TAUS (TIM BLECHMANN & KLAUS FILIP) – Pinna

Another Timbre

In consideration of the live setting (the CD was recorded in 2010 at Neue Musik In St Rupecht) I would like to preface this writeup with a rare praise to a specially quiet audience. Even the classic external noises of urban descent seem to behave more respectfully during the performance, almost a sign indicating the rigorousness of the procedure and the high quality of its results. A laptop duo, Taus (the synthesis of Tim and Klaus, for the inattentive ones) exploit the environment’s features with a combination of stringency, awareness of the spatial arrangement and discriminating ears. Sharing the frequency gamut according to a skilled practice, they start from utter silence with elusive waves acting as test tones of sorts, newborn sounds looking around the room to determine the corners from which they could better ricochet and the surfaces that might improve their development and dissemination. The evolution of the piece follows a design made of parallel arcs, attracting opposites and timbral ripening. Segments where the sheer movement of the head changes the complexion depicted by superimposed pitches are followed by masses of coarse mixtures and pressurized steam; never the sequence of the events appears less than logical. Circa 40 minutes in, we’re led to believe that the course of the sonic matter will end with a bang – a slowly growing quaking heftiness, a sense of latent hostility materializing bit by bit – but Blechmann and Filip displace the listeners once and for all by letting the whole return to the initial state in mere instants, their creature ultimately sheltered into the hole of stillness from where everything had begun.