This CD documents the performance of two compositions by flutist Antoine Beuger and one by clarinettist Jürg Frey at a side space of Les Instants Chavirés in Montreuil, France. Beuger and Frey are both longtime members of Wandelweiser Group, a collective of international composers inspired by the post-Cage exploration of silence within composition, and they join the sextet Dedalus Ensemble in performance for this concert.
Along with the acoustic instrumentation of the sextet (guitar, viola, flute, clarinet, percussion, and trombone), the acoustics of the space—particularly the sound-bleed from the street outside—blend into a sonic field ripe for detailed listening. Beuger’s first piece, Meditations poetiques sur quelque chose d’autre, sets the stage by including texts that the musicians occasionally speak. The soft sibilance of the spoken words creates a quiet but insistent undercurrent—an insistence characteristic of all the performed sounds in these three pieces. The resulting performances go beyond the Cagean revelation that all sound is music. They also subtly but firmly assert that the creative act has importance even when almost swallowed by the surrounding noise. A beautiful listen.
