent albums. Less than a year later, they’re back with another CD on Staubgold, a collaboration that sees them unite with another improviser, Franz Hautzinger.
Joseph Suchy is an experimental guitarist and producer that has been going at it for the past 25 years, Ekkehard Ehlers is a laptop artist and Franz Hautzinger is a Viennese improv trumpet player who has collaborated with people such as Derek Bailey. The music on Soundchambers was recorded in Cologne for an architectural, graphical and musical installation in the park of Museu Serralves in Porto. Although Soundchambers is not as great as Ehlers’ Politik braucht keinen feind, the CD has some beautiful moments. The sound texture is very rich. Ehlers provides a sort of constant ambient backdrop for Hautzinger’s trumpet and Suchy’s guitar. Well, I say backdrop, but it’s not really the case… Yes, it’s ambient, but it still has something “massive” or very “commanding” about it. Among the drones and glitches, you get to hear a lot of different things: things that sound like birds, people clapping the door in the cellar, some kind of weird beast barking, rainfalls… Ehlers also uses piano-recordings of Adam Butler (Vert). What was characteristic of Joseph Suchy most recent album (Calabi. Yau, browse our review archive), was the diversity of his playing. This is not so much the case here. He is mostly playing a few sparse notes or using his guitar as an ambient instrument, with melodic drones. It’s the first time I get to hear an album with Hautzinger on. Here, his playing is very subdued, discreet: he plays a few beautiful themes, mostly over Suchy’s guitar. Less obvious, but still very important: Hautzinger also brings noises with his instruments, noises that mix with Ehlers sounds. Apart from all this, what I think is the most powerful on the album is that I get the impression that Ehlers’ contribution is the sea (sometimes quiet, other times more tumultuous) on which Suchy and Hautzinger’s music are drifting away. It has got a sort of natural flow, the feeling of something that has not been “forced down” on players but which was osrt of made obvious to them as the way to go. On a last note, this is the first time I enjoy the sound of an installation that I hear separately from the said installation.    François Monti
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