Calefax Reed Quintet - Hans Abrahamsen: /Walden /Wald (2013) [Hi-Res]

Hans Abrahamsen: 'Wald' is sort of a variation series about the beginning of my woodwind quintet 'Walden'. The thematic idea is very simple: an ascending fourth-call and the answers of other voices. This is repeated several times, but since the call has a slower pulse than the answers, the order is finally being changed. For »Walden« I borrowed the title from the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. He wrote about life in the wood, where the American philosopher spent two years. It was an experiment, the attempt to abandon all artificial, society grown needs and to rediscover the oneness of the human being with nature. Although Thoreau did not undertake a detailed analysis of society, he was, in his comprehension of economy and ecology – the cyclic constitution of nature – way ahead of the times. »Walden« was composed in a style of recycling and of 'new simplicity'. Unnecessary material was peeled in order to make space for other characteristics such as conciseness and clarity. One meets several principles in this quintet: organics (growth, bloom, decay), concreteness (mechanic patterns) and finally the descriptive (horn sounds from afar and other ghostly music of the past enter like a dream our consciousness).

The music of 'Wald' and 'Walden' will be embedded in field recordings by Stefan Winter. The breathing of the timeless and peaceful woods is the neutral state of sound and there is a sound esoteric beyond silence.

Calefax Reed Quintet:
Oliver Boekhoorn, oboe
Ivar Berix, clarinet
Jelte Althuis, bass clarinet
Raaf Hekkema, alto saxophone
Heidi Mockert, bassoon
Asko Schönberg Ensemble
Reinbert de Leeuw, conductor