Matthias Muche

A field day or trombone fanciers or perhaps more appropriately a demonstration of sackbut versatility, Köln-based trombonist Matthias Muche oversees a five track CD where all sounds are created by two percussionists and 10 trombonists including himself. While the concept may superficially resemble that of a concert brass band CD, Bonecrusher has as much in common with that configuration as John Phillip Sousa had with John Cage.

While some may miss the roars of gutbucket slurs associated with the mid-range brass instrument, as a composer and conceptualizer Muche is more concerned with showing off the instrument’s ample tonal reach. Vibrations within the body tube are heard more often than timbres that float out the bell. That means that packed harmonies can create reflective drones as well as projecting tones from the entire brass spectrum. Percussionists Rie Watanabe and Etienne Nillesen are also the furthest thing from drum bangers, so that throughout their patterning reflect vibrations from wood, rims and metal rather than straight smacks.

Sequences deal with a kaleidoscope of brass extensions including Berlin trombonist Matthias Müller’s “Luffft”, where mass processing of unaccented air affirms half-heard additional tone colors nestled among the continuous blowing. Most descriptive of the disc’s aim are Muche’s “Gleiter” and “Fanfare”. Affiliated horns on the first ascend from calliope-like lightness to more intense slides and smears leading to measured counterpoint from hunting horn-like elevated pitches and basso snorts. Diminishing as the brass slides wrap around one another timed percussion clicks propel all to a concluding crescendo.

Less a fanfare than a suite, the other track personifies power with gong smashes and vibrating brass drones building from flutters and half-valve extension to tough sputters and snarls. After a sequence that expresses the spectrum of trombone expression, the final section expands this brass rainbow to varieties of plunger tones, inner-body tube tonguing and graduated blows, as rotund percussion smacks back the 10-person expression. Both captivating and cerebral, Bonecrusher is a project about which Muche could definitely blow his own horn .

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Glocken 2. Gleiter 3. Luffft! 4. Beller 5. Fanfare

Personnel: Matthias Muche, Matthias Müller, Daniel Riegler, Anke Lucks, Moritz Anthes, Adrian Prost, Maximilian Wehner, Matthias Schuller, Till Künkler and Moritz Wesp (trombones) and Rie Watanabe, Etienne Nillesen (percussion)