Hännsler PHI 7002

Wow!  What a discovery.  This album was kindly sent to me by a friend, one of his most recent discoveries.  And from the moment I put this in the CD player I was entranced.  Despite the appearance of yet another cute musical duo these are two amazingly talented musicians playing some of the best post-minimal pieces this writer has heard in years.

Twiolins is are violinists with a wide range of interests (their repertoire as reported on their web site is impressive) but with a clear love for post-minimalist music.  In fact they are brother and sister, Marie-Luise Dingler and Christopher Dingler.  Unlike acts that seem to be designed to reach an audience with mediocre pop-inflected classical music Twiolins here presents 13 works by composers completely unfamiliar to this writer but astoundingly fresh and inventive.

My first impression reminded me of the music of the late great violinist and composer Michael Galasso.  There is a remarkable similarity in styles between the composers represented here but all seem to fall basically into a post-minimalist category.  The difference is that this music went right to my head (so to speak) and I found this music invaded my nervous system in the same delightful way that my first encounters with minimalism did.  My linear thinking was impaired and I found myself carried away, willing to follow wherever the music led me.  It was a curious mix of nostalgia and revelation.

There are 13 relatively brief tracks (ranging from 2:13 to 6:46) representing 13 compositions.  Once I put the disc in the CD player I just had to hear the whole thing.  No pause allowed.  There is a consistency of styles with these pieces and the ordering on the disc promotes a nice flow from faster to slower pieces, then faster ones again.  And adding to the basic quality of the compositions is a clear sense that these musicians are able to bring out details in the phrasing of their playing that make these compositions shine in ways that would flatter any composer.

Tracklist:

Rebecca Czech, Germany: Ich glaub´, es gibt Regen

András Derecskei, Hungary: Balkanoid

Benjamin Heim, Australia: Trance No.1

Edmund Jolliffe, UK: Waltz Diabolique

Jens Hubert, Germany: Rock you vs. Ballerina

Johannes Meyerhöfer, Germany: Atem • Licht

Nils Frahm, Germany: Hammers

Aleksander Gonobolin, Ukraine: Metamorphosis

Dawid Lubowicz, Poland: Carpathian

Vladimir Torchinsky, Russia: Eight Strings

Benedikt Brydern, USA: Schillers Nachtflug

Andreas Håkestad, Norway: Three Moods, I

Levent Altuntas, Germany: Chasma^2

This is apparently their third album (their first was released in 2011 and another in 2014).  It was released in late 2017.  I picked these up at Amazon as digital downloads for comparison.  It would appear that these musicians have been carefully cultivating their sound and selecting their repertoire.

Granted there is a slightly populist feel here but none of these composers are known to this reviewer so it’s difficult to say if this is typical of their work.  These are strong, well-wrought pieces that will delight and move the listener.  The term “populist” here is not intended to imply simplicity or lower quality, just a nod to the fact that it will likely have an immediate appeal to listeners.  The composers are a nationally diverse set and doubtless have other compositions of interest in their catalogs.  Listeners can doubtless anticipate more tasty little miniatures as well as (hopefully) selections from their repertoire of concerti and the like.

This is not a mind bending or taxing album but neither is it negligible.  The liner notes give little info about the pieces but that doesn’t really matter because they’re relatively brief and you will either like them or not but this writer is betting on “like”.