Burkhard Stangl and Christof Kurzmann are both internationally known musicians from Vienna. While both musicians have been involved in the Viennese music scene since the late 1980s, and have been friends just as long, their musical interests lay in different areas until fairly recently. They never played in the same band until Kurzmann sat in with Polwechsel in September of 1999 in NYC. When they returned to Vienna, they recorded this duo record, inspired by their four favorite movies a quote from Swiss writer Robert Walser.

Schnee consists of four long soundscapes, with Kurzmann's sedate electronics underpinning Stangl's atmospheric plucking.

"Schnee is not about freezing, it is about snow. Therefore anything 'liquid' is gone, and has been transferred into a malleable body--its grainy patterns and particles are what Kurzmann creates circular asymmetrical patterns within. Stangl's guitar is brittle, dissolving like icicle drops. This record's beauty is in the critical fact that it explores the differences in computer generated and acoustic music, unlike a forced marriage or a systematic clash. Strikingly, it finds its entry at the extremity of fundamental difference between the worlds of the two instruments. It is not reductionist--in that it does not lack matter to its dialogue. Simply these two artists are so assured and comfortable within the language that it leads to saying less."-- Dean Roberts

More Erstwhile                      Label Profile from One Final Note

If you missed this cd, you might enjoy listening to:

Live At Palo-Palo (Kucan, Stanko, Oliver, Danner, Elgart)

Dörner-Drumm

eh (Stangl and Dieb13)

The Flirts (Cor Fuhler and Gert-Jan Prins)

An Acceptable Color (TOG)

Wrapped Islands (Polwechsel with Fennesz)

Zeug Für Schlagquartett (Schlagquartett Köln)

Claque (Dörner, Lonberg-Holm, Zerang)

Particles and Smears (Drumm, Tétreault)

Radion (Huib Emmer)