Christopher Kunz & Florian Fischer – Die Unwucht (Ezz-thetics)
Translated from German as “the unbalance,” Die Unwucht is also the shorthand sobriquet for the duo of saxophonist Christopher Kunz and Florian Fischer. Two twenty-something improvisers who are also formally trained musicians, they show an immediate acumen toward the extant recorded lineage pairing their two instruments. Coltrane and Ali. Shepp and Roach. Brötzmann and Drake. The list encapsulating precedence is extensive. Bringing a distinct and authentic language to the format could easily be construed as daunting or even futile.
A loose comparison antecedent that materializes upon exposure to their careful but hardly cautious dialogues is Getting Away with Murder, a now obscure artifact of Sabir Mateen and the late Tom Bruno recorded on a New York City subway platform and released on the Eremite imprint. Despite the studio setting, there’s a similar verité flavor emphasizing spontaneity and repartee formed foremost from careful and quicksilver listening. Seven individual pieces work equally as well as an interlaced suite, each one exactly long enough to convey essentials sans dross.
“Pflock” opens with a drifting cloudbank of layered toms, scraped cymbals and punctuating bells. Kunz’s tenor alights in porous, legato purrs that plumb the lower register and distort into growls. “Weber” finds Kunz blowing blowsy, cotton-textured gusts as Fischer patters and clatters in concert beside him. On “Netting” the drummer matches his partner’s long and coiled tones with punctuations from rolled snare and scraped metal that accelerate in along vectors of intensity and proximity. In each exchange, the pivots feel natural and coherent, two players engaging and adjusting in real time.
“From Another Time” and “Pedestrian Mode” follow different trajectories but contain comparable amounts of cooperative clarity and cohesion. Brushed snare skin sets the scene on the first, soon joined by whirring and murmuring overtones from Kunz’s soprano. The second starts from similar percussive materials, this time accompanied by barely audible tenor trails that gradually gain definition and grain. As with the earlier sections, it’s reflective of purposefully imbalanced discourse constructed not from words, but rather organized sounds that are just as layered with shared and revealing meaning.
I’ve been moving, as you know, and so my head hasn’t really been in the best space to be getting things done. Instead of focusing on the burgeoning trends that are appearing for this upcoming fall, I’ve been trying to figure out how to organize my belongings into a much smaller space. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve still been checking Style.com every day or so, to…
Film noir has never looked so chic! Cult-fave Nicholas K label, helmed by brother and sister duo Nicholas and Christopher Kunz particularly focused on the twisted film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari for Fall. “It’s a silent film,” Nicholas told us backstage. “It’s one of the first abstract painted sets, so it’s slightly distorted, very gothic, dark, and when you look…
Nicholas K Fall 2015 was originally published on Daily Front Row
DHL Exported Toasts Nicholas K Before Shipping Them Off To Milan
DHL Exported Toasts Nicholas K Before Shipping Them Off To Milan
Before they make their grand Italian debut, the design duo behind Nicholas K celebrated their departure with a celebratory tipple at The London on Thursday night. But why are Nicholas and Christopher Kunzdeparting New York for Milan? It’s all part of the DHL Exported program. Nicholas K, along with three other labels, will be showing their collection, for two consecutive seasons. The lucky…
