Lexer’s Dazwischen must be viewed as one of the most important (and beautiful) CDs of improvised music released in the past year. Referring to his work as piano +, Lexer has developed a computer patch that (conjoined with multiple microphones and various forms of signal processing) allows him to record and modify sounds he makes in and around the piano. Given the nature of the signal processing, Lexer is “dazwischen” (in between), involved in a genuinely complex process that’s as much composition as improvisation, as much electronic as acoustic music making. Chain-sounds, bits of electronic grit and soundwaves mix with struck piano tones. Apparently acoustic piano sounds bend gently and elusively into the reign of the electronic. Listening to Dazwischen, a listener is in-between as well, suspended between knowing and not knowing how something is made, whether it’s recorded music being processed or live piano playing, and what degrees of intentionality and control (absolute, permutating?) are enacted in the ultimately resultant sounds of these luminously meditative pieces. The very slight alterations and additions to piano sound in a piece like “Opposition” possess both detailed precision and a fresh vision, reconstructing some of the possibilities of sound.
'Ezz-thetics' Stuart Broomer
Point of Departure April 2010
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