EMBRACE : Polwechsel 30th anniversary edition X4 LP vinyl box set


‘This celebration of the group’s 30th anniversary is composed entirely of recent works, but each will move around in time as well as in form, in ways that belong to traditions of both improvised and composed music, but also in ways that belong distinctively to this group. It demonstrates breadth and depth that suggest great temporal reach, embracing musical values that touch the art’s ritual origins and offering a sense of ongoing relevance and renewal. True to the group’s spirit, this anniversary project is not a retrospective but a probe into an array of fresh possibilities.’
– Stuart Broomer

‘To be sure, the newer recordings have occasionally become a bit denser in texture and richer in imaginative sounds. The playing processes, too, are rounder in form, more obvious than at the beginning. Polwechsel has until now preserved its finely transparent instrumental character. Along with the inner tranquillity to maintain long arcs of tension, and the sensitivity to rigorously balance the relationship between action and non-action.’
– Reinhard Kager

‘To create compositions and clear playing concepts, yet allow these to become enlivened with the experience of improvisation – this concept is one of the constants in the evolution of the Polwechsel formation. Process-oriented thinking rendered into concise form and structure. All of it without dramaturgical developments that steer toward a climax. Maintaining tension instead of increasing and then releasing tension – the music of Polwechsel can be described in these few words.’
– Nina Polaschegg

‘For 30 years Polwechsel’s evolving methods have both questioned and invigorated ideas of what group music making can be. Not for the sake of theory, but to produce something that genuinely feels like it wasn’t there before. Whilst these new pieces conjure many elusive worlds of meaning, they are, I think, grounded in the very human and personal qualities of everyone involved.’
– John Butcher


CAST

Burkhard Beins
Martin Brandlmayr
Werner Dafeldecker
Michael Moser

with

Peter Ablinger
John Butcher
Klaus Lang
Magda Mayas
Andrea Neumann


CONTENT

Embrace 1 / nvnc-lp040
Jupiter Storm (Werner Dafeldecker)
Partial Intersect (Michael Moser)

Embrace 2 / nvnc-lp041
Chains and Grain (Martin Brandlmayer)

Embrace 3 / nvnc-lp042
Magnetron (Polwechsel & Andrea Neumann)
Quarz/Obsidian (Burkhard Beins)

Embrace 4 / nvnc-lp043
Orakelstücke (Peter Ablinger)
Aquin (Klaus Lang)

Includes a 32-page booklet with essays by Stuart Broomer, Reinhard Kager and Nina Polaschegg and a complete discography

Box set concept and design by Teresa Iten
LP cover art by Michael Moser