The pair began on a 40-minute collaboration which was completely improvisational and played from memory, with Hans-Joachim Roedelius on classical piano sounding keyboard against Arnold Kasar’s solarised synth effects which contrasted with the former’s melodies that are akin to landscape painting, with him also creating electric noise such as ethereal grumblings and light rays, radio frequencies and cavernous depths.
Kasar also created these sonar-like noise effects with Roedelius’ rumbling piano becoming more dimmed and forming a bassline for the former’s sharp synthesiser. Roedelius next moved onto his quick footed piano concerto as well as a composition he wrote with his former Cluster peers, Brian Eno and Dieter Möbius, named ‘By this River’, to which he sang vocals and dedicated to Eno.
For their only non-improvisational track of the night, the pair performed from their 2017 collaborative studio album, ‘Einfluss’, with a short ballerina-like melody called ‘Rolling’ that Roedelius had interpreted following their meeting at a festival that Kasar was invited by them to perform at in 2012 and he has since been familiarising himself with the genius’ vast catalogue of works. They both returned to do an encore with a final piece of haunting ambience; the former’s methodical keys were complimented by Kasar’s soaring synth injections, until they jammed the two sounds into one ringing body of light, adorned by Roedelius’ fluttering trills. Sheer magic.
08/04/24: Hans-Joachim Roedelius + Arnold Kasar @ Jazz Cafe, London.
Photos © Anna Marchesani/Nocturna Photography.
© Ayisha Khan.