Abaton

Sylvie Courvoisier, Mark Feldman, Erik Friedlander

Abaton
Release date: 23.09.2003 ECM 1838/39
2-CD23,90 €out of print

ECM debut for Swiss-born and New York-based pianist Sylvie Courvoisier in a wide ranging programme of written and spontaneously-created chamber music. On CD 1 the musicians play Courvoiser’s compositions (which have been compared, by the French press, to Messiaen’s); on CD 2 they improvise together. All three musicians, however, have such a strong sense for structure that the music sings with one voice, irrespective of the modus operandi employed.

Featured Artists Recorded

September 2002, Rainbow Studio, Oslo

Original Release Date

23.09.2003

  • CD 1
  • 1Ianicum (for violin, cello and piano) (2000)
    (Sylvie Courvoisier)    19:55
  • 2Orodruin (for violin, cello and piano) (2000)
    (Sylvie Courvoisier)    12:33
  • 3Poco a poco (for violin and cello) (1999)
    (Sylvie Courvoisier)    09:24
  • 4Abaton (for violin, cello and piano) (2001)
    (Sylvie Courvoisier)    11:29
  • CD 2
  • 1Icaria 1
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    04:04
  • 2Imke's
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    02:08
  • 3Icaria 2
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    03:30
  • 4Clio
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    02:46
  • 5Nova Solyma
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    04:42
  • 6Spensonia
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    03:58
  • 7Octavia
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    03:34
  • 8Icaria 3
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    02:37
  • 9Sonnante
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    03:37
  • 10The Scar of Lotte
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    01:35
  • 11Turoine
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    01:04
  • 12Archaos
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    03:37
  • 13Ava's
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    01:30
  • 14Brobdingnag
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    01:29
  • 15Calonack
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    02:55
  • 16Precioso
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    02:46
  • 17Sekel
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    01:26
  • 18Izaura
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    02:51
  • 19Narnia
    (Erik Friedlander, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier)    01:50
Abaton is a musical unit of composer and pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, violinist Mark Feldman, and cellist Erik Friedlander. Abaton is also the title of the group’s double-CD ECM debut, produced by label boss Manfred Eicher. Disc number one is made up of four Courvoisier compositions. The second holds 19 improvisations for trio. Very different, they nonetheless dovetail to offer a solid portrait of a composer-led group that views stasis and movement with equanimity. .. Disc two is a stunning mirror image of disc one in that it reflects not only the musical tautness of this triadic union, but the pervasiveness of Courvoisier’s influence as a composer. … Courvoisier is working as a classically trained composer and pianist whose psychologically trained ear for improvisational and jazz nuance is uncanny. That her music is as aesthetically beautiful as it is strange and mysterious is only further testament to her prowess as a composer. That this trio plays her music as if it has been creating it from the air is nothing short of remarkable. Abaton is Courvoisier’s crowning achievement thus far, and this group points her firmly forward in a direction where everything is still possible, demonstrating that there is something new under the sun in classical music and improvisation. Perhaps Abaton is the great moment of 2003 for new classical music.
Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
 
Abaton means a “place not to be entered unbidden”. Abaton, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier’s debut for ECM Records, and also the name of the trio which is completed by violinist Mark Feldman and cellist Erik Friedlander, is the result of an invitation by Manfred Eicher to record an album of her own music. It is a dark and brooding place into which Eicher has invited the trio, but one which is filled with adventure and is sure to satisfy the adventurous listener… Abaton is the first recording by an important new trio. By defying stylistic pigeonholes, they create a unified voice that is altogether new, yet somehow familiar. Whether performing structured composition or improvising freely, they create evocative images.
John Kelman, Jazz Views
 
 
Auf Abaton zeigt das Trio sich von zwei verschiedenen Seiten, die sich erstaunlicherweise sehr nahe kommen: Interpretiert es auf der ersten CD vier weit ausgreifende Kompositionen von Sylvie Courvoisier, huldigt es in den 19 kurzen Stücken der zweiten CD der spontanen Improvisation. Das dichte Interplay, das sein Vokabular stärker aus der modernen E-Musik als aus der Tradition des Jazz bezieht, bietet kein "Easy Listening", aber Klangreisen von jenem Zauber, den die Stücktitel - Ortsnamen aus der phantastischen Literatur - suggerieren.
Manfred Papst, Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag
 
Geschriebene und improvisierte Musik sind sich ... klanglich erstaunlich nah: Eine Kultur des Fragments, der Elementarteilchen, von einer großen Variabilität der meist recht abstrakten Klangbilder. ... Gedehnte Halteklänge von Violine und Cello zu Beginn von "Icaria 1", der ersten der Improvisationen. Courvoisier haucht, tupft Klavierpointillismen. Eine Akkordik entfaltet sich, perkussiv im Ansatz; sogleich aber findet alles wieder zurück ins Sanft-Schwebende. Eine zumeist leise, sorgfältige Musik voller Durchsichtigkeit ist auch auf "Clio" zu vernehmen. Es ist, als ob sich die drei Musiker in ein Glashaus gesetzt hätten, alles, was sie tun, noch das kleinste Geräusch, wird hörbar. Eine ungeheure Klangtransparenz, Knacklaute, Flageoletttöne werden ausgekostet. ... Manchmal aber, da blitzt eine andere Sylvie Courvoisier auf. ... Zupackend-energisch spielt sie auf "Octavia", die Musik grollt. Kleine Free-Ausbrüche sind das, man spürt eine Pranke. ... Und plötzlich wird man gewahr, dass sich auch hinter den schmiegsamen Tönen etwas Archaisches versteckt. Ein Aufruhr in der Stille.
Christoph Merki, Tages-Anzeiger
 
 
 
“Forgetting is an act of purification and sacrifice. Memories are sacrificed so that nothing can cloud the visions that will come. This act prepares for the call, the message that awakens the survivor to proceed into the liminal state, into the dream world. At the sanctuaries of Asclepius, a patient was not allowed to enter the Abaton, meaning ‘place not to be entered unbidden’ unless they received a clear message or vision to come.”
- Maggie Macary, Forgetting and Remembering in Epic Literature


The art of creative “forgetting” is one of the methodologies employed on “Abaton”, Sylvie Courvoisier’s ECM debut. This double album, resolutely genre-defying, is divided into conceptual halves. One disc, subtitled “Four Compositions” presents music written by Courvoisier; the other features “19 Improvisations”, collective music composed on-the-spot by Courvoisier, Mark Feldman and Erik Friedlander. Abaton is also the name of the ensemble - whose concerts now similarly span Courvoisier’s compositions and freely-structured material. For their ECM recording, the trio had originally intended only to record written material, but were encouraged by Manfred Eicher also to play freely, extending the spirit of Sylvie’s compositions. The invitation was enthusiastically accepted: the language of improvisation is by no means foreign to these players…

Sylvie Courvoisier: “I’ve always been a little torn between contemporary music and jazz, or rather improvised music. It’s true that I’ve moved further and further away from ‘jazz’ in my current work, but I don’t care for labels. There will certainly be a moment in my compositions where there’s a basic line connecting to jazz. Jazz lives from improvisation; it has helped me develop this instinctive side of musical activity. When you play improvised music, instantaneous composing is what’s really going on. Every improviser is a composer, and in a way the work of composing itself is an improvisation, but of course one that’s slower, more thought over and revised…To improvise well, you have to forget everything; so to compose well you have to forget everything, too. Paradoxical, isn’t it? When I’m improvising, I like to develop it as if I were composing a piece. Some improvisations are impossible to write down and they’re magnificent.” (from an interview with Christian Steulet).