- John Krausbauer, Werner Durand
- Black Seraphim
- Series: Moving Furniture Records
- Format: Cd
- Werner Durand
- &
- John Krausbauer
- Black Seraphim
- Series: Moving Furniture Records
- Format: Cd
Separated by an ocean and a generation apart, German reedsman, Werner Durand and American stringsman, John Krausbauer, have both been devotees of the cosmic ur-drone for many decades. Their new recording on Moving Furniture Records, “Black Seraphim”, brings together for the first time their singular vision and approach in a half hour droning dirge. The setup finds Krausbauer on his oft-employed violin, while Durand continues to explore the possibilities of his self-invented reed instruments. The same foundations that lie at the heart of
their musics: (electro)-acoustic instrumentation, long durations, alternate tuning systems, all can be found on the harmonically dense and rich offering. An unrelenting, buzzing choir of harmonics and overtones begets a time-warped hallucinatory trip into the black ooze of trance’d consciousness.
Reviews
CDM, Peter Kirn
Do you love drones? I mean, like you’re craving nothing more than aggressive drones coming right into your ears from violin and self-made reed instruments for 27 minutes, 28 seconds straight? The legendary Werner Durand and John Krausbauer have you covered on label-for-the-heads Moving Furniture Records out of Amsterdam. And then we take a side trip to time crystals, images, and sounds to discover from La Monte Young and Jung Hee Choi.
First, Black Seraphim by Werner Durand & John Krausbauer. As Moving Furniture label boss Sietse van Erve describes:
Anyone familiar with both their output knows this is some golden collaboration. Deep, intense drones blast out of the speakers, created with self-invented wind instruments and violin.
For those new to these names: think Tony Conrad, Catherine Christer Hennix (with whom Durand also worked), La Monte Young, etc. Old school drone goodness!
It’s a full bath of sound. To me, honestly, electronic invention always makes me want to go back to acoustic sound, and acoustic instruments always make me want to go back to electronic sound. It’s just insatiable listening, all of it — even the instrument-building part, the ultimate active listening. And this is just what insatiable lovers of harmonics and drones will need.
