Jürg Frey: clarinet
Radu Malfatti: trombone
Michael Pisaro: guitar

Three compositions by Jürg Frey, Radu Malfatti and Michael Pisaro - simultaneously performed by the composers.

Recorded live at “Merkin Hall“ in New York.

"The fifth release in the series is a very different animal. In February 2006 Malfatti and fellow Wandelweiser composers Jürg Frey and Michael Pisaro each performed a solo work of their own composition simultaneously at the New York's Merkin Hall. Three Backgrounds captures the event through a recording that contains plenty of coughing, people milling about and even a mobile phone ringing, the music nestling deep amongst what sounds like the hum of air conditioning and distant traffic noise, highlighting perhaps the irony implicit in the title of the piece. Frey's clarinet, Pisaro's guitar and Malfatti's trombone go about their business independently, occasionally overlapping, often fighting for air amongst the clamour of an audience trying to remain silent. Though Malfatti's interest in silence and how it can be used in music extends beyond the Cageian theory that formed the starting point for the Wandelweiser Group, Three Backgrounds references Cage's 4'33" more closely than the other b-boim releases, not least because Malfatti's own contribution is but a part of the whole. While the other releases confront the listener with silence, asking him/her to deal with it as a fundamental element of the composition, Three Backgrounds rejoices in its impossibility, and makes for a much easier, but also very beautiful listening experience. Malfatti had reservations about releasing it, owing to dissatisfaction with the recording quality, but we can be grateful he did. It's one of my favourites of the series." | Richard Pinnell, Paris Transatlantic