A sound of a decidedly different kind. With the release of their CD “Lily” (Relative Pitch Records), ISABELLE DUTHOIT and FRANZ HAUTZINGER have proven they know how to consistently create a different kind of musical harmony and escape musical conventionality.
Those familiar with the artistic creations and various projects of these artistic free-spirits can probably imagine where “Lily” will take them. And that is most definitely not to any of the usual musical landscapes. That which Isabelle Duthoit (clarinet, vocals) and Franz Hautzinger (trumpet) have created, the soundscapes they have built into their pieces, has absolutely nothing to do with conventional musicality. The path they have taken on their CD leads directly to improvisation, one freed of musical dogmas that develops a mad life of its own.
BEYOND THE STANDARD RULES OF MUSIC
The duo leads the listeners through a mysterious, collage-like soundscape that is well beyond the standard rules of music-making. Searching for melodies and structural rhythms is pointless. They simply don’t exist. What rules instead are avant-garde experimentations with sounds and voices and the exploitation of all the possibilities the available instrumentation provides.
Isabelle Duthoit screams, whimpers, whispers, gurgles and hisses witchlike through the pieces. Franz Hautzinger works his trumpet in the most diverse ways creating abstract sounds that are more static noise than harmonic. The result is a mysterious soundscape that develops a curiously magnetic pull on the listener. This isn’t easy listening. The audible creations on “Lily” require intense contemplation in order to understand the work in its totality. But those willing to do this, to dive into this unusual world, will enjoy an intensely gripping listening experience.
Michael Ternai (translated by David Dempsey)
Links:
Isabelle Duthoit
Franz Hautzinger