Artist: Zlatko Kaučič
Album: Diversity
Genre: Free Improvisation
Label: Not Two Records
Released: 2018
Quality: FLAC (tracks)
Tracklist:
- CD 1 - Butterfly Wings:
- Butterfly Wings #1 (11:13)
- Butterfly Wings #2 (12:05)
- Butterfly Wings #3 (07:05)
- Butterfly Wings #4 (08:23)
- Butterfly Wings #5 (05:35)
- Butterfly Wings #6 (05:30)
- Butterfly Wings #7 (07:47)
- CD 2 - Kras:
- Kras #1 (12:26)
- Kras #2 (19:53)
- Kras #3 (12:18)
- Kras #4 (11:15)
- Kras #5 (04:58)
- CD 3 - Rainbow Solitude:
- Drive Through Obstacles (04:59)
- Tonal Flow (05:45)
- Memories (04:02)
- Sip Of Story (03:48)
- Pokrovček (05:57)
- My Home (06:37)
- Himna Za Mojo Teto Karlo (03:07)
- Predor (05:22)
- Mlin (05:22)
- CD 4 - Anima:
- Jara Kača (10:00)
- Nitke (12:37)
- Iconic Thoughts (14:29)
- Unison Creation (10:32)
- Trte (14:37)
- CD 5 - Med-Ana:
- Med-Ana (11:34)
- Med-Ana (03:34)
- Med-Ana (08:21)
- Med-Ana (08:52)
- Med-Ana (02:53)
- - Šmartno Suita (23:55)
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I must confess that the Slovenian percussionist Zlatko Kaučič was unknown to me until recently, even though he spent about 10 years in Amsterdam during his wanderings in Europe and is now seen as one of the most controversial percussionists. within the free improvisation. The fact that he is now mentioned here has to do with the fact that Polish Not Two Records released a box of 5 (!) CDs a few months ago. After 25 years of wandering, Kaučič went back to Slovenia, which had just become independent, in 1992, where his career as a professional musician finally took shape. 26 years later we hear where that led.
Kaučič turns out to be an innovative percussionist who does not limit himself to the standard instruments, something that also appears from the photographs in the booklet accompanying this set. With his very personal instrumentation he creates a remarkably rich and varied sound, for example the solo in 'Butterfly Wings II' on the first disc. It seems like we ended up in a workshop! Also beautiful how those sounds coincide with Evan Parker's game on tenor sax. Further on we also hear pianist Agustí Fernández in this special live set. Kaučič is more than a percussionist, he also plays the electronic zither, a kind of harp, but lying flat, from which he borrowed very ingenious soundfields, for example in 'Butterfly Wings IV', in duet with Parker. Parker and Fernández have known each other for some time and recorded their first album together in 1996. The first acquaintance with Kaučič dates back to later, but it appears from this album that the three can come to highly electrifying music. The energy splashes off.
On the second CD, 'Kras', we hear Kaučič and Parker in a duoset. What is special about this performance is the close collaboration between the two musicians and the way in which they both take on the role of supervisor and soloist. As if one is the shadow of the other. A highlight is the third piece. Parker blows an extremely fragile melody, with the characteristic features of him, while we hear Kaučič in the background with his cymbals and the electric zither, with which he produces an equally subtle soundbed. The third CD is a solo recording and gives us the opportunity to get a detailed picture of Kaučič 'qualities. A very varied disc too, thanks to the fact that Kaučič not only uses the percussion here, but also the zither. In 'Tonal Flow' it leads to a magical sound game, while in 'Memories' something disturbing resonates. The closing 'Mlin' also shows that this percussion percussionist also manages to create a complete sound world.
On the fourth CD we find live recordings of a quartet, in which we find next to Kaučič saxophonist Lotte Anker, trumpet player Artur Majewksi and guitarist Rafal Mazur on an acoustic bass guitar. This is probably the most free, most abstract in the entire set. The four musicians continuously circle each other, scan each other, react to each other, without any real harmony or melody. They remain abstract sound landscapes that rub against each other. A very fascinating and exciting concert full of unexpected turns. Without doubt one of the highlights of this box.
The last disc contains two duets, dating from 2012 and 2014. During the first duet we hear Kaučič with the trombonist Johannes Bauer who died in 2016, in the second we hear him in a long piece together with voice artist Phil Minton. The five pieces with Bauer, called 'Med-ana', are a miracle of subtlety. What Bauer managed to conjure up sounds from his trombone, bordered on the unbelievable: relatively normal game that reaches from almost crying high to deep growling low, but also a multitude of strange sounds that are played through all sorts of alternative techniques. It forms a beautiful unity with Kaučič 'percussion, often in the form of a special question-and-answer game. Minton and Kaučič form an equally surprising duo and together they exclude this very special box in a grand way.
Review by Ben Taffijn