The recorder probably ranks just below the tin- and penny whistles as the world’s wussiest instrument, which is why Lucia Mense’s survey of new music for the instrument is such a revelation. Sure, multi-tracking and electronics add a bit of meat to the emaciated bones, but that this recording is live, with flesh and blood applause after each track, demonstrates just how far Mense takes the humble recorder from the schoolyard pips of “Three Blind Mice”.
Opener Erbsen by Marc Sabat employs live recorder and recordings, and is the most varied and my pick of the bunch, the six short parts veering from the Leggo block barrel organs of “Part 1” through the eerie aqueous tones of “Part 5” concluding with frenzied staccato jigs. Manfred Stahnke’s “ImpansionExpansion” recalls Ligeti’s work for organ, all overtones and strange wheeze, while Sascha Lemke’s “Re:re:re – Teil 2” utilises Lachnemann vocabulary with its scrapes, belches and spittle. The portentous title of George Hajdu’s “Tsunami” disappoints with subtle exotica stylings, but Ulrich Kreger’s “Black Smoker” amply delivers, craftily evoking the titular subaquatic emissions with breathy low tones and a glacial hiss worthy of Deathprod.
Joshua Meggitt
