Albrecht Maurer – gothic fiddle, voice

Norbert Rodenkirchen – medieval flutes, harp, voice

For the last years, the duo has been specialized on the exciting „Vexierspiel“ between old and new sound. It only composes and improvises own Contemporary Music on medieval instruments - gothic fiddle, rebec, medieval flutes and lyra.

They started 2003 with free improvisations to figure out the sounds and the possibilities of new music technics on their instruments.

In 2005 the debut CD Hidden Fresco was released on Nemu Records. They played on different festivals, live in WDR radio Cologne and had many reviews in the press and in the internet.

At the moment they work on their new program and their second album „Resound“.

from the liner notes

“Elsewhere string technique variously suggests spiky old-time mandolin picking or rasgueado guitar fills. Not only do flute sounds include formalist legato and wheezy staccato breaths, but harp strokes can sometimes be compared to guzheng textures. Leonardo cited the transformative power of music when in the Treatise, he compared his visual discovery with the sound of bells in whose tolling your imagination hears and conjure up names and words. With Hidden Fresco, Maurer and Rodenkirchen express similar phenomena in their own characteristic fashion.”- Ken Waxman (Toronto, Canada,)

Quote from Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci, Treatise on painting MS.ASH.I.fol.22vlecture 63:

A way to wake up the imagination for various new inventions:

I can´t hesitate to add a new kind of speculation here, which - although it seems to be nearly worthless and good for a laugh - is nonetheless of great utility in waking up the imagination for various new inventions:

When you take a look at some walls - dirty with stains of mud in many colours – or into stone of different mixture while you have to invent a scenery, you will be able to find  similarities with a diversity of landscapes there, ornamented with trees, rivers, rocks, plains, huge valleys and hills in an everchanging kind of way. You will also see many battles and vivid gestures of  figures, peculiar looks and costumes and myriad of things which you can transform back to a perfect and good form. And with these walls and mixtures it is the same as with the sound of bells in whose tolling you can find every name and every word that you are able to think of.

short press info Hidden Fresco

Leonardo da Vinci´s famous lecture about the stained walls from the Treatise on Painting is the thematic centre of this program. The mysterious text which was of tremendous importance for the surrealist painter Max Ernst and which is about awakening the imagination by discovering all kinds of faces, landscapes, costumes, battles and much more in the stained mud of an old wall was the initial inspiration for the two Cologne based musicians to work on a program with a similar process of discovering new sounds in ancient instruments. Leonardo added to his lecture the comparison of sounding bells in which the listener thinks to depict human voices. Thus Norbert Rodenkirchen and Albrecht Maurer present with Hidden Fresco a program with experimental improvisations and own compositions in which the archaic layers are sounding through.

Hidden Fresco

New music on ancient instruments!?

Erosion - caused by nature, but guided by time / time - the purest form of music; music - the purest form of time. Without EROS we would never sense these beautiful wings, without THANATOS we wouldn´t either. What´s left from the ancient walls and sounds? They are still there but somehow fragmented, in ruins / ruined by time. First of all: please save the ruins from reconstruction / everywhere! If they disappear - all these broken walls, these gorgeous surfaces covered with encrusted mud in obscure colours - there will be no more platform for the imagination. As we follow Leonardo´s advice and look at the fresco-like traces of erosion - naturally through the eyes of today (have there been any other?) - we seem to listen to sounds from very far away: polyphonies of extending time layers, one hiding the other - some names and words still audible in the IONosphere, which forces the air to stay on earth and thus enables music and love / music - accumilating a past, another past and again one more past, and so on - how beautiful and inspiring. This is the way future jumps out of this incredibly short moment of omniPRESENCE, this "ION" floating everywhere beyond all limits being electrified by what happens / this crazy little thing called: NOW. It is the moment to feel with all senses that we are bound between the two poles EROS and THANATOS like we are in between the two strikes of a bell. Now: is this music postmodern? Oh no, it´s transmodern. "Archaic anarchy? Could be!"

Norbert Rodenkirchen

reviews international

Similarly unique, Hidden Fresco presents improvisations on early European instruments (Gothic fiddle and flute/harp) from Kent Carter collaborator Albrecht Maurer and musicologist/performer Norbert Rodenkirchen. Like the Kent Carter String Trio which its aesthetic somewhat resembles, the Maurer-Rodenkirchen duo strives for a uniquely compositional bent, with steadily lilting themes and a decidedly orchestral weight behind pieces like the rhythmic and vaguely minimal “A Due.” Certainly some of the mass comes from the fact that Maurer’s fiddle is a five-stringed instrument, able to hit lower octaves than his usual violin.

The title track, an introductory improvisation, is full of scrabble and glissandi, Maurer skittering across wood and strings as Rodenkirchen operates somewhere between the Andes and the Early Music Consort. Maurer picks up on a courtly phrase and turns it into gorgeous counterpoint, ponticello scrape and buzzing breaths returning to close the piece. Rodenkirchen’s flute is hummed on, slap-tongued and yet still beholden to a feeling of “tradition.” Whether on winds or the occasional harp, he is a highly rhythmic player, often lending a ground to Maurer’s complex flights. These roles are constantly shifting, however--they’re partners in a perpetual dance, as on Maurer’s multi-part “Fadenspiel.”

The recording quality is among the best I’ve heard; cranked at a decent volume, one literally feels as though in a hall with the pair. One can almost sense the bodily movement of the players, so real is the sound and the space it occupies. Rarely does audio trump musical content, but in this case, they might be on equal footing.

... Rodenkirchen and Maurer both holding status as composers in their own right, the proceedings follow the logic of written music as much as improvisational whims, lending the pieces both shaded delicacy and free immediacy. This recordings is a living proof that the innovations begotten by freedom are not just melodic or rhythmic, but also of possibility. - Clifford Allen - All About Jazz/July 2007, USA

“There aren´t many jazz recordings that include gothic fiddle or medieval flute in its repertoire, but the duo of Albrecht Maurer and Norbert Rodenkirchen don´t seem to be intimidated by that fact. This tapestry is a collection of improvised compositions that alternate between Eastern and Western music. Songs like the title piece and „...A Due“ conjure up dark and turbulent images from the Middle Ages. On the other side of the planet, „Aura“ and „Calindra“ ... delve into more oriental and Middle Eastern territories. Lonely, edgy and baroque, „Fadenspiel“ and „Erosion“ draw out spacious and luminous episodes of long tones mixed with contrasting guttural tones. Experimental, lurking and inquisitive, the music by Maurer and Rodenkirchen on HIDDEN FRESCO has many appealing layers to peal away.” - George Harris - All about Jazz /Jan. 2007, USA

The name of Albrecht Maurer kept ringing a bell in my head, then I suddenly remembered him as a part of a fantastic Emanem project by Kent Carter's String Trio; conversely, this is my first meeting with Rodenkirchen. Both artists are virtuosos in their respective trades, coming from different backgrounds that somehow found a perfect trait d'union in the music they perform as a duo. Using gothic violin, medieval flutes and harp, the couple conceived an album containing almost one hour of outstanding music, motivated by many factors but definitely sounding like a strange brew of middle age, native Indian and traditional Asian, the whole in a modern classical dress.

Even more impressive is the fact that this stuff is mostly improvised, because the bulk of the pieces contained in "Hidden fresco" is more or less comparable to scored compositions with just a modicum of variations. The title refers to Leonardo Da Vinci's theory according to which artists see the object of their creation in advance when observing a rock formation or a stained wall, and several tracks refer to pictorial and visual techniques ("Tempera", "Craquelé"). But this is not so important when compared to the splendid timbral poems that Maurer and Rodenkirchen bring out of their instruments, which the high quality of the recording exalts and enhances.

Like every other Nemu release, this is a gorgeous example of over average sonic craftmanship, a record whose beauty does not depend on genres or classifications. - Massimo Ricci - www.touchingextremes.com /July2007 Rom, Italy

“Beauty is unearthed and unabashedly displayed throughout Hidden Fresco, the latest release from the German duo of Albrecht Maurer and Norbert Rodenkirchen. Their use of medieval instruments to explore contemporary sounds cultivates a fresh perspective on modern improvisation. The warm timbre of the instrumentation softens the edge of harsh dissonance while enhancing tonal resolve. “There’s a sense of urgency that permeates the entire disc. Maurer (gothic fiddle) and Rodenkirchen (medieval flutes and harp) are not intent on wasting sonic space. From the frenzied opening notes of the title track to the passionate evocation of “Behind,” the duo is unwavering in their search for musical unification.

The compositional ideas are sparse enough to allow for spontaneous shifts in direction. Each selection is pre-conceived only to the extent of establishing a distinguishable flavor. The contrapuntal interplay of “…A Due” serves up seemingly endless varieties of motivic development. “Erosion,” the longest of the twelve tracks, shifts emotional gears in unpredictable fashion. “Nibbio” and “Craquele,” by comparison, are short, plaintive pieces with deliberate sensibilities. The short main theme of “Aura” provides a springboard for enlightened conversation, culminating in a gypsy sounding bustle. By matching his voice to the sustained pitch of his fiddle Maurer creates a chilling drone effect on “Sfumato,” similar in tone to a maultrommel. The aptly named “Melancholia” is somber and reflective in nature.

Maurer and Rodenkirchen are both technical masters; their incorporation of percussive effects, chords, and rapid lines portray sympathetic artists who are able to push the boundaries of archaic instrumentation to express a full range of emotion.” - John Barron - JazzReview.com / 03.2007

“These two gentlemen purport to engage the listener in improvisations using medieval instruments. And not just using those instruments, but producing sounds that no medievalist would likely have heard. In other words, there is an attempt to stretch the „capabilities of these instruments much in the way that so many modern composers have sought to challenge the skills of modern players of all stripes…. this is only a part of what happens on this disc.

Though both of these players dabble in the classical and jazz worlds, there is very little of what even remotely resembles jazz here? So you can relax if you thought that you were in for a jam session of crumhorns and sackbuts! And I must admit that after careful listening, there is a lot of skill at play here. Both players are carefully listening to one another and playing off each other. The fiddle may execute a curlicue melody that the harp then picks up and turns into a rhythmic accompaniment. ... there are some who will appreciate the evident talent of these two players.” - Steven Ritter - audaud.com / 02. 2007 

“Oddball combination of gothic fiddle and medieval flutes... Improv duets with an almost Asian feel in both instruments. Nice.” - www.sonic.net

Op Hidden Fresco bespeelt hij de gothic fiddle, een middeleeuws instrument. Rodemkirchen, een specialist in het spelen van middeleeuwse muziek, bedient zich ook van oude instrumente. Maar de tween maken geen pseudo-middeleeuwse muziek – ze improvisieren, waarbij ze gebruikmaken van de unieke klanken van hun instrumenten. Door de andere stemming daarvan klinkt het resultaat niet als hedendaagse, Westerse muziek. De zweverige klanken hebben iets onaards, maar tegelijkertijd wordt er door middel van zeer hedendaagse speeltechnieken voorkomen dat er een soort New Age-muziek ontstaat. Soms doet de muziek (midden-)oosters aan, soms volksmuziekachtig, maar in alle gevallen volstrekt. Uniek, ... Toch ook wel weer Europees. - Herman te Loo - jazzflits 05.2007, Netherlands

bio

Albrecht Maurer

Albrecht Maurer - since many years a well regarded creator of music between avantgarde and Jazz and one of the influential and important figures of the European scene (with its´ international radius) - also likes to drink from the sources of early music as a virtuoso fiddler with incredible sound sensibility and individuality. His fascinating, unconventianal and highly personal style of fiddle playing brought him invitations to join programs of the prominent medieval ensemble Dialogos.


Norbert Rodenkirchen

Norbert Rodenkirchen is not only an internationally reknowned performer formedieval music (f.e. as a member of Sequentia). Free improvisation also hasbeen one of his genuine ways to express himself (he was the flute player in the free jazzer´s Gunter Hampel Coming Age Orchstra and realised a lot of own avantgarde projects far beyond the world of early music). He has also been in demand as a versatile composer in the realms of music for film and theater and is the artistic director of a successful concert series in the famous medieval Museum Schnuetgen, Köln.

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