A Closer Listen
This is the first time we’ve featured German pianist and composer Clemens Christian Poetzsch on ACL, which is a real oversight. His four solo albums on the Neue Meister imprint are casually brilliant, with a unique style lying somewhere on the border between classical and jazz. In the last few years he has established himself as a respected composer and performer with plaudits including a concert at the prestigious Elbphilarmonie in Hamburg, an award-winning movie soundtrack, and collaborations with Sven Helbig, Dogma Chamber Orchestra, Modëna Quartet and Rammstein (yes, that Rammstein). This EP, Chasing Heisenberg (Upright Reframings) reworks five tracks from the most recent solo album Chasing Heisenberg.
Words often fall short. Music has the power to fill the sometimes gaping chasm between what we sense and what we can put into words. Poetzsch says that Chasing Heisenberg and its predecessors The Soul of Things and Remembering Tomorrow were exactly that: a trio of attempts to depict something musically that is near impossible to articulate verbally. Remember Tomorrow (2019) was about the bizarre yet familiar phenomenon of déjà vu. The Soul of Things (2021) explored our peculiar attachment to certain objects and their uncanny ability to elicit powerful memories. Most recently Chasing Heisenberg (2022) drew a link between Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and the unpredictability of inspiration.
In the case of the Upright Reframings EP the inspiration is clear. The three albums named above were recorded on a top quality Steinway Model D grand piano, but were written on Poetzsch’s grandfather’s old upright piano, upon which Upright Reframings was recorded. This piano is itself the kind of object that Poetzsch was referring to in The Soul Of Things: this is the piano upon which Poetzsch learnt to play Clementi, Schubert and Bach with his grandfather, a professional opera singer, and it was also the piano upon which Poetzsch first played Frank Sinatra songs, reading the notes in a book gifted to him by his father. All musicians know the special relationship we have with the instrument upon which we learnt. It is like a family relationship: we took our first steps with them; as we grew up, we became aware of all their flaws and their strengths; we love them even as they might sometimes drive us a little crazy; they are a part of who we are.
The Upright Reframings EP is really lovely, but because it is quiet, contemplative and intimate it is maybe not the perfect introduction to Poetzsch’s sound, not least because it misses the casual brilliance of some of Poetzsch’s playing mentioned above. For that we have to turn to its source material. Chasing Heisenberg has two absolutely electric tracks: “Flimmern” (flickering) and “Zwei Funken” (two sparks). The latter buzzes with energy right from the start, portraying the exhilaration of having the muse. The former takes its time to build to an utterly glorious climax, is certainly one of the most exciting pieces for solo piano I’ve ever seen performed live, and is a perfect depiction of the way inspiration sometimes gradually coheres from formlessness into perfect sense.
How can we express the ineffable? It lies on the edge of what makes us human; although we feel it, we cannot fully understand it. In reminding us of the limits of our intellect, it helps us to see what we are: mere specks in an indescribably complex universe. This is a scary but ineffably beautiful thing. Chasing Heisenberg and its Upright Reframings speak to us about what it means to be human, and in doing so, help us to find our place in the universe. (Garreth Brooke)
Wed Nov 08 00:01:52 GMT 2023