Jürg Frey — Outermost Melodies
Outermost Melodies is a double CD set bringing together percussion-based works from Swiss modern classic/ modern composition composer Jürg Frey. It’s a sonically varied and at points eventful collection moving between the abstract and earthy, the delicate & textured, the dragging & chiming, and beyond.
The release appears on the always-worthy Another Timber. The two CDs come presented in the label house-style mini/ minimal white gatefold packaging. This features minimal texts, and a selection of three photographs- one of a stone paving with shadow/ shade on. One featuring a strip of land taking in both leaf-covered grass & faintly ploughed earth, and a brick wall. So a nicely arty presentation.
The pieces featured here date from between 1994 and 2019- with three pieces on disc one, and four pieces on disc two. These have runtimes between ten and thirty-seven minutes. All but one of the pieces here are performed by multi-discipline percussionist Ian Antonio.
The first disc opens with 2002’s “Glafsered”- this just shy of fourteen-minute piece is built around a blend of dragging-on stone tones, striking chimes, and light hovering siren tones- which play out a loose structure/ shape. There is a feeling of even earthiness, shill tautness, and ritual mystery about the track. Next, we have the three track/ nearing thirty-eight minutes of “Gewitch, Luft, Farbe” This moves between bright/ delicate chiming, steady pot-like hitting, more formal drum patterns, eerily tolling hollow gong bangs and vibe blends, etc. Finally, on disc one, we have 2019’s “Toucher l’air” which is played by Talujon percussion ensemble. This nearing twenty-eight-minute track is a slowly layer-shifting journey into sliding stone scrapes, swirl to simmering metal grates, single hammer of stone hits, beaded rubs, more formal/ brooding percussive bashes, etc. This piece has a feeling of mystery, ritual unease, and slyly shifting textural reward- at points, there is an almost shambling groove to proceedings.
Over onto the second disc we go from the 2022 four-track piece “Tender Outermost Melodies”. This moves between circular stone scapings , brooding gong reverberations and menacing distant drum bounds. Onto to hissing swirls, tolling cymbal moodiness, jingling chimings, single hammer taps, and wider textural scapes. Next is “Die meisten Sachen macht man selten” a just over ten-minute piece composed between 1994 & 1997- which is a more rapidly darting & shift, at points wacky composition- taking in all manner of knocks, gong smarts, hits, spirals, and scrapes. We have 1997’s “Jemandem bei einer Tätigkeit zuhören” a twelve-minute piece built around a constant sonic map which moves between reverbed scrape ‘n’ subtle droning, rolling hiss, and bounding hit. With the disc being finished off with the thirty-two minutes of 2003 “Metal, Stone”. It's built around an at first detailed/ busy sonic web of steady and rapidly gong, cymbal and metal-on-metal hits. Over time this gets more delicate and pared back, with scapes/ later drags added into the mix.
Outermost Melodies is a release for those who enjoy the more experimental side of percussive-based modern composition- with a good selection of different types of sonic disciplines on display.