HahnandHauschka

Silfra is the impressive result of a musical collaboration that developed gradually and organically over more than two years. American violinist Hilary Hahn and German pianist Hauschka were introduced by the American folk musician Tom Brosseau, who is signed to the same label as Hauschka. He and Brosseau had recently done a joint concert tour of the United States, and shortly before that Hilary Hahn had featured on Brosseau’s album Grand Forks. So when the award-winning violinist performed a concert in Dusseldorf in October 2008, Brosseau made sure that Hauschka was in the audience. The mood at their brief meeting after the concert was positive and friendly, although at that point there was no talk of them working together. This changed a few weeks later, however, when Hauschka performed with Brosseau and the Magik*Magik Orchestra at the Hotel Utah in San Francisco, and Hilary Hahn joined them for the last, improvised piece. An idea was born. Another few weeks passed before Hahn and Hauschka had the opportunity to discuss it in more detail. Both knew that they wanted to work together on something completely new. The idea was to find a form of collaboration that would allow them to venture into new musical terrain but still preserve their singular virtuosity. There was to be no specific objective, however – the project was centered on exploration and experimentation. Both of these exceptionally gifted musicians have said that their curiosity about and interest in the other person’s work was an important motivation behind their collaboration. Hahn and Hauschka began rehearsing together in early 2009 – although these cannot really be described as rehearsals in a traditional sense. Through improvisation they discovered more about their respective musical approaches while defining a shared musical language. When they were in different parts of the world, they would send each other music files and then improvise on these pieces or layer them with additional sound tracks. The only public indication of their collaboration was when Hahn played solo violin on the track Girls on Hauschka’s album Salon des Amateurs, which was released in 2011. For Hauschka, who prepares the strings of his piano with small pieces of metal, clips or different kinds of foils to create new sounds and modify the dynamics of the instrument, improvisation is a crucial element in his everyday life as a performer. And for Hahn, too, improvising is a way of adding new dimensions to her interpretations of composed works. In early 2011, Hauschka and Hahn first began talking about going into the recording studio. Here, too, the process itself was the goal, and for this reason they didn’t tell anyone what they were planning – neither their colleagues nor their record companies were informed, so that no commissioning agent or external pressure could influence the outcome of their collaborative efforts. In May 2011, Hahn and Hauschka met at the prestigious Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavik, Iceland. They took no scores with them and ignored the set pieces they had already developed, as everything they were going to record was to be improvised. The only exception to this was the piano line of Krakow. Hauschka had previously sent this to Hahn and asked her to improvise on it. Its sepia-tinted nostalgia intrigued her. During the recordings, they revisited the track and Hahn reworked the violin parts on the spot. Krakow is also the only track on the album where Hauschka did not prepare the piano. This unconventional working method – after all, musicians usually go into the studio to record music they have already prepared – enabled Hahn and Hauschka to integrate the prevailing mood and their spontaneous impressions into their recordings. Producer Valgeir Sigurdsson, who has worked with a diverse array of artists ranging from Björk to Bonnie Prince Billie, understood this and ensured that they were free to delve into their ideas. The positive energy of the music is almost tangible, its combination of seriousness and a distinct lightness of touch reflecting the blind trust that had developed between the two musicians. The titles of the individual pieces reinforce the auditory associations they arouse. Godot, the longest piece on the album, exudes a calm agitation: a metallic knocking sound generated by Hauschka on the prepared piano is looped and made to rise and fall. A wash of vibrating strings creates a sense of mysterious urgency while Hahn’s violin floats above it, conveying the imponderability of Being. The cool elegance of North Atlantic evokes the breathtaking clarity of underwater worlds – the metallic hues of the piano conjuring up images of sunbeams dancing just below the surface of the water, while the seductive lightness of the violin at the beginning of the track gradually transforms into a powerful force that draws the listener down into the lonely depths. Rapid changes of rhythm and a plucked violin lend Draw a Map an air of organized chaos based intermittently on patterns, while a dialogue of carried melodies and rhythmic set pieces adds a note of optimism to the overall melancholy mood of Ashes. On Halo of Honey, Hahn’s violin at times sings like a refined musical saw, while Hauschka’s piano produces sounds that are reminiscent of rusty doors. In its simplicity and calmness, however, the piece unfolds like an underwater saga. The title of the album – Silfra – is also a reflection of how the two artists see themselves. Silfra is a geographic feature near Reykjavik, where the North American and Eurasian plates meet. In this collaboration, Hahn and Hauschka have not simply combined their musical experience but have merged their different approaches into a single voice. And the world has gained some wonderful music as a result. -------------------------------------------------------------- Hilary Hahn – Biography Two-time Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn has gained international recognition for her probing interpretations, compelling stage presence, and commitment to a wide range of repertoire as well as newly commissioned music. Hahn appears regularly with the world’s top orchestras and on popular recital series in Europe, Asia, and North and South America. In the fifteen years since she began recording, Hahn has released thirteen solo albums on the Deutsche Grammophon and Sony labels, in addition to three live performance DVDs, an Oscar-nominated movie soundtrack, and various compilations. In 2009, she released an album of Tchaikovsky and Higdon concertos; the Higdon concerto, which Hahn commissioned, won the Pulitzer Prize. Her most recent album is a recording of Charles Ives’s violin sonatas. Hahn celebrated that release with a concert at John Zorn’s The Stone in New York City. Outside the classical world, Hahn has collaborated with Tom Brosseau, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Josh Ritter, and Chris Thile. She keeps a collection of her writings at hilaryhahn.com. Her violin case Tweets from the road at @violincase. -------------------------------------------------------------- Hauschka – Biography Hauschka is known throughout both the classical and experimental music worlds for his seven albums since 2004 devoted largely to prepared piano performances. Inspired by proponents of the technique from Eric Satie and John Cage to contemporary performers like Max Richter and Yann Tiersen, Hauschka is a prolific musician whose work has continually developed from his early solo improvisations to include electronic elements. No stranger to collaboration, he has worked with with more formal outfits such Music A.M. (where he pairs up with fellow German Stefan Schneider, and novelist and former Long Fin Killie frontman Luke Sutherland) and has recorded with members of acclaimed bands like Calexico and múm, both of whom contributed to his last solo release, Salon Des Amateurs. Learn more about SIlfra here: http://hahnandhauschka.com/