Reviews

Zufall3177 is a very young label, with only two releases by now. The label started with the recording of Coincidenza, a collaboration of 24 musicians from Rome who never had played together before. This is also the leading concept for 'Sui'. So 'Sui' does not refer to a band, but to a - by definition- one of project. Of course there needs to be an organizer behind this, a genius who coordinates this formula. Otherwise it is difficult for it to come into being. Also I can't imagine the musicians were invited purely on a at random base. So there must be a mastermind behind this project who pulls the triggers. From the information included I cannot conclude however who this person is. Probably the folks who run this label. It is evident that these people are charmed by the concepts of coincidence, synchronicity and I Ching. Through these principles they search for "the essence of music" in their projects. For 'Sui' this exercise is executed by the following musicians from Germany, Swiss, France, Italy and USA were invited: Agathe Gizard ( violin, voice), Chad Popple (drum), Frank Szardenings (guitar, bass, sax), Gastone Lagaffe (tenor sax, guitar), Hans Hartmann (doublebass, chapmanstick), Jeff Gburek (guitar, mixer, laptop), Jean Hervé Peron (voice, guitar, bass, trumpet, psalter, bohrhammer, chain, horn), Mat Pogo (voice, mixer radio station set), Peter Schlewinski (drum), JD Zazie (CDs, turntable, mixer), der Himmel (bass, voice, drum, horn, bohrhammer, chain). Only the of Peron (Faust) did ring a bell. In many different small line ups we find them at work in 21 short musical escapades. All of them recorded in two days in february 2007. Although a wide range of music emerged in these two days, there is some mysterious unifying factor at work. The music ranks from song-structured pieces, sound and noise collages, free rock and improvisations. Some of the pieces sound very tight, others are a collage of loosely assembled ingredrients. Of course one piece is more successful then another. Maybe because of all musicians vocalist Agathe Gizard is involved in most pieces, it is that I'm impressed by her vocal acrobatics. Whether the essence of music is captured here, I don't know, but it is a successful concept resulting in a multisided whole of very different improvisations.
(Dolf Mulder - Vital Weekly)