The music of Der Dritte Stand’s second album Spontaneous Live Series 015 evokes powerful images, especially if you close your eyes while listening: Rudi Fischerlehner’s percussion drags heavily along at the beginning of the improvisation, as if a chain gang were moving a mighty tree trunk. Above this, Matthias Bauer’s frantically bowed bass buzzes like a myriad of flies and Matthias Müller’s trombone looms over the other two instruments, heralding disaster. The basic orientation of this structure shifts only minimally in the opening five minutes of the forty-minute piece, e.g. when Fischerlehner changes his beat and Müller abandons the dark, low registers. Only when Bauer stops arcoing after seven minutes and starts with pizzicato, does the - fascinating - first part come to an end and something completely new begins. Bass and drums seem to chase the trombone mercilessly, then they circle each other, almost lurking. The whole thing leads to a dialog between Müller and Fischerlehner, which Bauer seems to comment on with pistol-like shots, as if he was watching the duet with amusement. Additionally, Part 3 almost brings the improvisation to a standstill, but only to take a completely different direction - more airy, more equalized, freer, even if the tempo and concentration are still high at times. Matthias Bauer’s bass in particular takes center stage here. When the trombone kicks in, the music sounds like a blues and American and European traditions are combined in a first-class way.
In the second part of the set, too, the alternation of density and openness remains the main characteristic of the music. Especially towards the end, when the improvisation gets into a deliberate lurch, Müller keeps it stable with a melody, before riding towards the furious end with an increase in tempo and several great riffs hurled out.
What makes the improvisation so special is the clarity, the almost dramaturgically coherent structure, as if the piece was a play. Everything is just right, no phrase is too long or too exaggerated. Arco and pizzicato phases alternate at exactly the right intervals, the drumming is never too expressive, but never too restrained either. If you didn’t know that the set, which was recorded as part of the Silence/Noise 7th Spontaneous Music Festival in PoznaÅ„/Poland in October 2023, was completely improvised, you would swear that compositional elements at least played a role. Ultimately, however, it’s simply the somnambulistic certainty with which the three musicians come together that has brought this extraordinary music to life. The audience is rightly enraptured at the end. So am I, and believe me, it’s even more fun listening to it repeatedly.
Spontaneous Live Series 015 is available as a CD and as a download. You can listen to it and buy it here:
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