This CD simply is superb. The art of the double bass has been developed in avant-garde territory by the likes of Peter Kowald, Mark Dresser, and Dominic Duval. All three showed how wide the huge instrument's palette of sounds and emotions was. Klaus Janek tapped right into this legacy to deliver a moving solo album, Caspar. He bows, plucks, scratches, elongates notes into drones, feverishly plays until you don't know what instrument he plays on anymore, and occasionally uses his voice to add an extra human touch (a technique Kowald pioneered). The eight pieces were recorded over a four-year span, with the bulk of the music coming from a three-day session in July 1997. The CD finally came out in 2001. The first two parts expose different extended techniques well integrated in the course of short improvisations. "Part III" introduces the voice over a jazzy melody that gradually gets out of control. The longer "Part IV" comes back to atonality and noise-based performance, while featuring a level of passion one usually finds only in Joëlle Léandre's recordings. The 13-minute "Part VI" is more thoroughly composed and varied, taking the listener through a number of climates and climaxes. The album ends with Marc Johnson's "Prayer Beads," a deceptively simple jazz tune. It creates a beautiful contrast, the perfect way to conclude this CD. Janek's playing deserves to be heard. Strongly recommended.
© François Couture /TiVo