Search - Peter Kowald, P. Kowald :: Was Da Ist

Furious, vexing streams

christopher wren | Denver, Colorado United States | 01/17/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A tremendously accomplished and daunting album, "Was Da Ist" campaigns for the acoustic bass as its own ensemble, an ensemble seized by excited schoolchildren. In Kowald's hands, the bass becomes an uber-omni-ur-instrument, sometimes achieving the warm, coarse buzz that resonates from the lowest registers of a harpsichord, and at other times, as in the bowing of track 3, becoming nearly woodwind. As for the music itself, much of Kowald's playing evokes the intense, inchoate hollering of Coltrane's last albums (but without Trane's obvious introspection) or the furious streams of Cecil Taylor; other passages wind wistfully into melancholy ambient strains, though Kowald generally refrains from traditional (or pleasant) melody and harmony. Kowald's itinerary tours realms of sound and voice rather than of conventional music, a bit like Cage's pieces for what he called "prepared piano"--fantastic, but not dinner music.Kowald's sometimes as wheezy as a harmonium (or an ice-rink organ), sometimes throbbing and percussive. The first track (with Kowald growling along) recalls Inuit incantations, or (as previous reviewers have noted) Tuvan throatsinging. The bass drones and whistles like a didgeridoo; later in the album it's plucked with emphatic twang, summoning creaks, clicks and boings that expose the instrument's very construction. Some of Kowald's bowed sections undulate like Dory in "Finding Nemo," trying to speak whale; here and there it's just the bass enduring a convulsion, frankly, yet some measures in isolated tracks unfold a lovely music--in track 10, Brian Eno's "Music for Airports" came to mind (for a while). It's unfair, I know, to foist confining artist-comparisons on the album, but Kowald often leaves me grasping, so comparisons are useful to me here. My response obviously testifies to the rigor and originality of his playing, as he both eludes definition and makes me desperate for one. I learned of the album in the Penguin Guide to Jazz, found it in the avant-gard section of a record store, and believe its strategies more parallel to modern "classical" music--like Ornstein's or Nancarrow's piano works, say, or the John Cage I mentioned above. Why the piano comparisons? Kowald's bass is a piano unpacked, pulled like taffy and plucked like a vexing gum-wad.The album feels experimental, exploratory, an inventive venture: 101 Innovative Uses For Your Bass. But while the untellable sonic range that Kowald stakes out will truly awe the listener, "Was Da Ist" is essentially devoid of emotion, and of personal engagement. Mind you, it is profoundly musicianly (if you will), professionally committed and adroit--stunningly so, even--but it's not an intimate album. It doesn't need to be, of course, but fair warning. "Was Da Ist" is a demonstration, not a personal communique. The album has been terrifically recorded, with rich, bold, immediate sound, but it's a creative manifesto: involved yet not always involving, the album will tax and delight your mind, rewarding your attention but not your (...well...) spirit. I stress this because though the album requires and invites repeated listenings, each one for me has feels like an illuminating study session, bracingly vigorous but objective. Most of the tracks are even without mood, offering instead expositions of pure sound--whinnies, hoots, scrabblings, huffs--with momentary (tantalizing) forays into something like melody. Even the fun (and there is some) is the fun of a wry mathematician. Many tracks even lack tempo, while Kowald just works his bass as a sound-thing. It's an incredible, bravura, mentally (but not soulfully) exhilarating, strident, invasive, zealous argument for the bass's versatility, and for Kowald's feral virtuosity and imagination. For this amazing but distant performance, I accord 5 stars for artistry and gumption, which is the whole point really, and 4 stars to gauge my own listening pleasure."

Goodbye Peter

N. Dorward | Toronto, ON Canada | 09/29/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Peter Kowald's been gone a week as of this writing, having died at the untimely age of 58, just after having performed a concert, in the home of William Parker & his wife Patricia. His recorded oeuvre as a leader is rather unjustly small, & though solo bass performance was central to his approach to music this disc is one of the rare recorded examples of his art as a solo performer.The disc contains 23 very brief improvisations. These eschew almost entirely conventional ideals of melodic development & structure: typically a piece will be a hypnotically intense investigation of a single technique or pattern. It's taken a while for this disc to sink in for me over the years: it helps to listen to it on a decent stereo system, so that the quality of Kowald's attention to every grain of sound is clear--much of the activity here goes on at the level of overtones, & I'm somehow not surprised that he also worked with the throatsinger Sainkho Namchylak (& he also will use his voice as a slightly otherworld adjunct to his bass). There's little of the astounding, visceral hyperactivity of a Barry Guy performance here. Kowald's playing is at once modest & elemental, sometimes even a little drily funny.There's an incredible amount of improvised music out there on disc. What's rare, though, are recordings of the music which have the amount of depth to become more than souvenirs of a live performance--to be aesthetic documents worth returning to, contemplating, living with. That's certainly the case with _Was Da Ist_. This is one of the great solo statements, ranking up there with the solo work of Braxton, Lacy, Taylor, Bailey & Parker. Do give it a listen."

Great avant garde jazz

Ravi Desai | India | 05/05/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Even though Kowald may be best known for his recordings with Peter Brotzmann, this solo album is outstanding. This is great free jazz. Kowald sounds like no other Bassist out there - it is almost as if Ornette Coleman is playing the Bass. Kowald continuously alternates between playing with a bow and plucking and even incorporates some Tuvan style throat singing. The sheer range he exhibits is amazingIt is worth noting that Kowald is on a North American tour this year (2000)- playing solos and impromptu sessions with local musicians. Fans of free jazz should definitely see him live. The only negative quality of this album is that it is primarily available only in Europe and is available only through importers or online shops such as Amazon. because of this it is more expensive than most CDs, but still well worth it."