Ernstalbrecht Stiebler - Für Biliana

The Free Jazz Collective 90

Violinist Biliana Voutchkova, cellist Michael Rauter, and violist Nurit Stark perform four works from minimalist composer Ernstalbrecht Stiebler on Für Biliana. Two of the pieces, the solo eponymous track and solo “Glissando,” were composed for the violinist, in 2015 and 2016 respectively. While “Duo 4 / Parallelen,” with Rauter, is another relatively recent composition from 2007, “Extension für Streichtrio” from 1963 provides a glimpse into the development of Stiebler’s style as well as its essence - by way of what’s not changed - including his distinctive combination of sustain, sonority, and movement.

The brief, six-minute solo “Für Biliana” could be confused for a duo. There’s a rocking, slow tremolo on a higher register while a droning sustain simultaneously sounds on a lower register. And these dynamics will breezily trade registers, back and forth. It’s a bit like a lullaby and, though the whine of string is almost always present, there are flourishes whose brightness and warmth might be confused for an organ.

The solo “Glissando” is not much longer, at nine minutes, and, while it could also be confused for a duo and features a similar sense of time and use of sustain, its mood is much gloomier. It begins with descending glissandos in silence like shooting stars in the darkness until the silence is mostly overtaken by sustained tones. The level reference of sustain heightens the sense of falling from the glissandos; an endless terraced pit like depictions of Dante’s hell. Occasionally, other techniques appear, only to be warped by glissandos as if by a fun house mirror.

The longer, 21 minute “Duo 4 / Parallelen” blurs the identities of the violin and cello, with each playing sustained tones separated by silence that move towards each other in time and in timbre. Not just in the sense that the cello will imitate the the low register of the violin with its high register, but that it will use its high register to imitate the violin’s high register. But just as quickly (or slowly) as their play times appear to synchronize, they phase away from each other to begin again.

The older composition, “Extension für Streichtrio,” is still built upon sustain separated by silence, with a sense of time and movement that is somewhat constant throughout the piece and not dissimilar to the other works here, and again with a focus on simultaneous playing from the instruments that simultaneously highlights their similarities and differences. But the delineations between sounds are abrupt and violent. And whereas volume in the other pieces remained almost constant, it’s rapidly increased around silences to accent them here. The effect is a more step-like sense of movement compared to the more undulating feelings from the newer compositions, or a more linear experience compared to a circular one.

As my personal introduction to Stiebler, I feel Für Biliana provides a worthy digest of the composer’s style. It’s certainly a singular approach, evoking distinctive movements through sonority and an unwavering dedication to alternating sustain and silence. There’s a lot to enjoy in the compositions here, and just as much in the timbral richness of the player’s performance.

Für Biliana is available digitally and on CD.

The Free Jazz Collective 90

By Eyal Hareuveni

Readers of the blog may have listened to the work of veteran German contemporary composer Ernstalbrecht Stiebler (born in 1934) thanks to the Swiss label HatHut’s subsidiaries, hat Art and hat[now]Art’s releases in the nineties, Three in One and ...Im Klang… (1996, 1998). These albums and other compositions of Stiebler featured his main interests: sonority, rhythm, and duration reduced to minimalist, repetitive lines and suggesting a deep sonic space. His work is often associated with the seminal work of composers as Morton Feldman and Giacinto Scelsi, but with clearer structures and with a stronger focus on tonality.

Bulgarian, Berlin-based violinist-experimental improviser Biliana Voutchkova began to work with the Stiebler in 2007, a year before she relocated to Berlin when she and cellist Agnieszka Dziubak worked on his composition “Duo/4 Parallelen”, dedicated to both of them. Their relationship strengthed and in 2015 Stiebler wrote his first composition for Voutchkova, “Für Biliana”, for violin solo, and a year later he wrote another one, “Glissando”, which offered a different set of ideas. Two years ago Voutchkova discovered an earlier composition of Stiebler, “Extension” (1963) for a string trio and performed it in a concert of Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, with cellist Michael Rauter and violist Nurit Stark. Then it was clear to her that she must present Stiebler to new audiences and she succeeded to do so in July 2019 when she recorded the four compositions were recorded anew at Studio 1, Bulgarian National Radio, Sofia.

“Für Biliana” demonstrates beautifully Steiebler’s strong individual voice and his own architecture of vibrant sounds, as Voutchkova alternating between articulating an emotional but mysterious, folk song-like and sustained, resonating lines that subvert the innocence of this song-like melody. “Glissando” suggests another patient experiment with another architecture of sounds, as the continuous descents and ascents of Voutchkova’s bow create hypnotic harmonies, allowing these reverberating tones to mirror each other and offer an almost tangible presence.

“Extension” for a string trio of cellist Rauter and violist Stark, offers a more dramatic narrative, still fragile and sparse, but with sudden, percussive outbursts and surprising, brief detours from the overall, quiet, haunting and minimalist atmosphere. The last, “Duo/4 Parallelen”, played by Voutchkova and cellist Rauter, intensifies even further the suggestive qualities of vibrating, sustained tones, creating a fascinating sense of stasis, out-of-time, and out-of-place. This piece, as the previous ones, is delivered with great patience and elegance and it envelops the attentive listener with its profound, meditative spirit.

Voutchkova is a natural interpreter of Stiebler work, having a strong voice of her own, and even a stronger will to keep exploring challenging and unknown territories.