Press Reviews / Orion
Chain D.L.K.
"Orion" - Im Wald
by Vito Camarretta, 2018
Even if it's not so brand new, this entry by Im Wald (German for 'in the wood') on Swiss label Wide Ear could be considered as a sort of programmatic statement. You could listen to it as a sort of gradual elevation from the short intro "Flachen" (meaning 'surface' or 'ground') to the longest suite 'Orion', where the suite in between - "Nebulae" - could be perceived as a sort of narrow interstice before the sound of this ensemble, made up of Tobias Meier (alto saxophone), Matthias Spillmann (trumpet), Frantz Loriot (viola), Nicola Romano (cello) and Raffaele Bossard (bass), spreads his sight out or above the in-between cage-like space of the just mentioned track. Phrasing in this stage sounds truncated and it seems that the intricate wooden web of low-lying branches and the dense brush frustrates any attempt of sketching a tune: the feverish and sometimes convulsive brushing on strings often turns into exhausted chirping or sinister buzzing, single strokes on bass chords evokes a sort of occasional acceptance of such an insuperable hurdle, the air into the saxophone often results into choked breaths and such a sequence of attempts last over the full length of the suite (around 11 minutes). The sound opens on the mentioned final suite "Orion", but it's a gradual process as the first half of the suite seems to mirror a phase of a troublesome and still sorrowful recovery, but I prefer not to say how the sound will evolve in the second half. I said this output could be programmatic for the presence of a long introductory article (title The Space Of Music) by Berni Doesseger, who made an interesting historical excursus tracing back possible forerunners of the style that this label keeps on exploring. Have a check.