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Olga Neuwirth & Vinko Globokar: New works with col legno

  Tobias

We will start with Vinko Globokar, who certainly has an eclectic and unusual biography to his name. Born in Slovenia, he first made a name for himself as a Jazz Trombonist, switching between his French birthplace and his Yugoslavian roots. Luciano Berio was one of the teachers of Vinko Globokar, Karl-Heinz Stockhausen one of his collaborators, but he would always return to improvised music next to his work as a composer. Six of Vinko Globokar’s pieces were part of the program in his hometown of Anderny in August of 2004, when the Suntory Hall in Tokyo hosted the celebrations to honour Vinko Globokar. “Les Ortages” for big orchestra and sampler is a monumental track, but on the col legno release, another score is featured even more prominently: “Der Engel der Geschichte”, recorded at the “Festival international des musiques d’aujourd’hui Strasbourg” is one of Vinko Globokar’s most renowned writings and deals with Paul Klee’s painting “Angelus novus”, a testimony of an impending catastrophy.

Catastrophies of every-day life were also the starting point for Olga Neuwirth. She seemed surprised herself that “...ce qui arrive...” has turned out consoling and consiliatory in the face of its subject. The conclusion must be that coincidence can make one strong: “The less predictable these events are and the more absurd, and incredible, the bigger, brighter and more overwhelming I will be” Olga Neuwirth, who was born in Graz, has made the contrast between the outward objectiveness and inward irrationality of human thinking a key issue in her oeuvre and this CD is no exception to that rule.

Coinciding with this release, col legno is simultaneously making a recording of all nine Beethoven symphonies available, as well Wolfgang Mitterer’s “Some Pop”, which even ventures to deal with radio-compatible song structures. From this angle, Olga Neuwirth and Vinko Globokar may stem from very different corners of the musical world, but that world is increasingly looking united thanks to the efforts of col legno.

Homepage: Col Legno Records

Picture by Priska Ketterer