Kadash am Berg

Album Review

For their second album for the Swiss label Unit, the group Kadash tackled the epic postmodern poem "Am Berg" by Roland Heer. The text depicts the fall of mountain-climber K, the description of his attempts to hold on to the rock plane, and his thoughts standing on a fine line between the clown-esque and the tragic, a feeling enhanced by the sound-poetry aspect of the poem, creatively interpreted by speaker Bertl Mütter. His delivery often recalls Jaap Blonk's rubber mouth. The music establishes a multi-level relationship with the text, serving in turn as backdrop, illustrative discourse, and parallel/contradictory discourse. Splintered like K's thoughts, it moves through a number of styles ranging from Klezmer, circus music, jazz, rock, free improv, and experimental sound textures. The hour-long suite begins with a benign saxophone trio. Things get more and more complex and challenging with each scene, the progression occasionally interrupted by a lighter episode — the Klezmer tune "Licht," the rock-ish "Gneis, Gnade Oder Gnu," and "Ich Manischer Mensch," which sounds like the avant-rock stylings of Cassiber (including a convincing impersonation of singer Christoph Anders). Co Streiff, Tommy Meier, and Martin Schumacher make up the sax/bass clarinet section. Ben Jeger (accordion, Farfisa organ), Christian Kuntne (double bass), and Fredi Flükiger (drums) complete the lineup for this unusual "acoustic hörspiel." Listeners unable to understand German lose an important dimension of the work, but the colorful vocal delivery and quality of the music are enough to make the experience worthwhile. That said, Am Berg is still very different from — and more demanding than — Kadash's other albums. ~ François Couture, Rovi