Elegiac and understated, the opening notes of ¨An Die Musik¨ mark a journey back to nineteenth century German folk balladry. Fosters birdlike vocal lines hang exposed and fragile, lightly shaded by sinewy weaves of multi-tracked trumpet, and the odd spell of pastoral flute and rippling percussion. For all that, this piece, as all others in this collection, gradually takes flight of this minimal backing, and traipses through lithe, supple rhythm sections, droning metal hoe-downs, and barbed tonalities. Foster is careful not to treat these German art songs are mere artifacts, though. At the same time, as is most clearly illustrated through Brian Goodman’s murky, dive-bombing guitar chords, rather than simply displaying these songs, there is a desire to transfigure them, but to transfigure them by grasping what is essential to each respectively.
As such, although connected by a certain undertow of archaic elegance, each piece has its own disguises, ploys, and struggles. Works such as ¨Verschwiegene Liebe¨ and ¨Wehmut¨ slowly wake from waltzing piano lines and finger picked guitar to bass clarinet burrs and murmurs, and the bleary noise of a guitar. It is a movement which exhibits the groups ability to deftly incorporate a variety of dialects in such a way that the arrangement seems both eclectic, and yet necessary. Even when moments pick up steam, and grow more raw and resounding, as on the eleven minute ¨Auf Einer Burg¨, when patches of howling guitar, low-pitched drums, and mercurial splashes of soprano sax augment the shimmering chimes and woody guitar line, the underlying shape is never blurred or altogether disfigured, but remains sharp, and caught from a number of different angles. The elastic voice of Foster mirrors this progression, too, shifting from operatic wails, to sudden hiccups, and deep bellows. In so doing, Foster and company do not so much spawn a garish melange of styles as they disclose the depths of these charming songs by revealing how they call for interpretation still.
Max Schaefer
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