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Editorial Reviews
Silfra is the impressive result of a musical collaboration that developed gradually and organically over more than two years. American violinist Hilary Hahn and German pianist Hauschka were introduced by the American folk musician Tom Brosseau, who is signed to the same label as Hauschka. He and Brosseau had recently done a joint concert tour of the United States, and shortly before that Hilary Hahn had featured on Brosseau s album Grand Forks. So when the award-winning violinist performed a concert in Dusseldorf in October 2008, Brosseau made sure that Hauschka was in the audience. The mood at their brief meeting after the concert was positive and friendly, although at that point there was no talk of them working together. This changed a few weeks later, however, when Hauschka performed with Brosseau and the Magik*Magik Orchestra at the Hotel Utah in San Francisco, and Hilary Hahn joined them for the last, improvised piece. An idea was born. Another few weeks passed before Hahn and Hauschka had the opportunity to discuss it in more detail. Both knew that they wanted to work together on something completely new. The idea was to find a form of collaboration that would allow them to venture into new musical terrain but still preserve their singular virtuosity. There was to be no specific objective, however the project was centred on exploration and experimentation. Both of these exceptionally gifted musicians have said that their curiosity about and interested in the other person s work was an important motivation behind their collaboration.
Hahn and Hauschka began rehearsing together in early 2009 although these cannot really be described as rehearsals in a traditional sense. Through improvisation they discovered more about their respective musical approaches while defining a shared musical language.When they were in different parts of the world they would send each other music files and then improvise on these pieces or layer them with additional sound tracks. The only public indication of their collaboration was when Hahn played solo violin on the track Girls on Hauschka s album Salon des Amateurs, which was released in 2011.
For Hauschka, who prepares the strings of his piano with small pieces of metal, clips or different kinds of foils to create new sounds and modify the dynamics of the instrument, improvisation is a crucial element in his everyday life as a performer. And for Hahn, too, improvising is a way of adding new dimensions to her interpretations of composed works.
In early 2011 Hauschka and Hahn first began talking about going into the recording studio. Here, too, the process itself was the goal, and for this reason they didn t tell anyone what they were planning neither their colleagues nor their record companies were informed, so that no commissioning agent or external pressure could influence the outcome of their collaborative efforts. In May 2011 Hahn and Hauschka met at the prestigious Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavik, Iceland. They took no scores with them and ignored the set pieces they had already developed, as everything they were going to record was to be improvised.
The only exception to this was the piano line of Krakow. Hauschka had previously sent this to Hahn and asked her to improvise on it. Its sepia-tinted nostalgia intrigued her. During the recordings, they revisited the track and Hahn reworked the violin parts on the spot. Krakow is also the only track on the album where Hauschka did not prepare the piano.
This unconventional working method after all, musicians usually go into the studio to record music they have already prepared enabled Hahn and Hauschka to integrate the prevailing mood and their spontaneous impressions into their recondings. Producer Valgeir Sigurðsson, who has worked with a diverse array of artists ranging from Björk to Bonnie Prince Billie, und
Tracklisting:
Hahn and Hauschka began rehearsing together in early 2009 although these cannot really be described as rehearsals in a traditional sense. Through improvisation they discovered more about their respective musical approaches while defining a shared musical language.When they were in different parts of the world they would send each other music files and then improvise on these pieces or layer them with additional sound tracks. The only public indication of their collaboration was when Hahn played solo violin on the track Girls on Hauschka s album Salon des Amateurs, which was released in 2011.
For Hauschka, who prepares the strings of his piano with small pieces of metal, clips or different kinds of foils to create new sounds and modify the dynamics of the instrument, improvisation is a crucial element in his everyday life as a performer. And for Hahn, too, improvising is a way of adding new dimensions to her interpretations of composed works.
In early 2011 Hauschka and Hahn first began talking about going into the recording studio. Here, too, the process itself was the goal, and for this reason they didn t tell anyone what they were planning neither their colleagues nor their record companies were informed, so that no commissioning agent or external pressure could influence the outcome of their collaborative efforts. In May 2011 Hahn and Hauschka met at the prestigious Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavik, Iceland. They took no scores with them and ignored the set pieces they had already developed, as everything they were going to record was to be improvised.
The only exception to this was the piano line of Krakow. Hauschka had previously sent this to Hahn and asked her to improvise on it. Its sepia-tinted nostalgia intrigued her. During the recordings, they revisited the track and Hahn reworked the violin parts on the spot. Krakow is also the only track on the album where Hauschka did not prepare the piano.
This unconventional working method after all, musicians usually go into the studio to record music they have already prepared enabled Hahn and Hauschka to integrate the prevailing mood and their spontaneous impressions into their recondings. Producer Valgeir Sigurðsson, who has worked with a diverse array of artists ranging from Björk to Bonnie Prince Billie, und
Tracklisting:
1. Stillness
2. Bounce Bounce
3. Clock Winder (Before Stroll)
4. Adash (Before Clock Winder)
5. Godot
6. Krakow
7. North Atlantic
8. Draw A Map
9. Ashes
10. Sink
11. Halo Of Honey
12. Rift
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
First of all, anyone expecting this to resemble any of violin virtuosa Hilary Hahn's previous work will be severely disappointed. However, this album does fit in very well with certain contemporary music, including a lot of other great music coming out of Iceland. Judged against this background, Hahn and Volker Bertelmann, a master of prepared piano who performs under the name Hauschka, have come up with an exciting set of recordings that pack an artistic and emotional punch.
The album was recorded at the studio of Icelandic producer Valgeir Sigurđsson, who founded the Bedroom Community record label and has frequently worked with Björk. The recording sessions for Silfra lasted ten days, and Hahn and Hauschka brought practically no material with them to the studio. They set out to create new music, and the recording process appears to have mainly been based on basic tracks recorded in joint improvisation which were then filled out with successive layers of overdubs to fill out the sound and add new dimensions.
Broadly speaking, I found two main types of music on this album: rhythmically driven tracks and slower, atmospheric pieces. Where rhythms are strong, they are often downright exuberant. Many tracks -- particularly Bounce Bounce, Adash, Draw a Map, and Sink -- are just a lot of fun. Others, such as Stillness, Ashes, and Rift, are more subdued, wistful and/or contemplative.
The centerpiece of the album, the 12-minute opus Godot, varies between searing atmospherics and edgy, often jackhammer-like percussive sounds from the prepared piano.
The most traditionally structured track is Krakow, which was the only piece of music that did not wholly originate from the Iceland sessions as Hauschka recorded the basic piano track at his home. This is a beautifully melancholy meditation on the grand but also sad Polish city of Krakow.
What does it sound like? Good question that isn't easy to answer. I'd call it post-modern and post-minimalist. I heard definite hints of minimalism, with rhythmic and melodic lines sometimes being repeated, altered and transformed along the way in a manner that could probably be traced back in spirit to Terry Riley's "In C". Adash is a great example of this type of work.
However, this is only one aspect of the album as a whole. In structure, feel and atmosphere, it has a lot of similarities with the music of producer Sigurđsson, who also plays prepared piano on some of his own solo music. Also, the use of simple, beautiful and repitive themes also suggested to me a shared sensibility with one of my favorite contemporary composer-performers, Iceland's Johann Johannsson (with whom Hauschka is actually touring in Europe this summer).
At first I thought that on most pieces the prepared piano -- a normal piano modified by objects placed on or around the strings, hammers and dampers -- was creating a rhythmic and harmonic space within which Hahn could maneuver her violin. But after listening a few more times, I realized the picture is actually much more nuanced. The division of labor between melody, harmony and rhythm is much more evenly divided between the two artists than I had realized at first.
Hahn and Hauschka have a YouTube channel, a Facebook page and a website -- so there is a lot of information and multimedia available out there to explore if you'd like to do that before making a decision. For example, there is a short documentary with interviews and in-studio footage of Hahn and Hauschka. Another is a live-animated video for "Bounce Bounce" -- the first "single" from the album. This video is an amazing artistic achievement in itself, by Brooklyn-based animator Hayley Morris. I thought I saw a few visual references to "The Nutcracker" sequence of Disney's original Fantasia.
Highly recommended, although I imagine there are people to whom this album may not appeal.
The album was recorded at the studio of Icelandic producer Valgeir Sigurđsson, who founded the Bedroom Community record label and has frequently worked with Björk. The recording sessions for Silfra lasted ten days, and Hahn and Hauschka brought practically no material with them to the studio. They set out to create new music, and the recording process appears to have mainly been based on basic tracks recorded in joint improvisation which were then filled out with successive layers of overdubs to fill out the sound and add new dimensions.
Broadly speaking, I found two main types of music on this album: rhythmically driven tracks and slower, atmospheric pieces. Where rhythms are strong, they are often downright exuberant. Many tracks -- particularly Bounce Bounce, Adash, Draw a Map, and Sink -- are just a lot of fun. Others, such as Stillness, Ashes, and Rift, are more subdued, wistful and/or contemplative.
The centerpiece of the album, the 12-minute opus Godot, varies between searing atmospherics and edgy, often jackhammer-like percussive sounds from the prepared piano.
The most traditionally structured track is Krakow, which was the only piece of music that did not wholly originate from the Iceland sessions as Hauschka recorded the basic piano track at his home. This is a beautifully melancholy meditation on the grand but also sad Polish city of Krakow.
What does it sound like? Good question that isn't easy to answer. I'd call it post-modern and post-minimalist. I heard definite hints of minimalism, with rhythmic and melodic lines sometimes being repeated, altered and transformed along the way in a manner that could probably be traced back in spirit to Terry Riley's "In C". Adash is a great example of this type of work.
However, this is only one aspect of the album as a whole. In structure, feel and atmosphere, it has a lot of similarities with the music of producer Sigurđsson, who also plays prepared piano on some of his own solo music. Also, the use of simple, beautiful and repitive themes also suggested to me a shared sensibility with one of my favorite contemporary composer-performers, Iceland's Johann Johannsson (with whom Hauschka is actually touring in Europe this summer).
At first I thought that on most pieces the prepared piano -- a normal piano modified by objects placed on or around the strings, hammers and dampers -- was creating a rhythmic and harmonic space within which Hahn could maneuver her violin. But after listening a few more times, I realized the picture is actually much more nuanced. The division of labor between melody, harmony and rhythm is much more evenly divided between the two artists than I had realized at first.
Hahn and Hauschka have a YouTube channel, a Facebook page and a website -- so there is a lot of information and multimedia available out there to explore if you'd like to do that before making a decision. For example, there is a short documentary with interviews and in-studio footage of Hahn and Hauschka. Another is a live-animated video for "Bounce Bounce" -- the first "single" from the album. This video is an amazing artistic achievement in itself, by Brooklyn-based animator Hayley Morris. I thought I saw a few visual references to "The Nutcracker" sequence of Disney's original Fantasia.
Highly recommended, although I imagine there are people to whom this album may not appeal.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Five INSPIRED Stars! A great musical duo. On "Silfra", Grammy-winning classical violin virtuoso Hilary Hahn and the inventive avant-garde pianist/composer Hauschka (aka Volker Bertelmann) produce exhilarating, modernist, non-conventional, totally-improvised duo performances. After two years of periodic preparatory sessions, they went to Greenhouse studio in Reykjavik, Iceland for 10 days to produce these amazing musical tone poems. "Silfra" re-introduces us to the adventuresome side of Hilary Hahn (who has performed with a beat-boxer and was last recorded with Valentina Lisitsa playing Charles Ives: Four Sonatas). And it displays Hauschka's prodigious musical acumen and his complex 'prepared piano' with its wide universe of sounds, using objects like ping-pong balls, foil, duck tape, floss, and mallets on the strings to produce sounds like cymbals, drums, clicks, continuous tones, and bell-like sounds whose pitch can be altered to startling effect. Hahn uses her wide palette of violin sounds and effects, arco and pizzicato, very inventively in this partnership. At times, one is not able to distinguish the piano from the violin. These improvisational pieces are neither classical, pop, nor jazz but something uniquely approachable and beautiful, without conventional compositional structure. The 'best of the best' begins with the lovely 1m:43s "Stillness"; the 12 minute "Godot", with Hahn creating some awesome effects over Hauschka's frameworks; the oriental-like "North Atlantic"; the more conventional beauty of "Krakow" and "Ashes"; the eerie "Halo of Honey" with freaky high register Hahn violin notes, and perhaps best of all, the swinging joy of the madcap "Bounce Bounce" and the awesome, bluesy, swinging "Draw A Map". The music is influenced greatly by the stark beauty and cultural implications of the Icelandic seascape of the "Silfra" geographical rift, near where they recorded this work. These are fascinating, propulsive, solemn or joyous pieces of cooperative sonic art created by a wonderful musical duo. Produced by Valgeir Sigurđsson. This recording is Highly Recommended. Five MARVELOUS Stars! (This review is based on NPR's "First Listen", the 5 YouTube videos, and an mp3 download of 12 tracks, Total time: 52m:22s. Hilary plays an 1864 Jean-Baptiste Villaume copy of Paganini's Cannone violin.)
14 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By congwen
Format:Audio CD
I'm quite fond of prepared piano and certain minimalist works, and I think Hahn is a formidable violinist. When the news about this CD reached my ears, I was excited; I like it when classical musicians record something that hasn't been recorded for a hundred times. After listening to the album, however, I have to say that I'm not that impressed.
The music is pleasant enough, with interesting acoustics, but really, what do you expect when a prepared piano is involved? I laud the musicians for doing improvisations, but I would rather listen to something carefully written out if this is all they can do with improvisations. Hauschka is quite ok, but Hahn... She's a great violinist. In the past, I had the pleasure to hear some truly great improvisations, and I have to say this is not. I feel that the music lacks a real sense of composition that gives a piece structure, that gets me return to a piece over and over again. To me the music itself is not very memorable in the first place, which is fine if it's interesting enough for repeated listening. The thing is, I don't find it interesting enough.
As for the novelty element... Barring the fact that it's done by classical musicians, there's not much new here. You can find similar sounds in many post-rock or ambient albums. If there's something that could have set Hahn and Hauschka apart from those musicians, it's that they could have given the music the level of structure that usually only musicians with classical training can achieve. But oh well... Dare I say, those musicians with much less formal training have done better.
Maybe my expectation was too high. I was hoping to hear the "Tabula Rasa" (a minimalist work written by Arvo Part in the 1980s for Gidon Kremer) of our age - not in terms of style, but in terms of inspirations and impact. Now I guess I'll just have to stick to that for some time longer.
The music is pleasant enough, with interesting acoustics, but really, what do you expect when a prepared piano is involved? I laud the musicians for doing improvisations, but I would rather listen to something carefully written out if this is all they can do with improvisations. Hauschka is quite ok, but Hahn... She's a great violinist. In the past, I had the pleasure to hear some truly great improvisations, and I have to say this is not. I feel that the music lacks a real sense of composition that gives a piece structure, that gets me return to a piece over and over again. To me the music itself is not very memorable in the first place, which is fine if it's interesting enough for repeated listening. The thing is, I don't find it interesting enough.
As for the novelty element... Barring the fact that it's done by classical musicians, there's not much new here. You can find similar sounds in many post-rock or ambient albums. If there's something that could have set Hahn and Hauschka apart from those musicians, it's that they could have given the music the level of structure that usually only musicians with classical training can achieve. But oh well... Dare I say, those musicians with much less formal training have done better.
Maybe my expectation was too high. I was hoping to hear the "Tabula Rasa" (a minimalist work written by Arvo Part in the 1980s for Gidon Kremer) of our age - not in terms of style, but in terms of inspirations and impact. Now I guess I'll just have to stick to that for some time longer.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Different, sometimes haunting, sometimes frustratingly common
The twelve pieces of music Ms. Hahn and Mr. Bertelmann perform sound sometimes hauntingly beautiful, sometimes frustratingly common, yet continuously fascinating. Read more
Published 2 months ago by John J. Puccio
5.0 out of 5 stars
Headphone Commute Review
Has it really been six months since I've seen Hilary Hahn & Hauschka perform live? I can't slow the time, but I can keep the memories. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Headphone Commute
5.0 out of 5 stars
interesting and inventive
I am not learned enough to bore you with a lengthy review. This disc is just what I like. Adventurous, talented musicians taking chances trying something new. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Curious Skeptic
5.0 out of 5 stars
Silfra
Silfra
This series of improvisations by the duo of American classical violinist Hilary Hahn and German pianist Volker Bertelmann, known as Hauschka, is unique in more way than... Read more
This series of improvisations by the duo of American classical violinist Hilary Hahn and German pianist Volker Bertelmann, known as Hauschka, is unique in more way than... Read more
Published 11 months ago by R. james Tobin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful!
I got this on vinyl. Hilary is a favorite and I had been hoping to hear her great sound on vinyl. Her SACDs are great, as are her CDs, but vinyl's greater. I do not know Mr. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Jeffrey Hunter
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic collaboration!
'Silfra' is absolutely fantastic! I have listened to the full preview which has been available on NPR's web site about six or seven times over the past two days - the music is SO... Read more
Published 12 months ago by crabbymark
1.0 out of 5 stars
Trendiness for Its Own Sake
Hilary Hahn, America's most talented violinist (the rightful heir of either Jascha Heifetz or Nathan Milstein), damages her magnificent reputation with this album. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Musiclover
