Zauss is the duo of Francesco Zago (electric guitar, loops) and Markus Stauss (saxophones, devices) and their latest instrumental release is titled Notturno Leise im Wind. You'd be hard pressed to call much of Notturno Leise im Wind actual music, as the duo instead opt for creating waves of sound, often times noisy as well as meditative, to get their point across. Much like Robert Fripp's 'frippertronics' releases, the use of loops and guitar volume manipulations plays a key role in the work of Zauss, and when you add Stauss' contributions on sax things can get, well, interesting to say the least. 'Interesting' for many won't be exciting unfortunately, as much of Notturno Leise im Wind is more like haunting background noise, but on the rare occasions where you can actually hear a discernible guitar tone (like on the menacing "Morgenrote") or sax (the playful ode to Frank Zappa, "Make a Zauss Noise Here") the results can be somewhat enjoyable. "Pulviscolare" tries its best to approach jazz, but there's no 'swing', and "Echi Imprevisiti" almost seems like a free-jazz meeting of Ornette Coleman & David Torn, but it ends before things really get rolling. Sadly, the 9-minute album closer "Big Breath" is nothing more than a lengthy, noisy, bloated bore, and what could have been a cool slice of free-jazz (some cool guitar tones here) instead at times sounds closer to someone's bowel movements.
Perhaps I've been a tad harsh here, and truth be told there are some decent passages to be found on Notturno Leise im Wind but at nearly 70 minutes long it way overstays its welcome, and too much of the album is just rambling noise that doesn't really go anywhere. It's hard to even tell if Zago & Stauss are any good at their instruments, though clearly they are good at creating cacophony. This would have been a mildly good 20 minute EP of avant-garde sounds, but as it is there's just not a lot redeemable about it.
Track Listing
1) Ein Riesenwusel
2) Schegge
3) Morgenrote
4) Make a Zauss Noise Here
5) Tribal Music
6) Pulviscolare
7) Leise im Wind
8) Mutazione
9) Echi Imprevisiti
10) Vibrationen
11) Carving Air
12) Big Breath
Printer Friendly Page
Send to a Friend
