37Fern - 37Fern (2020) Hi-Res

The Bass Clarinet Festival is a biennial event in which the bass clarinet is central. In the 20/21 edition, the focus is on combinations of bass clarinet and percussion. Like other cultural events, this festival also suffers from the measures taken in connection with Covid-19, but luckily concerts are still possible.

The biennial festival also spawns new formations, such as during the 2018 edition, when 37Fern was founded. This is a quartet consisting of the bass clarinetists Oğuz Büyükberber and Tobias Klein and the vocalists Claron McFadden and Kristina Fuchs. Apparently the collaboration went so well that it has now come to the release of the debut album.

Fuchs is a Swiss vocalist who has lived in the Netherlands for some time but has since returned to her native country. She has a jazz education but looks beyond the jazz street. She masters many voice techniques and switches smoothly between genres. Sometimes she accompanies herself with a loop station or a hang (a kind of steel drum). McFadden is an American soprano of the versatile kind. In her early years she was introduced to gospel, funk and jazz and later went to study classical music. In 1984 she moved to the Netherlands, where she also became acquainted with the modern repertoire. McFadden has performed various opera roles but also worked with The Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, Michiel Borstlap, Chris Hinze and Aka Moon.

The similarity between McFadden and the two bass clarinetists is that they all worked with bass clarinet advocate Harry Sparnaay. Büyükberber and Klein have been forming a duo since 2005, but they are also musically active beyond that. Klein is, together with his partner Fie Schouten, the initiator and organizer of the Bass Clarinet Festival. He is an improviser as well as a composer and he is band leader of the ensemble Spinifex. Büyükberber is also an improviser and a composer. In the latter capacity he wrote works for the Dresdener Sinfoniker, the Kairos string quartet, David Kweksilber Big Band, Duo X, Axes Ensemble and Spinifex Orchestra. Büyükberber is also a visual artist and sometimes wants to combine his disciplines. He also uses live electronics during performances. He focuses on modern composition, free improvisation and Turkish music.

Regarding the latter we come back to 37Fern, because the music on the album is based on music from Anatolia. The quartet reinterprets that music in a contemporary idiom, but also uses influences from Anatolian music in its own compositions and improvisations. In this way an album is created that contains a mixture of Anatolian music, classical, contemporary composed music, folk and jazz. Sometimes that sounds like modern classical music, sometimes jazzy and swinging, but much more often the music contains something in between.

Now a cross between classical and jazz in particular sometimes leads to bloodless results, but that is not the case in this case. 37 Fern knows how to keep his music interesting and lively. Now, when it comes to sound, the bass clarinet is one of the most beautiful wind instruments out there, and in the hands of Klein and Büyükberber, the use of the instrument also guarantees a world of possibilities when it comes to that sound, but also when it comes to about technique and emotional value. The second important factor is the vocalists, who are quite different from one another but have a perfect understanding of each other and make full use of their possibilities individually and together. At the best moments, the album is a close-knit four-piece in which each individual voice comes into its own.

This happens, for example, in opener "Zeynep Kizi", a traditional piece arranged by Büyükberber. The two voices float wordlessly around each other, while the bass clarinets beautifully fill the space in between but also underlay the voices of the vocalists. "Trough", a composition by Klein, is a work with different faces within which there is room for experimentation but also for beautiful harmonies of McFadden and Fuchs, supported by low bass clarinet sounds. In "Aci Meleke", also a traditional edited by Büyükberber, wind instruments and vocalists regularly find each other in unison playing. Words are not necessary: ​​the expression of both singers also thrives without text.

"Calliste" and "Asparagus" are joint compositions. They are playful, whimsical and (partly) improvised pieces of music in which sound research is done, including vocally. Whisper, murmur, simmer and sputter; both McFadden and Fuchs show their most experimental side. Klein's double bass clarinet forms the rhythmic bottom layer in "Sis", a work by Büyükberber with harmonious and dynamically impressive vocals. Every single voice, vocal and instrumental, has an equally important role. "Kale" is a spry and intensive duet by McFadden and Büyükberber (on clarinet) that underlines the virtuosity of both.

Büyükberber's "A GLove Turned Around" is the smoothest and most cheerful piece on the album, fitting in a jazz idiom, including solos and with the addition of handclaps. The short "Dandelion" is a duet by both bass clarinetists, with Klein again on the double bass clarinet. The album is concluded with a composition by his hand, "Losungen". It is an open sounding composition, starting with the vocal sounds of McFadden and Fuchs, followed by a theme and then ending in a wordless, somewhat jazzy song with a clear song structure. It is a beautiful ending to an as a whole equally beautiful album with adventurous music, balancing on the edge of different genres and delivered with audible pleasure.